Ubuntu on x100e -- connect to router but no internet

[Brownit]

greetings all, I just picked up this x100e which I really like and am trying to configure Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook edition. Everything works basically, except the internet connection. The network manager shows that I'm connected to my router, but I can't get it to connect to the internet. I know the router isn't the problem, though as my T61 can connect wirelessly to the internet. Any advice would be helpful. I'm running the Realtek wireless card (RTL819SEvB)

thanks,

[Harryc]

Left click on the NetworkManager applet in your taskbar. Do your see your routers SSID? If yes, select it and click connect. NetworkManager will ask you for the encryption password or numbers depending on your encryption setup (WEP vs. WPA).

[Brownit]

I am connected to the router and can even log into its administration functions. Network manager shows that my connection is active, the strength (which is good), etc. The log on my router shows that my machine is connected, as well. I just can't seem to connect to the internet itself.

[Harryc]

Run the following commands one at a time from a console and post the results here;

Code: Select all

cat /etc/resolv.conf 
ifconfig -a
route

[Brownit]

Results for each line of code below:

Code: Select all

tom@tom-Ubuntu-X100e:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 192.168.0.1
tom@tom-Ubuntu-X100e:~$ ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr c8:0a:a9:05:60:d0  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:42 Base address:0x6000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:343 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:343 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:28951 (28.9 KB)  TX bytes:28951 (28.9 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:4c:e5:e1:ef:1d  
          inet addr:192.168.0.196  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::924c:e5ff:fee1:ef1d/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:19126 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:20782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:3366401 (3.3 MB)  TX bytes:4381824 (4.3 MB)
          Interrupt:18 Memory:f8150000-f8150100 

tom@tom-Ubuntu-X100e:~$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     2      0        0 wlan0
link-local      *               255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 wlan0
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 wlan0

[Harryc]

Open up a webbrowser, put the following URL into the address bar, hit enter, and tell me if you get to dslreports.com;

http://209.123.109.175/

[Brownit]

It does open up DSLReports' home page but it takes about a minute just to load the initial text, with no pictures. Regardless, this is actually a big improvement as other sites always say "connection timed out" after trying to load for a few minutes.

[Harryc]

You are having a DNS server issue. For some reason your laptop is not seeing your ISP's DNS servers. Is this a cable connection? You may have to clone one of the machine's (that is working) MAC address into your router.

[Brownit]

This is a wireless connection. When I plugged in a cable last night, there was no connection at all. I have my router configured to look at OpenDNS' servers, which seems to work fine for all the other machines on the network.

I have a D-Link DIR 655 router, and I know I've seen the MAC cloning function in the menus somewhere. Are you saying that I should pick the MAC address of a machine with a working connection and clone that one? I'm not quite sure what you mean. Thanks!

[Harryc]

Are you saying that I should pick the MAC address of a machine with a working connection and clone that one?

Yes, that is what I am saying. The fact that the router is wireless is irrelevant, I was asking about your ISP. Is it a cable company?

[Brownit]

My ISP is AT&T DSL

[Harryc]

You shouldn't have to clone with DSL. So lets try something else. Can you ping one of the DNS server IP addresses? You would do this from a console, .e.g.

ping 4.2.22.1

Is the router configured for PPPoE? Have you double checked your Encryption settings in the x100e?. As a test you could try disabling encryption in the routers config settings and running the x100e set for no encryption.

[Brownit]

After pinging that address I get 100% packet loss.

The router is configured for PPPoE. Every other machine on my network is able to wirelessly connect to the internet. I've checked the encryption setting already and even tried disabling the encryption temporarily but to no effect.

[Harryc]

After pinging that address I get 100% packet loss.

Me too , it was an example. I do not know the IP addresses of your DNS servers. Ping those ...

[Brownit]

Oh, gotcha! Same result when I ping my DNS servers. 100% packet loss.

[Harryc]

Run these commands from a console in order, then reboot -

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Code: Select all

wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/34090404/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1012.2009_64bit.tar.gz

sudo tar -xvzf rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1012.2009_64bit.tar.gz
cd rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1020.2009_64bit
sudo su
make
make install

http://justinsomnia.org/2010/02/ubuntu- ... pad-x100e/

[Brownit]

Is that a 64 bit download? I'm running 32 bit. Also, I have no connectivity from that machine, so downloads are impossible.

Regardless, I've been messing with this problem for about 25 hours so far, including extensive scouring of the Ubuntu support forums. Right now I'm doing a fresh install of the desktop version instead of the netbook version. It may have the very same wireless problems, but I'm going to give it a shot.

thanks for your help! If the wireless doesn't work on the desktop version, I can try your suggested download.

[Harryc]

Yeah 64 bit. but I think a similar download exists for 32bit, you'll have to find it. The X100e has a gigabit ethernet port. I think you'll need to hook directly to your router via an ethernet cable to run those commands. Apparently the driver for the realtek wireless is non-functional for the X100e on Ubuntu out of the box.

[Brownit]

I don't have connection from the gigabit port directly into the router, either. I tried that last night. Frankly, I'm not sure that it's the wireless connection and not Linux network manager software because I actually have a wireless connection to the router. It's not as if the wireless is completely nonfunctional. It just won't get past my LAN.

I had run across that website (which looks extremely promising, but for the 64 bit portion) a few days ago. Maybe I can do some scouring around for a 32 bit version. I already checked Realtek's website, but can't find an exact matching driver for my card.

This has been an extremely frustrating problem to solve. Frankly, short of trying this new desktop version I'm not sure how to proceed. I might just go back to Windows 7. I installed Linux on a separate drive and have been doing all of this experimenting on an entirely separate SSD, so that I can just plug the old drive back in if I decide that Linux doesn't work. I really don't want to give up on it, though, because I want to set up a SFF media server using Ubuntu Server edition. I thought I would learn Linux on my netbook first, and then move on into deeper waters. But if getting such a basic function to work is as bad as this, I'm not sure it's worth it.

[Harryc]

Based on what we found, I would try to define your DNS server IP addreses in Network Manager. That way they are known to the laptop. I pointed you over to a driver link because some limited research showed all kinds of issues with the Realtek driver on the X100e. You definitely have a DNS problem, if that is caused by a driver I do not know. Let us know how you make out.

[GomJabbar]

I don't know about Ubuntu, but in at least some versions of Linux, you have to set up your firewall to allow an internet connection over each adapter that you will use.

Verify your firewall settings.

[Harryc]

Your exact problem is listed in the x100e wiki...definitely a driver problem.
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X100e

[Brownit]

Hmmm... this ThinkWiki guide looks exactly like my problem. I'll download a new driver, but I'm a Linux newbie and find the following instructions confusing:

A workaround is to get the latest driver code from realtek [4], unpack it and do a 'make' (assuming you have the equivalent of build-essentials installed) and then from the build directory, copy ./HAL/rtl8192/r8192se_pci.ko over top of e.g. /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/ubuntu/rtl8192se/r8192se_pci.ko (will vary depending on distro) and then reload the module/your wireless manager/etc.


Any advice on what he means by "do a 'make'"? I assume that's a command? Is he basically saying copy the new driver into the folder where the old one was?

By reload the module/wireless manager does he mean reboot and reload the program?

Sorry for the elementary questions, and thinks for the help thus far. I actually really like the Desktop version.

[Harryc]

OK, if you are asking 'what is a make', it is not an activity that you want to get involved with until you are up to speed in Linux. There is an alternative, the latest kernel in Ubuntu Lynx has the correct driver.
http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/

Note: The 'latest kernel' implies that even after you install Lynx you will have to download and install the latest kernel to get the correct driver support for your realtek card. It's just a simple download through a GUI interface, but it also implies that you will need a hard wired ethernet connection.

Alternately, see what kernel is in the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook edition and look into what is the latest kernel. You may simply be able to update to the latest kernel in your current install....but again you'd need an ethernet connection. Are you starting to see a common theme here?

[Brownit]

ha ha! Fair enough, no point in getting further over my head than I already am.

I installed the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop about 2 days ago, so it should be the most recent kernel. In fact, in poking around in the file structure, I can see that it has the newest drivers for my card (that I downloaded from Realtek) I wonder if I have conflicting drivers. If so, how do I get rid of one and use the other?

I can plug in directly to my router for an ethernet connection, but when I did that with the Netbook edition, I still had no connection. (although, that could because my router was expecting to see the XBox 360.)