Authentication required by Wi-Fi network never connects

[MrNovi]

Am running into a big problem with LM17. Tried Mate 32 and 64bit, Cinnamon 32 and 64bit, and finally XFCE 64bit. All run into the same problem of the Authentication required by Wi-Fi network never connects and keeps popping back up. Verified that the password is correct. That same hardware works fine with Mint 13 (never tried the interim releases as I stick with LTS releases). Other distros (Point, the 'Buntus, PCLinuxOS, Knoppix, among others aren't having any problems. Not sure what to try next.

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
Intel i7-3770k
onboard Intel Graphics
8 gigs ram
TrendNet TEW-424UB H/W:3.1R (also tried a Belkin FSD7050)

Wireless adapter is recognized and installed and the router/access point appears on the list, it just never connects. I've posted the mintWifi and syslog output below to see if that offers any insight.

I don't have physical access to the router so I can't make any changes on it. The building I live in provides WiFi to the residents. It's a desktop and I don't have a way to easily setup some place else to try it on a different router at the moment.

One other thing. Mate and Cinnamon will only boot to a functioing desktop in Comparability mode. I get the desktop/wallpaper, but no menu, panels, taskbar, etc. and the super key does nothing. I can right click to change wallpaper and a couple of other things, but that is about it. I tried the original ISO's, then the Rev 2 ISO's which didn't change anything. XFCE works fine. I know this isn't the correct forum to diagnose that issue and don't expect help for that here, but I thought that information might be relevant to the WiFi problem.

Any assistance would be appreciated. I'm not a Linux Newbie, but networking isn't my strong suit, especially in Linux.



mint@mint ~ $ sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
eth0 no wireless extensions.

lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 50:e5:49:ce:44:36
UP 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)

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:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:165 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:165 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:11949 (11.9 KB) TX bytes:11949 (11.9 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:d1:ea:30:6b
UP 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)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached






mint@mint ~ $ tail -n 50 /var/log/syslog
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'CoachLight' has security, and secrets exist. No new secrets needed.
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'CoachLight'
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Jul 3 01:06:46 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Jul 3 01:06:45 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: message repeated 12 times: [ wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED ]
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (SSID='CoachLight' freq=2412 MHz)
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint kernel: [ 984.981874] wlan0: authenticate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> authenticating
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint kernel: [ 985.188465] wlan0: send auth to 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 1/3)
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: Trying to associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (SSID='CoachLight' freq=2412 MHz)
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint kernel: [ 985.191548] wlan0: authenticated
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint kernel: [ 985.191720] rtl8187 2-1.1:1.0 wlan0: disabling HT/VHT due to WEP/TKIP use
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint kernel: [ 985.193384] wlan0: associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 1/3)
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: authenticating -> associating
Jul 3 01:06:47 mint kernel: [ 985.397374] wlan0: associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 2/3)
Jul 3 01:06:48 mint kernel: [ 985.601402] wlan0: associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 3/3)
Jul 3 01:06:48 mint kernel: [ 985.805406] wlan0: association with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 timed out
Jul 3 01:06:48 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SSID-TEMP-DISABLED id=0 ssid="CoachLight" auth_failures=1 duration=10
Jul 3 01:06:48 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 3 01:06:58 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
Jul 3 01:06:58 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SSID-REENABLED id=0 ssid="CoachLight"
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (SSID='CoachLight' freq=2412 MHz)
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 997.842032] wlan0: authenticate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> authenticating
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 998.048588] wlan0: send auth to 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 1/3)
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 998.053423] wlan0: authenticated
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: Trying to associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (SSID='CoachLight' freq=2412 MHz)
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 998.053612] rtl8187 2-1.1:1.0 wlan0: disabling HT/VHT due to WEP/TKIP use
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 998.057491] wlan0: associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 1/3)
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: authenticating -> associating
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 998.261492] wlan0: associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 2/3)
Jul 3 01:07:00 mint kernel: [ 998.465496] wlan0: associate with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 (try 3/3)
Jul 3 01:07:01 mint kernel: [ 998.669495] wlan0: association with 00:24:b2:ff:24:17 timed out
Jul 3 01:07:01 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SSID-TEMP-DISABLED id=0 ssid="CoachLight" auth_failures=2 duration=20
Jul 3 01:07:01 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint wpa_supplicant[2932]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long.
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): asking for new secrets
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <warn> Couldn't disconnect supplicant interface: This interface is not connected.
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint dbus[1370]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.hostname1' (using servicehelper)
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint dbus[1370]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.hostname1'
Jul 3 01:07:11 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <warn> Couldn't disconnect supplicant interface: This interface is not connected.
Jul 3 01:07:13 mint NetworkManager[1894]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> inactive
mint@mint ~ $

[MrNovi]

I tried Mint 16 Mate edition and it had no problems connecting to the router so I did some additional investigating. One thing I noticed in the log was an error about WEP. Checked the connection to the router on a different computer and found that their router is using WEP. I fired up my wireless router (not connected to the internet) that uses WPA2 Personal and 17 had no problems connecting to it. That leads me to believe that the problem is the use of WEP on the router here. I would appreciate it if anyone can confirm that Mint 17 doesn't support WEP.

I will be moving in a few days so I'm not overly concerned about it now as I will be primarily be using wired ethernet at the new place with WPA2 for WiFi. So now unless someone comes up with something to disprove my WEP theory or has something else they think I should try I'm going to consider this issue solved. Once I get settle in I'll revisit this and see what I can find out about having to boot in compatibility mode in a new thread in the appropriate forum.