[SOLVED] How to ensure Network Manager Applet icon appears?

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benali72
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[SOLVED] How to ensure Network Manager Applet icon appears?

Post by benali72 »

I'm connecting a variety of older laptops to a wireless modem. All run either Mint 13 or Mint 17 (32-bit with Xfce).

When the Network Manager Applet appears in the applet notification area, I've found it trivial to set up these laptops for wireless WiFi. Just select the network you want to connect to, enter the parameters in the box that appears, and boom... it works.

But for the two laptops in which the Network Manager Applet does not automatically appear, I haven't been able to set up wireless connections. (Among other problems, the System->Network Connections->wlan0 Properties panel keeps changing my Password Type selection from WPA2 Personal back to WPA Personal.)

How do I get the Network Manager Applet to always appear in the notification area? With this I'm confident I can succeed.

Thank you.
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benali72
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Re: How to ensure Network Manager Applet icon appears?

Post by benali72 »

Well, please correct me if I'm wrong, but from experimenting with a couple old laptops that use WiFi cards (rather than built-in WiFi), it appears that if Mint recognizes your card, then it automatically shows the Network Manager Applet icon in your indicator area.

If it does not recognize your card on boot, then the Network Manager Applet icon does not show up.

I tried the nm-applet command manually, but didn't have any luck with it. Again, my guess is if it doesn't recognize your card to begin with, nm-applet is gonna fail on you. So you're forced to use the Network Connections panels you can access either via Settings or System. Too bad it doesn't show you an intelligible error message as to why it failed (I'll have to try the logs for this I suppose), as that would be very nice for users trying to set up their WiFi.

I'll keep trying...
rbeltz48
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Re: How to ensure Network Manager Applet icon appears?

Post by rbeltz48 »

I'm having the exact same problem with Mint 17.1 MATE 32-bit. I booted up this morning and no network applet!
benali72
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Re: How to ensure Network Manager Applet icon appears?

Post by benali72 »

Ok, I think I got this solved. Mind you, I don't know the answer, this is based on trial-and-error with a variety of laptops over the past few days ....

nm-applet tries to start with your Mint OS during boot. If it either (1) can't identify your WiFi card --or-- (2) does not have a driver for it, it craps out. Thus you don't see it on your notification panel.

Watch the messages during Mint OS boot and you'll probably see a networking message hinting at the problem.

If you need a wireless driver, you can go to here to get one -- http://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/welcome

Bottom line, I had an easy time setting up all the laptops that had built-in WiFi, but it was hit-or-miss with the oldest systems that had insertable WiFi cards.
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