Acer Revo Configuration for Ubuntu

Table of Contents

1. Table of Contents
2. Setup Hidden Wireless Network with WICD
3. Automatic Hidden WPA2 Network Connection
4. WICD Stops Working

Setup Hidden Wireless Network with WICD

(Contributed by Brian Chu)

SSID: btrue3
Security Mode: Auto (WPA or WPA2) - Personal
Cipher Type: TKIP and AES
Pre-shared Key: ***********

-- In root terminal --
$ iwconfig wlan0 essid "btrue3" 
  

For hidden network, WICD does not quite capable of automatically connect upon boot up. You will need to type the following command in the command line first before starting any application, especially Internet Browser. If you start an Internet Browser, you might need to reboot to get the command working again.

 
-- In root terminal --
$ iwconfig wlan0 essid "btrue3" 

  or

-- In regular terminal --
$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "btrue3" 
  

Automatic Hidden WPA2 Network Connection

(Contributed by Brian Chu)

Previously, we mentioned that WICD does not quite capable of automatically connect a hidden network. Actually, it does, but it requires some works. The following shows you how for a [WPA 1/2 (Preshared Key)] hidden wireless network.

1. Make sure you can make the hidden network work by following the instructions in the previous section. Our example hidden network has essid="btrue3".
2. Connect to the hidden nettwork.
3. Create your own WICD encryption template as shown below.

 
-- In root terminal --
$ cd /etc/wicd/encryption/templates

-- Make a copy from the official template file "wpa-psk" to create a new template "wpa-psk-btrue". --
$ cp wpa-psk wpa-psk-btrue

-- Find the MAC address of your Wireless Router and use it as your bssid in your new template. --
$ iwconfig

-- Edit your template so it looks like wpa-psk-btrue. -- 
-- Remember to change your template name to "WPA 1/2 (btrue)" to distinguish from the original template. --
-- Note that we only hard-code the ssid, scan_ssid, & bssid. The rest remain the same as the original template. --
$ gedit wpa-psk-btrue&
   

4. Edit the existing WICD connection as shown below to use your new custom template.

Use your own "WPA 1/2 (btrue)" instead of "WPA 1/2 (Preshared Key)"


5. Turn ON [Automatically connect] option.

Turn ON the "Automatically connect ..."


6. Reboot your Linux.

WICD Stops Working

(Contributed by Brian Chu)

Symptoms

• WICD prompts you for a password to change Network Card.
• WICD icon does not show up anymore on the system tray.
• "ps aux | grep" command only yeilds one WICD related daemon.
• WICD GUI does not start up.
• Both wired and wireless network do not work.

Solution

This is an indication that WICD could not start up correctly. Chances are the /etc/wicd/wired-settings.conf or the other conf files are corrupted. You can simply rename the file as shown below to get rid of the corrupted file:

 
      mv /etc/wicd/wired-settings.conf /etc/wicd/wired-settings.conf.bad