Does the PCL Network Manager work with the newer or newest kernel ?
My machine worked with the non-bfs kernel and Wicd but would not
continue working with the bfs kernel and Wicd, so started using the PCL
Network Manager again. My experience with the kernels and Wicd.
FYI
Pardon my brain flatulence... But when you say "PCL Network Manager" do you mean the same thing as the "network Center" found under "Network & Internet" in the PCC???
But in any case it looks like my problem is solved... though I wish Iknew what solved it...
One thing I didn't mention was that when, a couple months ago, I decided that a hidden wpa2-PSK with MAC filtering on sounded just barely secure enough for me to risk allowing wireless connections to my IP address, I started attempting to make it work with the built-in broadcom wireless device, which even failed to work in Vista with NO security... Then I aquired the usb device and it worked in vista with wpa2-psk. So I started with whichever "network center/manager" each of my 4 linux had by default. it didn't work with any of them. But when I uninstalled and or shutdown the daemon that ran it and installed wicd I was able to get it working in the other three Linux. But at the time I hadn't used the PCC for so long I forgot it was where to find the system services daemon control And if I tried to uninstall it, synaptics wanted to rip out way too much stuff...
Then When I got tired of not being able to use PCLinuxOS to check my email while watching tv in the Livingroom, I started this thread.
I upgraded my kernel, installed all available upgrades, and the situation with wicd was unchanged. It could see my network, but ot couldn't authenticate. Then I decided to try uninstalling any/all drivers/firmware that remotely resembeled b43 or broadcom. Rebooted but no change. Still couldn't authenticate. Next I remembered that some time ago with that hard to name debian derivative I had started to get a nearly endless stream of error messages on tty1 untill I blacklisted b43 and b43legacy. So I searched my blacklist files from that distro where I noticed that bcm43xx was also blacklisted... So I added those to PCLinuxOS's /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and rebooted. Suddenly wicd was unable to find my network. Even when I turned SSID broadcast back on. So I stopped blacklisting those three items, and rebooted. But wicd still couldn't find my network. Then I tried the network center from the PCC. No dice. So I figured maybe there was something in those drivers and firmware files that wicd needed to locate my network even though it didn't lose sight of it till I messed with the blacklist. So I reattached the ethernet cable again and reinstalled all those b43 related drivers. Rebooted, but wicd still couldn't find it. But this time when I tried the network center from the PCC, it found my network for the very first time... then it connected. and once I fixed it's copy of my new preshared key (had to change it when I accidentaly posted the old one to this thread) it even managed to authenticate. When I rebooted wicd was able to restore and authenticate the connection. It's worked repetitively through several reboots. But I stll get an odd boot time error message on tty1 AND another on shutdown, It no longer complins about set mode, but:
Bringing up interface wlan0: Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
[ OK ]
And on shutdown, when it says it's stopping wicd it says [ Failed ]...
So you see, it's working for me now, but I'm not really sure what fixed it and am afraid to touch a thing involving wireless...
