Solving Wireless Issues with Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
The good news is that wireless worked way….better for me in Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex than it did ever before with any Linux system. I was very impressed except for several issues that you need to know about so you do not waste hours trying to figure out what is going on. Here are a few easy fixes that will help you. If you want to see a step-by-step instructions and help for a variety of card check out the Wireless PDF we offer.
Helpful Wireless Links
Wireless Tools
Forget the Network Monitor Icon
One of the frustrating aspects of setting up wireless is that the network monitor as you see on the panel says that the networking is not connected. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what this meant.
Even worse when you right click the icon it specifically says that wireless is not enabled. However, in my case it was enabled. In fact, it was working fine it was the network monitor program that was not working right and providing misleading information.
Check Your Firefox Browser Settings
A strange thing happened on my initial install of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, the Firefox settings were started set to work offline only. This setting is found by choosing File and Work Offiline on the Firefox browser version 3.0.3. This box must be unchecked in order for you to get Internet access.
Test Your Network Connection
Because the network monitor can play games with your mind, as small as it might be, you need to test to see if the wireless network is really working. An easy solution for that is to use the Network Tools found in System/Administration/Network Tools. Use the ping option and enter the IP Address of your router or wireless access point and you should see return like you see below if it is working.
Login Options with Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
Here you can see the default login screen for Ubuntu 8.10. You simply add username and password and you have access to the Desktop. Simple, however, as you will see there are many options that can go with this login process.
If you will go to System/Administration and select Login Window you will find that you have a lot of options available for login. You will need to supply the administrator password to gain access to the Login Window Preferences. You can see that it has 6 tabs for options.
The General tab allows you to hide black dots when you type your password in the login. By making the password invisible, no one can guess the length of your password. By default users can only login once at a time. The Default session will determine your which Desktop you will use. The default is the Gnome Desktop. However you can add many different Desktops inclduing KDE, OpenBox, BlackBox, etc. Actually, some of these are just window managers but the look and feel is much different. If you wanted all users on your machine to use a lighter weight Desktop like BlackBox you could set that here. Automatically Ubuntu 8.10 uses the 24 hour clock.
Your local login has a number of options which you can set with the Local tab. You are able to set the theme, colors and determine the Menu bar.
The Remote tab by default will disable the graphical login. This is surely a security decision as you will want to be careful if you enable this option. You still can login using SSH for example, this option only controls the login for the Xwindow.
Ubuntu 8.10 has a stronger focus on Accessibility features which is a great enhancement. Having worked with individuals who have disabilities this is surely a focus that should be made by every Linux distro…thanks. The options are clear and easy to modify.
The Security tab allows you to automatically login, which is a nice feature if you are not worried about intruders on your desktop. You can place a timeout so that a user has limited time to login to stop people trying to hack into the system. The Login Delay is one second….you could increase this if you have a problem with others trying to get into your box. The minimal UID is a security option that will only allow normal users to login, not system users that are created by programs or daemons on the machine. Users are created by default with UID or User Ids over 1000. By default you can only login if you have a home directory. This may sound strange but many times users are created for mail services who do not have home directories as a security feature, they only pick up mail from the server with no local account.
The face browser can be used to choose a user when you login. With this tab you can select who is able to login with the face browser. You can add pictures of users in the face browser.