Open your Terminal window and type: sudo apt-get install wicd. This should produce something like this:My HP 2230s was dropping the connection to WLANs with encryption for no apparent reason. The computer is delivered with a Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset ICH9M-Enhanced chipset and for the most part, works straight out of the box when introducing it to Ubuntu.
If you're not running the latest version of Ubuntu or are running an older kernel for whatever reason, you should have a look at Intel® Wireless WiFi Link drivers for Linux. You can check your kernel version by opening Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and type: uname -a. On my laptop, this command produces something like this: hvassing@october:~$ uname -a. If your kernel is newer than 2.6.24, there is no need to visit the Wireless WiFi drivers site.
Linux october 2.6.31-16-generic #53-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 8 04:02:15 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
According to the Ubuntu.com wiki, this can be solved by a small amount of magic.
Open your Terminal window and type: sudo apt-get install wicd. This should produce something like this:
october:~$ sudo apt-get install wicd hvassing@october:~$ sudo apt-get install wicd Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libopenal1 libdns50 linux-headers-2.6.31-14 linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic supertuxkart-data libplib1 freeglut3 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following extra packages will be installed: python-urwid The following packages will be REMOVED network-manager network-manager-gnome The following NEW packages will be installed python-urwid wicd 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 595kB of archives. After this operation, 3,928kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y Get: 1 http://no.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe python-urwid 0.9.8.4-1 [169kB] Get: 2 http://no.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe wicd 1.6.1-3ubuntu1 [425kB] Fetched 595kB in 1s (571kB/s) Preconfiguring packages ... Adding user `hvassing' to group `netdev' ... Adding user hvassing to group netdev Done. (Reading database ... 197913 files and directories currently installed.) Removing network-manager-gnome ... Removing network-manager ... network-manager stop/waiting Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Processing triggers for ureadahead ... ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot Processing triggers for libc-bin ... ldconfig deferred processing now taking place Selecting previously deselected package python-urwid. (Reading database ... 197784 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking python-urwid (from .../python-urwid_0.9.8.4-1_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package wicd. Unpacking wicd (from .../wicd_1.6.1-3ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Processing triggers for ureadahead ... Setting up python-urwid (0.9.8.4-1) ... Setting up wicd (1.6.1-3ubuntu1) ... The user `hvassing' is already a member of `netdev'. * Starting Network connection manager wicd [ OK ] Processing triggers for python-support ... hvassing@october:~$
After seeing all that, all that need doing is configuring the WLAN in Wicd Network Manager, located under Applications > Internet > Wicd Network Manager.
If you like, and your ISP allows you to, you can configure Wicd Network Manager to use the Google Public DNS, adding the DNS values: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
—Håvard Hvassing (31.12.2009)