0

I am very new to Ubuntu and I love it dearly, however recently I had an error pop up which said:

'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/in.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_precise-updates_multiverse_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

A few weeks later I lost my wi-fi connection.

I ended up purging software manager and this message disappeared but without network manager everything went down hill. I can't reinstall it as I have no internet connection on my lap top. Also another error appeared in its place it is a red triangle with an exclamation mark.

Now also an error returned "waiting for network configuration, which causes a very slow boot.

I have tried all sorts of commands and nothing works, I have been researching all these problems for a week and trying different things, making the problem larger than I started with. Network manager comes back with all sorts of massages, like access denied. I am freaking out that I completely stuffed the system up. I have copies of all the commands I have tried and the responses from the terminal.

Would anyone be willing to help me please?

sandra
  • 1
  • Please edit your question to add details of your wireless card from the terminal command: lspci -nn | grep 0280 – chili555 Jan 15 '14 at 14:41
  • I was able to enter the command up to lspci -nn but do not know wht the net sign is or how to apply on my key board, however, I got a reply and it seems that the card is PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (Golan). Does this sound right? – sandra Jan 19 '14 at 07:01
  • Please see my answer. The symbol was the pipe symbol | which is on the right side of my US keyboard on the same key with . You have, however, provided the needed information. – chili555 Jan 19 '14 at 13:44

1 Answers1

0

The wireless device 3945ABG has a driver and firmware that are built-in to all recent Ubuntu versions. Confirm that the hardware met the driver and created a wireless interface, ideally wlan0:

iwconfig

Also confirm that Network Manager is not running suggesting that you actually only deleted the desktop icon:

ps aux | grep -i network

If you see an entry for 'network-manager' then only the icon is missing; try to restore it temporarily with:

nm-applet &

If Network Manager doesn't appear as a running process, then do:

gksudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

If gksudo isn't installed and, obviously, you have no way to get it easily, use 'sudo' instead. Amend the file that opens to something like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid <your_network>
wpa-psk <your_wpa_password>

Proofread carefully, save and close gedit. Reboot. Are you connected? Check:

 ping -c3 www.google.com

If you get ping returns, you are connected. If this is a stay-at-home computer that doesn't need to connect to different networks at the cyber cafe, you really needn't reinstall Network Manager. If you do need it, reinstall:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall network-manager

Then edit /etc/network/interfaces as above and delete the wlan0 stanza.

If you are having trouble, look for clues:

sudo ifdown wlan0 && sudo ifup -vv wlan0

'-vv' will produce output that will help us see what or where it's not connecting.

chili555
  • 60,188
  • so after typing the first command suggested I got: – sandra Jan 21 '14 at 05:02
  • sorry, I got: wlan0 IEEE 802.11abg ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off Power Management:on, lo no wireless extensions, eth0 no wireless extensions – sandra Jan 21 '14 at 05:06
  • You have a workable wireless interface wlan0. Excellent. I suggest you now proceed with the next steps above. – chili555 Jan 21 '14 at 13:41
  • Hi again I tried what you suggested and did not get online, though I have not tried checking the ping. Here are the results which I do not understand – sandra Jan 23 '14 at 02:22
  • ps aux | grep -i network admin 1603 0.0 0.3 35032 3228 ? Sl 11:06 0:00 /usr/lib/glib-networking/glib-pacrunner admin 2171 1.2 3.7 139472 38268 ? Sl 11:20
    admin 2288 0.0 0.0 4392 816 pts/0 S+ 11:26 0:00 grep --color=auto -i network nm-applet & [1] 2311 admin@dtnb002:~$ The program 'nm-applet' can be found in the following packages:
    • network-manager-gnome
    • mythbuntu-diskless-client

    Try: sudo apt-get install [1]+ Exit 127 nm-applet

    sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

     – sandra Jan 23 '14 at 02:27
  • tried ping -3 www.google.com ping: invalid option -- '3' Usage: ping [-LRUbdfnqrvVaAD] [-c count] [-i interval] [-w deadline] [-p pattern] [-s packetsize] [-t ttl] [-I interface] [-M pmtudisc-hint] [-m mark] [-S sndbuf] [-T tstamp-options] [-Q tos] [hop1 ...] destination – sandra Jan 23 '14 at 02:32
  • It is: ping -c3 www.google.com ...with a -c in front of the 3. It appears that NM is not installed. So far, so good. Please try ping again. – chili555 Jan 23 '14 at 02:45
  • Hello Chili, the response I get is unknown host www.google.com – sandra Jan 29 '14 at 05:00
  • Please see my edit. – chili555 Jan 29 '14 at 14:53