Connecting to the internet

Submitted by Nick Richards, updated on 20 Aug 2009 - 30 comments

Summary

Moblin is better when it's online. Your web services will automatically update, you'll be able to update your status and obviously a web browser isn't very useful without a web to browse. Everything here takes place in the networks panel on the far right hand side of the toolbar.

connection-panel-hover.png

Get online with Wireless

Most people will want to get online with a WiFi connection. Click on the Networks panel in the toolbar and you should see your wireless connection listed on the left hand side. Just press the connect button and we'll get you right online. If your access point needs a password we'll ask you for it here. And that's all you should need.

connection.png
Wireless

Help it's not working!

If you don't see your connection then make sure WiFi is turned on in the right side of the networks panel and you're not in Offline mode. If you're looking for a hidden network then press the 'Add new connection' button at the bottom of the panel and type its name.

Get online with a Wire

If you've got a wired ethernet connection then good news! You have the easiest job of all. First go to the Networks panel in the toolbar and make sure the Wired connection is on and that you're not in Offline mode.

At this point just plug your connection in and you're ready to go. We'll pick up all the settings you need automatically.

Get online with 3G or WiMAX

Not yet! We've left the setting in the UI to tease you but our WiMAX and 3G support isn't quite ready yet. Keep updating your netbook and we might have a nice surprise for you soon...

Offline mode

You can turn all your connections off at once by turning on Offline mode in the Networks panel. This might be useful if you're using your computer on a plane or don't want to be disturbed.

Comments (30 total)

How to connect wireless network

Submitted by mobizjm on 5 January 2010 - 6:44am.

hi,

I am using Moblin 2.0 and trying to connect wireless network from Terminal.

In Fedora, I need modify /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

But Moblin does not have this file.

Could you please tell me which file I should modify?

Thanks so much.

Acer 110

Submitted by hgh9mrp on 2 January 2010 - 6:51pm.

Hello,

Everything works great on my original Acer 110. The latest update included the patch to mount the auxiliary storage device at boot time. The wireless device automatically connects to open unencrypted wireless routers and access points within range. The onboard camera works, as does the internal microphone and speakers.
I am very pleased with Moblin 2.1. The development team has done a great job.
Cheers.

vpn problem

Submitted by Łukasz on 15 December 2009 - 5:16am.

Hi there!

I have Moblin for about 2 days. Everything is almost perfect, but almost... I have no idea how to connect to vpn network(wi-fi works perfect) in my school. I have to add that I have never used Linux so I am complicit noob... My netbook is Acer Aspire One 150 Bd

Also Yum... For Cisco VPNs and other common VPNs

Submitted by Tom on 6 January 2010 - 6:50pm.

Also, don't forget about yum. VPN definitely is not super common or popular, but I put it on the list of to includes somewhere...And they did somewhat. There are some VPN packages re-build for Moblin and in the repositories. Again my other comment was for point to point which is probably even more rare. What you probably have is openVPN or Cisco. So what you want to do is go to the terminal and type in: yum search vpn

See what you get. You probably will see "vpnc.i586" and "openconnect.i586" and maybe some others. You can try vpnc if you're connecting via an IPSec gateway. Which doe account for a very large majority of VPNs. Then there's openconnect that I saw for Cisco.

Check out yum and if all else fails check out Google. Like in my case, you may be connecting to something different and you may need to jump through a few hoops...And even with the packages in yum, you'll have to probably search Google for some good tutorials on how to use them. They aren't GUI.

How to get a PPTP (point to point) VPN connection...

Submitted by Tom on 6 January 2010 - 6:15pm.

Is it a point to point VPN?
I just setup a VPN connection using PPTP for work.
You're in for a little work if so...
I haven't put this into HTML or edited or made it pretty (yet).
I just wrote it and it took a bit, but you can weed through it if you like. There's some links to sites that might help you further too.

http://www.shift8creative.com/moblin-pptp.txt

Note, that this is just to get a VPN via "Point to Point" which a lot of Windows servers will use.
If you're connecting via Cisco or something, this isn't it. As a note though, you'd have better luck with connecting to a VPN if Moblin had the Network Manager. It doesn't so you're going to have to do a lot via command line for any kinda VPN.

Also, if you are trying to get onto some Windows shares...You'll need samba. You can use yum to get a few different samba packages...I can't remember all the ones you'll need, but once you have them you can reboot and then you'll see the File Browser (Nautilus) have under the "file" menu, "connect to server..." in the options you'll have "Windows share" now along with the FTP and SFTP and WebDAV you should have already now.

It's not that bad...but it's a pain to do. I hope Moblin puts in some sort of VPN support and GUI client. I know netbooks are falling into the category of "for the casual users" and to "just" get e-mail, media, and web sites...But I actually use my netbook for web development when I'm out of town. I find my other laptop just too big. The HP Mini 1000 is great when I'm on the plane (for 2 hrs at least haha) and just travelling. It's small. Moblin is PERFECT on it. Well, near perfect. I had to run the fix to get the wifi working (wasn't that bad and I think there's even now an rpm out there somewhere for it to just double click and run).

I also had to go and get all the gstreamer plugins so I can play more types of video files...But yea with some work Moblin is amazing. So I hope they can start to see what people are actually doing with Moblin and start to build in features around popularity...Rather than just assuming what people use a netbook for.

Automatic connection to personnal hidden network

Submitted by mychance on 22 November 2009 - 7:30am.

My aspire one 150 connects with the wifi network all right but there seems to be no automatic connection with my home hidden network with WEP encryption. I can live with this but I find a bit frustrating that it is not even listed in the available networks like with all other Linux distros I have tried.

Is this on purpose ?

Thanks

I have the same problem with

Submitted by mivola on 3 December 2009 - 2:04am.

I have the same problem with Moblin 2.1 and the Asus eee PC 1000HE. Any news on this?

3G support

Submitted by Murak on 28 September 2009 - 3:52am.

With out internet one can not really test Moblin and my only internet connection is 3G.

I have not found a proper forum to ask, so Ill try here.

How do I install for example Network Manager so that I can connect with my 3G modem?

Any information on how to get 3G working would be very nice.

Thank you!

3G support - Option Icon 225

Submitted by Gour on 16 November 2009 - 8:59am.

Hiya!

I'm still thinking whether to focus on Moblin or Maemo (mer) as the platform of choice for which I'd like to develop 'lite' version of the desktop app.

Moblin definitely looks as better option, I also prefer GTK libs over Qt and today after some investigation found out that Nokia N900 (when it arrives here in Croatia) would cost 2.25x times as Dell's Inspiron Mini 10V.

The problem is that, as others have said, without ability to connect to the Internet there is not much use of either Netbook nor Moblin OS running on it. (For video editing, compiling etc. I use desktop quad-core machine.)

Since 3G is my only ability to connect to the Net, I'm humbly asking to improve 3G support in Moblin - my desired hardware is Option Iconn 225 running nicely on Linux with NM.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Gour

Betavine are Supporting 3G for Moblin 2.1

Submitted by Nicholas Herriot on 11 February 2010 - 2:25am.

Hi all,

Hi,

I'm currently heading up all Open Source activities for Betavine.

Betavine is the open source mobile community funded by the R&D arm of Vodafone. We are now supporting and have just released a 3G connectivity application for Moblin 2.1.

You can find out more about it here:

http://www.betavine.net/bvportal/resources/datacards/os/moblin

This should help you get connected to any 3G Network, has support for 50+ dongles, SMS, Contacts, PIN Authentication for SIM, SIM-PuK, usage stats, auto configure for World Wide Vodafone Operatores, Auto APN settings for all Vodafone and contacts plugin for Evolution.

Kind regards, Nicholas Herriot

Will Wifi ever work on the Lenovo S10?

Submitted by jsuciu on 23 September 2009 - 9:22pm.

Please, please, please get the Wifi working for the Lenovo S10. If we're in beta now, shouldn't this core functionality already be functional?

MSI WIND - Wireless Issue

Submitted by kenny on 17 September 2009 - 10:16am.

Hi I have the latest build of moblin on the msi wind (rebadged = advent 4211). The wireless stopped working for a few builds but then started again. the latest build will show wireless connection but always show connection failed - anyone else having this problem or know a solution?

I've got the same problem.

Submitted by Antironie on 14 October 2009 - 9:44am.

I've got the same problem. But I have no idea what the solution could be.

Can´t connect to wifi with a EEE 901

Submitted by jackazz on 6 July 2009 - 2:08pm.

I´ve installed it on my Asus EEE 901, and I can´t connect to my home wifi.

It found my wifi, and when I try to connect to it, after I entered my WPA2 password, it tries to connect, but then nothing happens.

I´m a linux noob, I´ve used eeebuntu before and I wanted to give it a try.. Can someone help me?

realtek eth0 configuration how to ?

Submitted by raju on 15 June 2009 - 7:54am.

i was unable to connect to my local DNS, i checked all configuration files e.g. etc/hosts, etc/sysconfig/network, etc/sysconfig/network-script/ifcfg-eth0, etc/resolve.conf & manually changed that file using ip but still i am uanble to connect internet.

Is this issue resolved?

Submitted by Trent on 30 July 2009 - 6:12am.

Can someone point me to a link on how to resolve this issue?

Same Problem here except

Submitted by Anthony Rios on 20 June 2009 - 7:30pm.

I can ping www.google.com but I cannot browse http://www.google.com. I can browse using 74.125.45.99. Weird, ping is able to resolve but internet apps cannot...sudo yum update also fails to resolve...This happends equally with wired and wireless on a MSI Wind U100.

Thanks

Asus 1008 connection issues

Submitted by hansenb88 on 6 June 2009 - 12:24pm.

I was wondering if anyone had success getting online with an Asus 1008ha. I can connect wirelessly but the connection drops intermittently and using the ethernet cable plain doesn't work. I can't even get the Wired connection slider to move. Would love to get this up and running to move on to evaluating other parts.

3G

Submitted by tluigjes on 6 June 2009 - 7:19am.

I use an Option Icon 225 (Globetrotter) and it would be nice to see support integrated into the OS, without the need of having to install all sorts of drivers and still not working. This is what happens in all other distro's I have tried and I have to get rid of them all and install crappy Windows XP again... I have tried to run this OS on my MSI Wind (Advent 4211a) and it works just fine for me, I am really happy about the good looks and the functionality, all I need now is support for my mobile broadband.

Dell mini 9 wifi does not work

Submitted by NC_Bob on 28 May 2009 - 1:37pm.

Tried the link from silvari. Hangs at step 5. Tried it twice.

Also, while I can access the internet in terminal I cannot with either Firefox or Chrome.

????

IP Adress

Submitted by funkery on 28 May 2009 - 3:24pm.

Where and how could i type my ip adress,subnetmask subdomain in moblin v2? because i am behind a router

Get WiFi working on HP Mini / Dell Mini 9 / others w/ Broadcom

Submitted by silvari on 23 May 2009 - 9:12pm.

see instructions here:

http://moblin.org/documentation/test-drive-moblin/using-moblin-live-imag...

Wifi

Submitted by marvelboy on 21 May 2009 - 7:38pm.

Wifi does not work on my dell mini 9. Shame, just got it in the mail today.

this might get it working

Submitted by silvari on 23 May 2009 - 9:05pm.

try the instructions here:

http://moblin.org/documentation/test-drive-moblin/using-moblin-live-imag...

same here

Submitted by rovit on 21 May 2009 - 1:33am.

i'm also unable to activate my WiFi connection on my lenovo s10e :(

DELL mini 9 - No Wi-Fi

Submitted by davy_boy2000 on 20 May 2009 - 3:40pm.

Am trying out the DELL mini 9 and am unable to get a WiFi connection.
The switches will not allow WiFi to be turned on.
Attempting to add my WiFi manually from Add connection just fails also.

confirmed (DELL mini 9 - no WIFI)

Submitted by Manolo on 21 May 2009 - 6:53am.

Booted with live image, there is no possibility to engage the WiFi button, nor switching manually by net-id.

Yep

Submitted by Wint on 20 May 2009 - 5:59pm.

I'm seeing the same thing with my Dell Mini 9, no WiFi.

this might get it working

Submitted by silvari on 23 May 2009 - 9:06pm.

http://moblin.org/documentation/test-drive-moblin/using-moblin-live-imag...

Wifi on Mini 9 works !!!

Submitted by Banz on 1 January 2010 - 8:17pm.

I moved from Ubuntu 9.10 and my netbook is Dell Mini 9. As we known, the Broadcom wifi card needs driver that doesn't come out-of-box (I have this issue when using Ubuntu too.)

According to the solution on Slaine.org; I believe many people tried it but couldn't fix the problem. Here is the thing, because the command in step4 (sudo yum groupinstall “Development Tools”) needed to be type by hands, NOT just copy and paste!!!

PS. this is the link to the solution http://slaine.org/_slaine/Dell_Mini_9.html