Linux Mint 14: How To Disable Wireless Connection Authentication Popup

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

I have discussed some of the problems I am having with linux in other topics on Xisto. One of the minor problems that can easily be overlooked but are still annoying is the wireless connection authentication popup that appears after wireless connection is lost.The actual problem is that when I connect to the internet through wifi, and when power goes off and the router is turned off, a popup appears. The title of the popup message is “Wireless network authentication required” and the message says that “passwords or authentication keys are required to access the wirless network NETWORK-NAME”. And then there is the textbox to enter the password for the wireless network.This clearly means that the OS thinks that the wireless network is present but the password is not correct and that is why connection fails. So it displays a popup to correct the password.The more annoying aspect of the message is that when you close it, it reappars after some time and keeps reappearing until the connection is established or wifi is turned off. Moreover, when the laptop is kept on for the entire night when there are many episodes of power cut offs, there is a huge number of popup messages on the screen (probably equal to the number of episodes of power-offs.)I said above that the issue can be easily overlooked because the connection is not affected by it. Once the wifi router is on again (when the power comes back), the message which appeared previously is still there but the connection establishes automatically and the internet starts working. However the message is still there. In fact every morning a significant number of messages is there each of which needs to be closed separately. So its quite annoying.In contrast to this, in windows 7 there is no such popup message. When the network gets disconnected because of powering off of the wifi router, all that happens is that the network disappears from the available network lists. There is no popup displayed to the user. And when the router is turned on again, the wifi automatically connects without the user ever knowing. I am looking for a similar experience on linux. As I said above, everything else with the network connection is fine. There is just this annoying popup message that I need to make disappear permenantly.

[iGuest 3]

Hi Ashaniqbal111,Are you certain that it's the same connection it is asking for and not another one that it may have picked up? It sounds strange that it could pick up a wifi signal that requires authentification, so it sounds like it's picking up another one somewhere else.You can turn off wireless by right-clicking your network manager and clicking the switch that says turn off wireless networking. Also you may want to look around the network manager to see if you can find if any other wireless connections have been found in your area and if they have been set to automatically connect, sometimes non-protected wifi will be connected to as well, it might be that when your default goes down you have given it alternatives to use if that's the case.Maybe even removing all wireless connections that were detected and also remove the one you use and re-set it up could be an option.Unfortunately, I removed Network Manager to use wicd (which could be an alternative to use if the error persists) instead on our laptop due to slow shutdowns but this is on Linux Mint 13 and I never encountered such issues with being asked authentification when the router switched off.Cheers,MC

[manuleka 0]

could be your neighbours wifi, should be obvious from the name of the network recognized by your adapter... unless there are mysterious ghost wifi signals lurking around the place?why not just turn off your wifi when this happens? does your laptop have a wifi on/off switch or function key?

[yordan 10]

why not just turn off your wifi when this happens?

The answer to "why" is in the starter topic text :

The actual problem is that I connect to the internet through wifi,

[manuleka 0]

The answer to "why" is in the starter topic text :

i'm talking about power cuts... doesn't his wifi router goes off when power cuts?

[yordan 10]

i'm talking about power cuts... doesn't his wifi router goes off when power cuts?

Of course, the wifi router goes off when power cuts. And he losses his connection. And he is annoyed by the ask for authentication when the router comes back to work.

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

Are you certain that it's the same connection it is asking for and not another one that it may have picked up? It sounds strange that it could pick up a wifi signal that requires authentification, so it sounds like it's picking up another one somewhere else.

I am absolutely sure that the pop-up is asking for the same connection (my router’s connection) and not anything else. As I said in the first post, the message in the pop-up says “passwords or authentication keys are required to access the wirless network NETWORK-NAME”. Actually the exact message in my case is “passwords or authentication keys are required to access the wirless network AHSANIQBAL”. Where AHSANIQBAL is the name of the wireless connection to which my computer is connected i.e it is my wifi connection. So it is clear that the authentication is for my router’s connection and not anyone else’s. If it had picked someone else’s connection, then the name of that connection would have been mentioned instead of mine.

You can turn off wireless by right-clicking your network manager and clicking the switch that says turn off wireless networking.

The problem is that I don’t want to go through the trouble of turning my laptop’s wif on and off again and again. As I have mentioned in the first post: when the power comes back and the router is on again, the connection establishes itself without requiring me to do anything. But the popup stays there and this is quite annoying. The power cut-offs are very frequent where I live. On an average day, the power goes for something like 7-8 times (for about an hour every time). This means that every time the power goes off, I will have to turn my wifi off. This is not very difficult. The more difficult part is to be present near the computer to turn the wifi on when the power comes back on. Normally, when I am asleep or when I am out, the computer reconnects automatically when the power is back on and my downloads and other internet related stuff resume automatically. But in this scenario, I will have to be present near my computer to turn the wifi on so that my downloads and other internet related stuff could continue.

Also you may want to look around the network manager to see if you can find if any other wireless connections have been found in your area and if they have been set to automatically connect, sometimes non-protected wifi will be connected to as well, it might be that when your default goes down you have given it alternatives to use if that's the case.

I am quite sure that no other connection is set to connect automatically. Plus there aren’t any other open connections available so this as well cannot be causing the problem.

Maybe even removing all wireless connections that were detected and also remove the one you use and re-set it up could be an option.

I have tried this but it doesn’t help. The issue is still there.

Unfortunately, I removed Network Manager to use wicd (which could be an alternative to use if the error persists) instead on our laptop due to slow shutdowns but this is on Linux Mint 13 and I never encountered such issues with being asked authentification when the router switched off.

I think I will have to do this if nothing else helps. But for the time, I will leave it as my last option.

could be your neighbours wifi, should be obvious from the name of the network recognized by your adapter... unless there are mysterious ghost wifi signals lurking around the place?
why not just turn off your wifi when this happens? does your laptop have a wifi on/off switch or function key?

My neighbor’s wifi is there, but it is password protected and I have never connected to it. Plus the message clearly tells that it is trying to connect to my own wireless connection, so other wifi connections are not any issue.
And as I have described my condition above, the cycle of turning on – turning off of wifi is not a good option for me. I need something automatic, that doesn’t require my presence all the time.

i'm talking about power cuts... doesn't his wifi router goes off when power cuts?

Yes it does goes off and that’s when the message appears. In the ideal situation the authentication message shouldn’t appear at all as this is not an authentication issue. The OS should first make sure that the connection is even present. If it is not present at all, then why display the authentication message.
But even if the message is displayed, it should automatically go off when the power returns and the router is back on and the connection is re-established. This doesn’t happen and instead the annoying message persists there and requires me to close it.

Of course, the wifi router goes off when power cuts. And he losses his connection. And he is annoyed by the ask for authentication when the router comes back to work.

I do loose my connection when the power cuts off (obviously) however, the connection is re-established when the power is back on, but the message still persists. So obviously, the message isn’t causing any issues with the connection but its presence is annoying and that is why I want to get rid of it.
And the authentication message is first not displayed when the router comes back to work. In fact it is displayed when the router goes off. And when I close the message (while the router is still off), it would reappear. The message only disappears permanently when I close it after the router is back to work.

[manuleka 0]

so the annoyance comes to life when the wifi router is off? could it be that its picking up a weak signal from your neighbours? but then how can their router be on if there's a power cut... hmmm interesting scenario you got there...

[yordan 10]

I guess that this is a bug. Probably the wifi adapter is handshiking, seeing that identity is already registrated, accepting, but the message does not disapear.

[manuleka 0]

have you looked into the drivers? maybe the wifi card might have a linux driver from its support site? or maybe a fresh re-installation? is this the main OS on your lappy?

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

so the annoyance comes to life when the wifi router is off? could it be that its picking up a weak signal from your neighbours? but then how can their router be on if there's a power cut... hmmm interesting scenario you got there...

Exactly.... the annoying message first appears when the I have been previously connected to the wifi and the the power goes off and the wifi router with it.... The message doesn't appear when I am not connected to the router before the power goes off (which is quite obvious)...
And yes when the power goes off, there are no other wifi connections available to be connected to... So other connections cannot be a problem...

I guess that this is a bug. Probably the wifi adapter is handshiking, seeing that identity is already registrated, accepting, but the message does not disapear.

Is this a known bug in the linux mint 14? I haven't spent much time googling the issue (because I can hardly find any extra time these days)... I thought posting on this forum would not only help me sove the issue but also earn me some mycents (double benefit).....

have you looked into the drivers? maybe the wifi card might have a linux driver from its support site?

Where should I look for the drivers? The support site of the manufacturer of the laptop or the support site of the linux mint 14? I used to search for the drivers when I did fresh installs of windows in the distant past but lately I have developed this habit of just running the windows update whenever I do a fresh install of the windows. All the drivers are automatically found and installed through this process and I have never even thought of taking the effort to know what is the source of these drivers (windows' own database or manufacturer's website).

The same goes for linux. I don't remember ever installing the driver of something manually in linux (except the usb wifi card I once used with my old desktop computer because the driver wasn't picked and installed automatically). Other than that, I don't remember doing manual install of driver for something. And unfortunately, so much time have passed since I had done this for my usb wifi card, I don't even remember how to do it now.. So maybe someone on the forum can guide me on this..

However, I must say that it is very unlikely to be a driver issue as the wifi is working just fine and there are no other issues except this popup message.

or maybe a fresh re-installation? is this the main OS on your lappy?

Ya I checked the distrowatch website to see which distribution is famous nowadays (as I normally do whenever I look for a linux distro). And this time I have decided to give the Fedora distribution a try. In fact it is “Fedora 18 Gnome Desktop”. So let's see how it behaves and whether it can give me a better satisfaction than linux mint (which by the way is awesome except a few small issues).

[iGuest 3]

I'd like to nudge this topic. I have a similar situation. On my laptop, my installation of Linux mint can generate a dozen or more of those annoying popups asking me to confirm my wireless. When I boot, the wireless connects. Then, if the wifi takes a hit, I get the popup, even thought the wifi is auto connected. Never had it happen when I was actively using the laptop. But many times when I wake it up, there can be anywhere from 1 to 20ish of those popups. Every time they have been there the wifi is already connected and working.

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

It has been some time since I have experimented with stuff (went kind of busy lately)... But I do know that a newer version of Linux Mint is available. And maybe this newer version doesn't have this bug. You need to give it a try to know for real.

[manuleka 0]

It has been some time since I have experimented with stuff (went kind of busy lately)... But I do know that a newer version of Linux Mint is available. And maybe this newer version doesn't have this bug. You need to give it a try to know for real.

 

Yip Mint 15 Olivia is out... and as always another great release from the Mint Devs

[iGuest 3]

This happens to me if my wifi signal is bad. If I'm just at the edge of my wifi's range (say it works 50% of the time), this will come up all the time. This has happened to me in versions 12-15 at least on three different comps. It happens to the mintbox 2 right out of the box. It seems certainly to be a problem with the handshaking as yordan mentioned and almost certainly has nothing to do with the wifi drivers.