| From: James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | On 8/1/20 7:28 PM, Astrid R via talk wrote: | > I'm just looking for someone in downtown Toronto to change the settings on | > my laptop from DSL to wifi.  I can only pay up to $40. | | It's not hard to connect to WiFi.  All you need is the password. Assuming | you're using Network Manager you can find the WiFi you want to use, select it | and enter the password.  You can leave the DSL connection, in case you need it | again later. James is quite right. But I infer from your message that you are encountering some difficulty. We may be able to help you on this mailing list if you give us enough information. For example: - what computer are you using? - what OS (Linux, I assume), Distribution and release (eg. Ubuntu 18.04) are you using? - where do you want to use WiFi? - if you have DSL, you probably have a box supplied by the ISP that provides you ethernet and WiFi. Technically these are a combination of a "modem" and a "wireless router". Are you trying to switch your computer from using a wired connection to wireless, still within your home? - Who is your ISP? What model of box did they provide you? - if you are trying to use WiFi within your home, have you set up the ISP's box? It too needs configuration. Your ISP would probably have given you a manual that tries to guide you through this process. If you've lost it, you can probably find a copy on the web. - what have you tried? What problems have you encountered?

On 8/3/20 4:43 PM, Astrid R via talk wrote:

I don't have DSL anymore, nor the modem or router I used when I did have it (I was using an ethernet cable) and I now have a different ISP (for the wifi): rogers. The rogers modem is called 'ignite'.  I'm trying to use rogers wifi at home on my laptop which only ever used DSL before.  I'm already using wifi at home on my phone.

On the desktop I don't see any way of connecting to wifi.

Since you're on Rogers, you will have a modem.  You connect to it with an Ethernet cable, just as you did with DSL.  You just connect the cable from your computer to the modem and it should just work. As for the WiFi password, you can always get Rogers to reset it, but you'd then have to change it on the phone too.  Did you set the password?  Or did someone else?  If someone else, they may remember what it is. As I mentioned, you might be using the Network Manager to configure your network connections.  If so, you can have both WiFi and Ethernet connections.  By default, WiFi would be used, if the Ethernet cable is not connected.  If it is, Ethernet will be used. If you're not using Network Manager, you will have some manual configuration, which will vary by Linux distribution

On 8/3/20 5:04 PM, Astrid R wrote:

It's the password to change time and date on the laptop, that I've lost.

That would be the root password for the computer.  There are ways around that, but you need to be able to access the partition. Connecting to any WiFi is pretty simple.  Most have a password.  You select the WiFi network you want to connect to and then enter the password.  Once you've done that, the connection will be remembered.  The library will likewise have a password, but it may be tied to your library card number.  You'll have to ask the library what that is. Please note, I see you're using a Debian based distro and I use openSUSE, so I can't give you specific details, only general ideas. Are you using a Network Manager?  This will allow you to have several different connection configurations, which you can select from, but WiFi generally just works. I'm getting the impression you have difficulty working with a computer.  Do you have vision problems that cause that?

Thanks. Here's a short video that shows what happens when I turn on the laptop. I hope it's clear enough to be helpful. https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsss7a5pnu0emwu/IMG_1210.MOV?dl=0 Attivato lun, ago 3, 2020 alle 16:55, Howard Gibson <hgibson@eol.ca> ha scritto:

On Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:43:40 +0000 Astrid R via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

...

Thanks for your replies. Before I go on I should say I discovered that I no longer have the password to change the date and time, so it might not be possible to change anything else either.

But in case there might be a way, I hope the following is useful.

I'm using a Dell laptop.

Not sure if this is the distribution and release...GNU Grub 1.99-27 +deb 7u2...

Astrid,

When your GNI login window comes up, does it say Debian, or Ubuntu? Next to the username and password box, you should see a menu that selects your desktop. If you pull this down, you should see Gnome, Unity, XFCE, LXDM, or possibly FVWM. I, and a bunch of other people here, love FVWM, but I highly do not recommend it for beginners.

When you log into Gnome or Unity, you pull the menu down at the top right-hand side of your screen, and networking is one of the options. You need to know what your wireless device is called, and you need the password.

-- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 5:08 PM Astrid R via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

Thanks. Here's a short video that shows what happens when I turn on the laptop. I hope it's clear enough to be helpful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsss7a5pnu0emwu/IMG_1210.MOV?dl=0

Got some info from that. You are running Debian release Wheezy. Boot seems normal, directly to your user, without a login manager in between and the Network Manager icon is in the system tray, right beside your name Astrid Rammo. You appear to be running the Gnome desktop. When you say you forgot your password, do you mean your user login password. Automation in graphical logins kind of does that to you. As a user you can edit the grub boot lines for either the regular kernel and invoke a root shell, or the recovery kernel in order to boot into a setup menu and set whatever login passwords you need to. https://askubuntu.com/questions/92556/how-do-i-boot-into-a-root-shell There is a link with some wifi setup info here, but if you are not comfortable with using shell commands, this information is not going to be much help. I haven't touched wheezy for a few years now so I don't remember exactly how to navigate through network management. Maybe someone currently using Debian could help you walk through this. https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse

Attivato lun, ago 3, 2020 alle 16:55, Howard Gibson <hgibson@eol.ca> ha scritto:

On Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:43:40 +0000 Astrid R via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

...

Thanks for your replies. Before I go on I should say I discovered that I no longer have the password to change the date and time, so it might not be possible to change anything else either.

But in case there might be a way, I hope the following is useful.

I'm using a Dell laptop.

Not sure if this is the distribution and release...GNU Grub 1.99-27 +deb 7u2...

Astrid,

When your GNI login window comes up, does it say Debian, or Ubuntu? Next to the username and password box, you should see a menu that selects your desktop. If you pull this down, you should see Gnome, Unity, XFCE, LXDM, or possibly FVWM. I, and a bunch of other people here, love FVWM, but I highly do not recommend it for beginners.

When you log into Gnome or Unity, you pull the menu down at the top right-hand side of your screen, and networking is one of the options. You need to know what your wireless device is called, and you need the password.

-- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson

--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

-- Russell

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 11:14 PM Astrid R <afjmj@protonmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, I'll keep this information handy. The password I lost is to 'authenticate' to allow certain changes once logged in.

Since you appear to be setup to bypass authentication and log into your user account directly without a password, this would probably be your login password. Different users have different access depending on which groups they belong to. Since keeping a terminal logged into root is considered a security hazard, the average user is limited in the changes they are able to effect on a system. Root is the superuser, with all powers, others belong to the sudo (Super User Do Only) group, traditionally called the wheel and that user is masked according to needs, which the root user has determined at system setup. When I open the terminal app and type groups I get ... [R3eiter@archon ~]$ groups R3eiter wheel [R3eiter@archon ~]$ sudo -i [sudo] password for R3eiter: [root@archon ~]# The command is sudo; the -i is a condition which keeps me from having to type sudo each time I issue a command from the wheel group, which I belong to. This command drops me into a root shell. Typically once sudo is issued, the shell which is opened should retain the sudo condition during that terminal session depending on the timeouts. ie. if you don't issue a command within a certain time, the sudo condition is terminated. -i is not recommended, I only use that as an example to show how the prompt changes to indicate the conditions the shell is running under. https://wiki.debian.org/sudo/ If you can open a terminal app you can type lspci | grep Wireless to see if you are wheel enough to find out what wireless network hardware you are using. R3eiter@archon ~]$ lspci |grep Wireless 74:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 (rev 3a) lspci is a command which lists all the hardware reported to be on the PCI hardware bus / list the | figure is the key just above the carriage return key called the pipe command grep is a command which stands for generate regular expression, which is a way to match characters which appear in text strings. So basically the command lspci is piped through a text filter which only returns the lines with the word wireless in them. I live close to Ossington and Queen, however I live in a high risk building in a high risk area and am strictly socially distancing for the duration. However if you can open a terminal and type a few commands you can probably get more help from the list members. I don't even remember what the graphical nm-app looks like on the Debian desktop, so I'm not much help there. If you don't remember your login password, any password recovery is going to start right at the boot sequence. It is somewhat complex, but not all that difficult, once you get the hang of working in terminal mode. I can't remember if the Debian recovery kernel image resets everything, including user passwords or not.

Attivato lun, ago 3, 2020 alle 20:27, Russell Reiter <rreiter91@gmail.com> ha scritto:

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 5:08 PM Astrid R via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

...

Thanks. Here's a short video that shows what happens when I turn on the laptop. I hope it's clear enough to be helpful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsss7a5pnu0emwu/IMG_1210.MOV?dl=0

Got some info from that. You are running Debian release Wheezy. Boot seems normal, directly to your user, without a login manager in between and the Network Manager icon is in the system tray, right beside your name Astrid Rammo. You appear to be running the Gnome desktop.

When you say you forgot your password, do you mean your user login password. Automation in graphical logins kind of does that to you. As a user you can edit the grub boot lines for either the regular kernel and invoke a root shell, or the recovery kernel in order to boot into a setup menu and set whatever login passwords you need to.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/92556/how-do-i-boot-into-a-root-shell

There is a link with some wifi setup info here, but if you are not comfortable with using shell commands, this information is not going to be much help.

I haven't touched wheezy for a few years now so I don't remember exactly how to navigate through network management.

Maybe someone currently using Debian could help you walk through this.

https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse

...

Attivato lun, ago 3, 2020 alle 16:55, Howard Gibson <hgibson@eol.ca> ha scritto:

On Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:43:40 +0000 Astrid R via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

...

Thanks for your replies. Before I go on I should say I discovered that I no longer have the password to change the date and time, so it might not be possible to change anything else either.

But in case there might be a way, I hope the following is useful.

I'm using a Dell laptop.

Not sure if this is the distribution and release...GNU Grub 1.99-27 +deb 7u2...

Astrid,

When your GNI login window comes up, does it say Debian, or Ubuntu? Next to the username and password box, you should see a menu that selects your desktop. If you pull this down, you should see Gnome, Unity, XFCE, LXDM, or possibly FVWM. I, and a bunch of other people here, love FVWM, but I highly do not recommend it for beginners.

When you log into Gnome or Unity, you pull the menu down at the top right-hand side of your screen, and networking is one of the options. You need to know what your wireless device is called, and you need the password.

-- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson

--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

-- Russell

-- Russell

Thanks. I do know the password for my modem, and I was able to figure out where to enter the information to change the settings on the laptop to enable wifi, but I no longer have the authentication password. I decided to leave things as they are and possibly buy a newer laptop sometime in the next year or two, at which time I'll download a more user-friendly Linux OS. Thanks again and all the best. Attivato mer, ago 5, 2020 alle 08:32, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> ha scritto:

| From: Astrid R via talk <talk@gtalug.org>

To actually solve your problem, we need to know more about:

- whether you know what your modem/router's WiFi password OR if you can set it to a new password

- more details about how your computer's OS lets you set the WiFi password. My best guess is that you can click on the top right of your screen and get access to wireless settings (using Gnome's Network Manager). But I don't know and your video doesn't make this clear.

Warning: this rest of this reply is perhaps longer than you might want to read. Also, it won't solve your problem. But it might help you understand what I wrote above.

| Thanks for your replies. Before I go on I should say I discovered that I | no longer have the password to change the date and time, so it might not | be possible to change anything else either.

There are three kinds of password that you might be talking about.

1. the notebook's BIOS setup screen (you get into that before the Linux has booted). This lets you set the date and time, and a number of other things that you probably need not change. Normally you don't need a password for this, but if someone has set the BIOS password, you will have to use it.

2. The password for the Linux "super user" or "root" (two names for the same thing).

3. The password for the your identity on the machine. Normally you have to type this in at every login, but you've set things up so that you are automatically logged in when you start the machine.

Depending on the version of Linux you are using, (3) might be enough. (2) is certainly enough. With (2), you can even set (3).

Do you know which password(s) you don't know?

| But in case there might be a way, I hope the following is useful. | | I'm using a Dell laptop. | | Not sure if this is the distribution and release...GNU Grub 1.99-27 +deb 7u2...

(This may not be useful to you but it should be useful to others helping you.)

debian Wheezy, with a kernel version 3.2.0-4-486. <https://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/>

(I personally don't know debian Wheezy. So someone who does know it can give you more useful help.)

- your OS was installed perhaps five to seven years ago

- you haven't done updates recently. Maybe never.

- you cannot do updates any longer since Wheezy was only supported until May 2018. You could update to a later debian but that is more complicated.

- your computer may be old enough that it might not have enough resources to comfortably run a newer OS release.

| Using wifi at home. | | I don't have DSL anymore, nor the modem or router I used when I did have | it (I was using an ethernet cable) and I now have a different ISP (for | the wifi): rogers. The rogers modem is called 'ignite'.

Almost all the time DSL internet is provided by a combined modem/router box. The same is true of Cable internet. So: in each case, you just connecting your computer to the box with an ethernet cable. Nothing new is needed. No password, for example.

| I'm trying to | use rogers wifi at home on my laptop which only ever used DSL before. | I'm already using wifi at home on my phone.

For WiFi, things get a little more complicated. The modem/router box needs to have a password for WiFi access and the computer needs to know the same one. (That would have been true in your DSL setup too.)

How to think about the password problem:

Your modem/router and computer need to share a single WiFI password. This is desgined to keep others out of your network.

For security reasons, the password should be long and hard to guess.

- if you don't know the WiFi password on the modem/router, you need to set one.

- To set the WiFi password in the modem/router, you need to know another password, the one to access the modem/router's setup web page

The technician who installed Your Rogers system might have left a sheet of paper with passwords for the modem/router.

Similarly, on the computer side, there are two passwords involved:

- if you don't know the WiFi password on the computer, you need to set one. There have been many techniques over the years. I don't know how Wheezy did this. Others have suggested that it might involve NetworkManager

- To set the WiFi password in the computer, you need to know another password, the one that has sufficient privilege to set the WiFi password. It will be password (2) or (3) (as described at the start of this message).