BACKGROUND.

One problem keeps coming up in this forum - the software error that causes a failure to connect wifi by the "official" method (called Connection Manager) in the presence of:
(a) a nearby n-type wifi signal;
(b) a large number of nearby wifi signals of any kind; and/or
(c) other 2.4 GHz microwaves from dongles, mice, phones, etc.

The problem has been documented in this Bugzilla thread: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2082 . It applies to OS2006, 2007HE and 2008HE, but not to OS2005.

There is a "shielding" technique that often helps to make a connection, but it doesn't work for everybody.

Another approach is to use linux commands instead of tapping the status-bar icon. This by-passes the faulty Nokia software. In the Bugzilla thread, two contributors suggested command-line solutions (in comments 39 and 53). IMHO, both of those solutions are unnecessarily complicated, and at the same time they fail to meet typical users' needs.

PREVIOUSLY SUGGESTED COMMAND-LINE SOLUTIONS,
AND WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM
(Skip over this section if you just want a simple solution that works.)

In the bugthread, comment 53 proposes using commands that are not available for the 770. It also proposes modifying the boot process, to run those unavailable commands during boot. If you follow this proposal, your 770 will fail to boot and you will have to reflash.

I hope that someone can correct me on this, because connecting with WPA would be a big benefit. However, this is the situation. The wireless-tools package provides various different sets of commands, depending on (1) the version of wireless-tools, (2) the hardware into which it is installed and (3) the drivers running that hardware. There is no wireless-tools package available for the 770 that allows this command: The same is true for any command of the form in particular the other iwpriv commands cited in comment 53. (Also when "wlan_para" is used in place of "set".)

Moving now to comment 39, it proposes configuring the connection manually, instead of using DHCP. Not only is this unnecessarily complicated, it is also impractical. Can you imagine asking in a cafe for their wifi's gateway address, netmask and DNS server? And also a currently unused address within the network? Most likely you will be told to leave immediately and never come back.

On the other hand, if you actually use a static IP configuration, you presumably know all the required details, and comment 39 tells you how to connect your 770 to your network.

There is an even more complicated script at http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...6&postcount=46 . You can get the same results with just two lines of code - see below.

PREREQUISITES FOR COMMAND-LINE CONNECTION

You need to enable the Maemo Extras and Maemo SDK repositories for your distribution, so that you can install osso-xterm (except in 2008HE), becomeroot (rootsh in 2008HE) and wireless-tools. See http://repository.maemo.org/ for details. To install these packages, you need to find internet access somehow.

A DHCP client called udhcpc is pre-installed in OS2006 and 2007HE. Being a standard part of BusyBox, it should also be pre-installed in 2008HE, in /sbin. (It is present in my own 2008HE, but I don't know whether it was pre-installed or whether it came with bluez-utils.) If you don't find it in /sbin, you can install it with You also need to set up a dummy connection. Built-in apps such as the browser, email, etc. are designed not to work unless a connection has been activated in Connection Manager. A dummy connection does not actually connect anything, but it fools the apps into working properly. You only have to configure a dummy connection once, and you do it by coding the following into X-Term as root (all one line):

gconftool-2 -s -t string /system/osso/connectivity/IAP/DEFAULT/type DUMMY

Once you have done that, you can activate the dummy connection at any time through the connection icon on the status bar. Tap on the icon and "Select connection". There will be a connection called "DEFAULT". Tap on that and the dummy connection will be active. (You can confirm this in Connection Manager, although the status-bar icon will not show the usual radiating-antenna symbol.) Besides fooling the built-in apps, activating the dummy connection will bring up the wlan0 interface in managed mode, thus eliminating two lines of code from previously suggested solutions.

CONNECTING TO AN OPEN OR WEP NETWORK

Activate the dummy connection, as described in the previous paragraph.

As root in X-Term, enter these two commands:

Assuming that the network uses DHCP and has a default connection to a DNS server, that should be all you need. In the case of an open network, you would omit "key 'wep-password'".

Public wifi providers typically use an open network, with redirection of the browser to a login page. The commands noted above will work in this situation.

WPA NETWORK

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a way to connect by command line to a network using WPA. Neither wpa_supplicant nor the iwpriv commands discussed above will work with the 770. If anyone has information to the contrary, please post a reply.

If you prefer to use WPA at home and the shielding technique does not work for you, you might have to use bluetooth PAN and a network bridge, as described in this post: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...81&postcount=9