How to setup a WLAN manually, if the desktop is not available (its a small widget on the left top otherwise)
Find out the available WLAN networks (there can be more WLAN adapters connected, wlan0 is the first)
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
Manually add security information for WLAN access.
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
The top of this file has the lines:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev update_config=1
and add for every SSID these lines:
network={ ssid="Your WiFi SSID" psk="Your WiFi Password" key_mgmt=WPA-PSK }
Now wait some seconds and/ortype
ifdown wlan0 ifup wlan0 ifconfig
to see if an IP has been assigned to WLAN0
If its an hidden SSID this may help
ap_scan=2
just after the line update_config=1
Tip to make WiFi more resilient:
This can be solved with no extra scripts.
In /etc/network/interfaces put:
allow-hotplug wlan0 iface wlan0 inet manual wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf iface default inet dhcp
The roaming allows the interface to self-heal.