Ok, thanks for the reply, even though you didn't answer any of my actual questions, and it kinda seemed like you didn't even read my post, but thanks anyway. At least you replied, and tried to provide some helpful information, even though it didn't help to restore WiFi, and the rest I pretty much already knew. Still, thanks.
Sooo, for anyone else reading and/or following this, WiFi is still not working from Red Ribbon, nor is bluetooth, btw. I managed to use a router in "Range Extender" mode to connect to the Internet(using a mobile hotspot atm), then I tried updating all the software, at the same time as trying to install Handbrake, and a few other utilities. In the end, this seemed to break the system, and I couldn't do anything(thinking back, I suppose I may not have given it enough time to load before forcing the system off). I reinstalled Red Ribbon to start from scratch, and had all kinds of problems getting back up, the biggest hurdle being assigning a username and password. During setup, before rebooting, this doesn't work well with better, more complicated passwords. I found, however, that setting a simple password while installing Red Ribbon allows you to finish, and then after rebooting, I set a much better, more secure password. Sooo, then I tried updating again from Synaptics Package Manager, this time making sure I told it not to upgrade, replace, or change any configuration files(or, I think I tried to merge the Samba configuration file, which didn't work, so I kept the old one, all others I just kept the old ones). I also allowed it to replace whatever "linux image" or whatever it was, which at first, I had tried to not do, but not allowing this seemed to not allow the upgrade process to finish. After this upgrade process finished, I rebooted, and was presented with an error, talking about some authentication software in or around "free desktop," or something like that. I went into Synaptics Package Manager, and proceeded to try to find whatever software was causing this problem. I found several installed packages involving free desktop, various authentication softwares, and several other packages, many of which seemed to be doing the same thing, in particular, "authenticating." Some were labeled from Gnome, some from lxde, some from freedesktop, some being Gnome's, lxde's, or freedesktop's implementation of whatever authentication. As you might imagine, by this time, I am pulling my hair out trying to figure this out, and I decided to give up on solving this problem today.
Sooo, I now turned instead to trying to get Bluray movie discs to copy: well, I installed handbrake, and made sure some other software was installed that I thought would allow reading bluray discs, only handbrake still would not allow reading from/copying bluray discs(I have not yet tried a second, different bluray disc, nor have I yet tried any DVD). So I proceeded to try to find software(s) that would allow me to *play* the bluray disc, so that I would know that all software was installed and working to be able to read the disc(as copying the disc first requires reading the disc). I couldn't get anything available to play the disc, and I at this point realized there was not much in the first place to play any video, much less bluray discs. Going back to Synaptics Package Manager, I realized that I had libraries installed to "play" bluray discs, but none to *decrypt* them. So, I searched for, found and installed several libraries for bluray, and several for "aacs"(which I guess is what is needed to decrypt bluray discs?), along with vlc, and other video players that I found along the along the way(the other player that I remember-I think I installed three separate players-was gxine), and then proceeded to try to play the bluray disc. I couldn't get anything to play the disc, even though I found now in file manager(not entirely certain whether it was there before or not) what appeared to be the bluray disc in question.
WHAT A MESS. Geesh. So, to try and sort this out, can anyone explain some of this to me? Like, what software/libraries do I need? For the first problem, what exactly is "freedesktop," and what "authentication agents" should be needed for Red Ribbon to work properly, and which should be removed? And any ideas what I am missing to play/copy bluray discs? If anyone could give me any helpful information, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, I am wondering at this point if I might be better off trying a different distribution of Linux. What are my options there?
Edit: Oh, and after pretty much giving up on solving this problem on my own, for my last troubleshooting step, I rebooted to "Game OS" and tried to play the bluray disc I was trying to copy. Playing the disc from here worked fine. Still can't seem to copy the disc from CFW. What would have seemed to me years ago to be a simple problem with a simple solution has turned out to be a headache and a half, although these days, I know that the encryption on blurays makes the process much more complicated.
