GUI Wireless Tools

[Ed Fletcher]

David Coldrick wrote:
> I currently run with networking not started, and i do a sudo ifup eth0
> or sudo ifup wlan0 depending on my environment.
> 
> Still trying to decide whete NetworkManager would be worthwhile for me
> - installed it once and had a bunch of probs. and went back to the
> usual.
> 
> Do I need to configure network startup differently in order to use
> NetworkManager?
> 
> Regards,
> David
> 
> 
> On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 17:07:00 -0800, Ed Fletcher <ed at fletcher.ca> wrote:
> 
>>Ed Fletcher wrote:
>>
>>>Ed Fletcher wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>niran wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Ed Fletcher Wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>Does anyone know of a Gnome interface to iwlist and iwconfig?
>>>>>>Or is there something else I should be using?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>I'm running Warty and I use Debian's netapplet package:
>>>>>http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/netapplet
>>>>>
>>>>>If you're running Hoary, I think there's a package in universe that
>>>>>depends on Gnome 2.9 libraries. Netapplet hasn't been all that great
>>>>>for me though. When I tell it to use the wireless interface, it doesn't
>>>>>get an ip address for it (or maybe it tries and fails). I run dhclient
>>>>>on the interface afterwards to get everything set up.
>>>>>Another option is NetworkManager:
>>>>>http://people.ubuntu.com/~thom/network-manager/
>>>>>
>>>>>I haven't been able to try that one out because Warty's ndiswrapper
>>>>>version doesn't report it's capabilities to HAL, so NetworkManager
>>>>>ignores it. If you're not using ndiswrapper, it might be worth a shot.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>The wiki page on this topic is here:
>>>>>http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/NetworkMagic
>>>>>
>>>>>I'm not sure where Ubuntu is heading post-Hoary in regards to these two
>>>>>projects, nor what the "shame about the implementation" is about in
>>>>>regards to NetworkManager (it'd be nice to see that added to the wiki),
>>>>>but for Hoary it looks like netapplet is the preferred solution.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Hi Niran:
>>>>
>>>>I'm running Warty without the ndiswrapper, so I'll have a look at
>>>>NetworkManager.  The SMC2835 works great at home but I've had lots of
>>>>problems in places like coffee shops where I don't know the channel
>>>>nor the BSSID.  I'll load NetworkManager tomorrow and give it a try on
>>>>Thursday.
>>>>
>>>>Many thanks,
>>>>Ed
>>>
>>>
>>>Okay, I installed NetworkManager as per the web page quoted by Niran. No
>>>problems.  But it didn't activate when I logged out and logged back in
>>>again.  So I rebooted and got an error message during the boot sequence
>>>when NetworkManager was trying to load.  It complained about iw_scan.
>>>Didn't have a clue what that was and I didn't have a command called
>>>iwscan on my system (hmmm . . . still don't).  So I googled iw_scan and
>>>found a page that mentioned it wasn't available in the older versions of
>>>wirelesstools.  So I fired up Synaptic, did a reload and there was an
>>>update available for wireless tools.  Did the update and rebooted
>>>again.  NetworkManager loaded correctly.  The icon (looks like a radar
>>>screen) appeared in the right corner in the top task bar.  It scanned
>>>and picked up my network and what I think is probably my neighbors
>>>network.  I selected mine and I was connected.  NetworkManager then shut
>>>itself down.  But the icon is still there with the rotating radar image
>>>going around.
>>>
>>>Oddly enough, my wireless connection was enabled during boot and I saw
>>>that I was able to connect to the timeserver and update the time.  Once
>>>I  logged in and NetworkManager started, the wireless connection was
>>>down until I selected a network.  And since NetworkManager is no longer
>>>running, I have to log out and log back in again to switch networks.
>>>However, I don't see having to do that too often so I doubt that it will
>>>be a problem.
>>>
>>>All in all, I must say that so far I'm very happy with NetworkManager.
>>>I'll try it in a coffee shop tomorrow to see how it performs in the real
>>>world and let everyone on the list know.
>>>
>>>Thanks again Niran for the pointer.
>>>
>>>BTW, I'm sending this from my laptop via wireless.
>>>
>>>Ed
>>
>>Well, NetworkManager works a treat.  I'm in the coffee shop (free
>>wireless) and it picked up five different signals.  Selected the one I
>>wanted and it made the connection.
>>
>>Only thing different from yesterday is that NetworkManager stayed
>>running this time.  At home, it shut itself down after making the
>>connection.  So if I wanted to switch networks, I could do it without
>>having to log out and log back in again.  Sweet!
>>
>>This is truly painless.
>>
>>Ed

I'm not sure if I can answer your question.  I start both networks 
(wired and wireless) when I boot the laptop.  Only one connects, of 
course.  I never made any changes to my network configuration.

I don't know if NetworkManager needs to have the wireless card in to 
start.  Although it loads during the boot and wouldn't have a connection 
until after you logged in anyway.  Give it a try and see if it works for 
you.

I'll try it tomorrow and see what happens when I boot to a wired network.

Ed
-- 
Ed Fletcher
ed at fletcher.ca

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism
or the holy name of liberty or democracy?  -  Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)