wireless network idea

[Shannon McMackin]

**** * ****** wrote:
> Monday October 10, 2005 (Ontario, Canada)
> 
> Dear all,
>  I am Kyle Anthony Brooks from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and am a member
> of the Ubuntu New User Network. I am sending you this e-mail to propose
> an (major, in my opinion) new Graphical User Interface for the next
> version of Ubuntu after Breezy.
>  The new graphical user interface shall henceforth be called the
> "Wireless Network Connection Interface".
>  The Wireless Network Connection Interface will be a tool for making
> wireless connections to the Internet or to a wireless network.
>  The WNCI will, upon startup, do the following things (of course with
> user input):
>    1. If the user has a wireless card AND an ethernet card, it will
> suggest that the user (if not already connected via the ethernet card)
> connect to the internet via the card.
>    2. Otherwise, it looks for any working internet interfaces (eth0, etc).
>    3. Otherwise, it searches for working wireless cards and uses the
> first one found.
>    4. If, at this point, the WNCI cannot find a working wireless / wired
> card, it points to a FAQ on the machine or another resource.
>    5. If the WNCI *can* find a internet connection, then it informs the
> user from where to download drivers and lets the user do that.
>    6. The WNCI then prompts for a location to the Windows driver
> information file (.inf), which the user will have downloaded already.
> When the user directs WNCI to the .inf file, WNCI then does the following.
>    7. The WNCI automatically checks to see if ndiswrapper is installed.
> If not installed, it is installed.
>    8. The WNCI checks to see if the modules are there by getting the
> kernel revision with "uname -r". If not there, it is installed.
>    9. The WNCI then runs ndiswrapper.
>  Disclaimer: I do not own a wireless card, however I want to help users
> who do so.
> Thanks,
>  Kyle Anthony Brooks
> 
> 
> 
Kyle,

As Matt indicates, NetworkManager does much of this already.

One question on your logic, why do you want to force downloading windows
drivers and ndiswrapper?

Not all wireless cards require ndiswrapper and not many Linux users
would appreciate the enforced downloading of windows code to their systems.

Just my opinion, though we all do see the need for better networking
functionality in Linux.

Shannon