[gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

Hi,
   Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
to connect to a WEP2 home network?

   If got the modules installed and the hardware telling me it sees
all sorts of ESSIDs but so far I cannot figure out how to give it the
password correctly. I've been trying to follow this page but it
completely eludes me.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4

Thanks in advance,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 25.09.2011 22:38, schrieb Mark Knecht:
> Hi,
>    Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
> to connect to a WEP2 home network?
> 
>    If got the modules installed and the hardware telling me it sees
> all sorts of ESSIDs but so far I cannot figure out how to give it the
> password correctly. I've been trying to follow this page but it
> completely eludes me.
> 
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Mark
> 

This should be sufficient:
network={
        ssid="network_ssid"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        psk="password"
}

Hope this helps,
Florian Philipp


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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mick]

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On Sunday 25 Sep 2011 21:59:05 Florian Philipp wrote:
> Am 25.09.2011 22:38, schrieb Mark Knecht:
> > Hi,
> > 
> >    Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
> > 
> > to connect to a WEP2 home network?
> > 
> >    If got the modules installed and the hardware telling me it sees
> > 
> > all sorts of ESSIDs but so far I cannot figure out how to give it the
> > password correctly. I've been trying to follow this page but it
> > completely eludes me.
> > 
> > http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Mark
> 
> This should be sufficient:
> network={
>         ssid="network_ssid"
>         key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
>         psk="password"
> }
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Florian Philipp

The above should work, but you may want to also try adding:

group=CCMP TKIP WEP104

(or any combo thereof)


If you have a key already then all is good.  Use that.

If not, something like this will generate you a key:

http://www.speedguide.net/wlan_key.php

https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

NOTE:  Some (older) routers were having problems using symbols, spaces, etc. 
so it may be easier to try just simple hex alphanumeric characters to see if 
it works.


If you have a passphrase but not the key, then use the name of your SSID and 
the wpa_passphrase command to generate the key.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Adam Carter]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 6:38 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>   Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
> to connect to a WEP2 home network?

Do you mean WPA2 or WEP? AFAIK there's no such thing as WEP2.

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 1:59 PM, Florian Philipp <lists@binarywings.net> wrote:
> Am 25.09.2011 22:38, schrieb Mark Knecht:
>> Hi,
>>    Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
>> to connect to a WEP2 home network?
>>
>>    If got the modules installed and the hardware telling me it sees
>> all sorts of ESSIDs but so far I cannot figure out how to give it the
>> password correctly. I've been trying to follow this page but it
>> completely eludes me.
>>
>> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Mark
>>
>
> This should be sufficient:
> network={
>        ssid="network_ssid"
>        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
>        psk="password"
> }
>
> Hope this helps,
> Florian Philipp

Thanks Florian. I really appreciate the help. It was enough to get
things working after I realized I have a mind block about routes. This
email is coming to you over wireless so things are alright now, but I
have some confusion about switching between networks:

Looking here:

slinky ~ # cat /etc/conf.d/net
config_eth0="192.168.1.55 netmask 255.255.255.0"
routes_eth0="default via 192.168.1.1"

modules="wpa_supplicant"

config_wlan0="192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0"
routes_wlan0="default via 192.168.1.1"

slinky ~ #

I specified routes for both eth0 and wlan0 thinking Gentoo would use
the one thats up, but it doesn't. It seems that even when I shut off
eth0 it still tries to use the eth0 route. To get his working I had to
comment out the eth0 route completely.

So, is there a way to point the default to 192.168.1.1 and have the
network use the one interface that's up?

Also, is there a way to have the system use wireless anytime he wired
connector isn't hooked up, of do I manually have to switch to root and
then do

/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop
/etc/init.d/net.wlan start

to switch over?

Anyway, it's working so that's a big step forward.

THANKS!!!

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 4:30 PM, Adam Carter <adamcarter3@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 6:38 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>   Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
>> to connect to a WEP2 home network?
>
> Do you mean WPA2 or WEP? AFAIK there's no such thing as WEP2.
>
>

Yeah, WPA2. My bad.

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Sep 26, 2011 6:37 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 1:59 PM, Florian Philipp <lists@binarywings.net>
wrote:
> > Am 25.09.2011 22:38, schrieb Mark Knecht:
> >> Hi,
> >>    Can anyone supply an example of correctly setting up wpa_supplicant
> >> to connect to a WEP2 home network?
> >>
> >>    If got the modules installed and the hardware telling me it sees
> >> all sorts of ESSIDs but so far I cannot figure out how to give it the
> >> password correctly. I've been trying to follow this page but it
> >> completely eludes me.
> >>
> >> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance,
> >> Mark
> >>
> >
> > This should be sufficient:
> > network={
> >        ssid="network_ssid"
> >        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
> >        psk="password"
> > }
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > Florian Philipp
>
> Thanks Florian. I really appreciate the help. It was enough to get
> things working after I realized I have a mind block about routes. This
> email is coming to you over wireless so things are alright now, but I
> have some confusion about switching between networks:
>
> Looking here:
>
> slinky ~ # cat /etc/conf.d/net
> config_eth0="192.168.1.55 netmask 255.255.255.0"
> routes_eth0="default via 192.168.1.1"
>
> modules="wpa_supplicant"
>
> config_wlan0="192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0"
> routes_wlan0="default via 192.168.1.1"
>
> slinky ~ #
>
> I specified routes for both eth0 and wlan0 thinking Gentoo would use
> the one thats up, but it doesn't. It seems that even when I shut off
> eth0 it still tries to use the eth0 route. To get his working I had to
> comment out the eth0 route completely.
>

I suggest using the postup() and predown() facilities instead:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=5

In postup(), create the default route e.g. ip route add default via $DG_IP
dev $IFACE metric $METRIC

In predown(), delete the default route. Same command, but 'delete' instead
of 'add'.

Note: metric comes into play only when eth0 and wlan0 are up simultaneously;
the lowest metric wins.

> So, is there a way to point the default to 192.168.1.1 and have the
> network use the one interface that's up?
>

Well, the default gateway on eth0 and wlan0 has the same IP. I'm not sure
iproute2 can stomach that.

> Also, is there a way to have the system use wireless anytime he wired
> connector isn't hooked up, of do I manually have to switch to root and
> then do
>
> /etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop
> /etc/init.d/net.wlan start
>
> to switch over?
>

ifplugd or netplug.

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Adam Carter]

> ifplugd or netplug.

This is the better option IMO.

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Paul Hartman]

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 9:10 PM, Adam Carter <adamcarter3@gmail.com> wrote:
>> ifplugd or netplug.
>
> This is the better option IMO.

Or skip the net config/init scripts stuff and just use something like wicd.

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[James Broadhead]

On 26 September 2011 03:19, Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> Or skip the net config/init scripts stuff and just use something like wicd.

Getting a manager to write your wpa_supplicant.conf for you (in
effect), has been the right way of configuring wifi for the average
user for years now. It's a real shame that this isn't promoted more in
the gentoo handbook and/or the Wifi guide.

I added a patch to the wifi guide a while back, but I really find the
gentoo documentation workflow so over-burdening that I usually work on
gentoo-wiki instead. It's pretty dispiriting to see people using
troublesome tools when there's better ways out there :(

JB

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Spidey / Claudio]

Complementing James comment, when I messed with Gentoo on a notebook I
also tried the confusing and troublesome way: configuring wi-fi to
connect at boot time. It was REALLY a challenge, maintaining a
realistic configuration file, which would let you boot with network up
equally while home and while at work. At the end of the day, I just
regressed to no boot configuration and went with wicd or
NetworkManager.
When I came back to configuring my desktop, it felt strange to run
dhcp at boot time, I even tried migrating a wired box to
NetworkManager, but ended with a static config nevertheless.

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Fernando Freire]

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On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Spidey / Claudio <spideybr@gmail.com>wrote:

> >Complementing James comment, when I messed with Gentoo on a notebook I
> >also tried the confusing and troublesome way: configuring wi-fi to
> >connect at boot time. It was REALLY a challenge, maintaining a
> >realistic configuration file, which would let you boot with network up
> >equally while home and while at work. At the end of the day, I just
> >regressed to no boot configuration and went with wicd or
> >NetworkManager.
> >When I came back to configuring my desktop, it felt strange to run
> >dhcp at boot time, I even tried migrating a wired box to
> >NetworkManager, but ended with a static config nevertheless.
>
>
I'm curious, why is running DHCP at boot time not recommended? Before
running any sort of network manager I ran dhcp on boot (I'll admit it, it
was awkward when I wasn't wired in, since I would have to wait for dhcp to
time out). It wasn't too terrible since I only had about 3 or 4 wireless
networks I could possibly connect to. Between the Gentoo Handbook and Google
I didn't have a terrible time setting it up; heck, I didn't even know there
was a better way of managing wireless networks!

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mick]

On 26 September 2011 15:12, Spidey / Claudio <spideybr@gmail.com> wrote:
> Complementing James comment, when I messed with Gentoo on a notebook I
> also tried the confusing and troublesome way: configuring wi-fi to
> connect at boot time. It was REALLY a challenge, maintaining a
> realistic configuration file, which would let you boot with network up
> equally while home and while at work. At the end of the day, I just
> regressed to no boot configuration and went with wicd or
> NetworkManager.
> When I came back to configuring my desktop, it felt strange to run
> dhcp at boot time, I even tried migrating a wired box to
> NetworkManager, but ended with a static config nevertheless.

There's horses for courses I guess,  wicd et al works for most average needs.

On the other hand reading through the examples/comments for
/etc/conf.d/net and wpa_supplicant.conf takes the whole of 10-20
minutes.  Once you grasp the basics it does not present any difficulty
configuring it in the future, unless you have special bridging and
routing needs in which case it may take some extra time.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[James Broadhead]

> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Spidey / Claudio <spideybr@gmail.com>
> Between the Gentoo Handbook and Google
> (... )I didn't even know there was a better way of managing wireless networks!

This is exactly the problem.

I'm working on rewriting the Handbook's page on setting up wifi, but
I'm going to need some time to get into the Live-Environments to test
that my new version works :P I'll post a draft here & would appreciate
comments before I submit the bug report.

On 26 September 2011 15:51, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> On the other hand reading through the examples/comments for
> /etc/conf.d/net and wpa_supplicant.conf takes the whole of 10-20
> minutes.

I absolutely disagree with this - while editing /etc/conf.d/net is
fine, wpa_supplicant.conf requires a pretty solid understanding of
both the network that you're trying to connect to, and the various
protocols/encryption mechanisms available. Back when I was first
trying to get wireless working on my systems, it was a major stumbling
block.

The gentoo install is pretty tough going for the average new user,
with a lot of separate areas of new competence without getting into
wireless (assuming that they have a reasonable understanding of
computing to start). An additional 10-20 minutes of user intervention
is quite significant overhead.

JB

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mick]

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On Monday 26 Sep 2011 16:03:10 James Broadhead wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Spidey / Claudio <spideybr@gmail.com>
> > Between the Gentoo Handbook and Google
> > (... )I didn't even know there was a better way of managing wireless
> > networks!
> 
> This is exactly the problem.
> 
> I'm working on rewriting the Handbook's page on setting up wifi, but
> I'm going to need some time to get into the Live-Environments to test
> that my new version works :P I'll post a draft here & would appreciate
> comments before I submit the bug report.
> 
> On 26 September 2011 15:51, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On the other hand reading through the examples/comments for
> > /etc/conf.d/net and wpa_supplicant.conf takes the whole of 10-20
> > minutes.
> 
> I absolutely disagree with this - while editing /etc/conf.d/net is
> fine, wpa_supplicant.conf requires a pretty solid understanding of
> both the network that you're trying to connect to, and the various
> protocols/encryption mechanisms available. Back when I was first
> trying to get wireless working on my systems, it was a major stumbling
> block.
> 
> The gentoo install is pretty tough going for the average new user,
> with a lot of separate areas of new competence without getting into
> wireless (assuming that they have a reasonable understanding of
> computing to start). An additional 10-20 minutes of user intervention
> is quite significant overhead.

I have to agree that for a beginner who needs to install Gentoo getting the 
network connection going without a (major) problem or delay is quite 
important.  Otherwise, it can act as a disincentive of carrying on with the 
installation.  Therefore I would support the easy way to get there, but would 
also leave the manual configuration in there - for those who need to configure 
more convoluted set ups or are interested to look at what's happening under 
the bonnet.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday 26 Sep 2011 16:03:10 James Broadhead wrote:
>> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Spidey / Claudio <spideybr@gmail.com>
>> > Between the Gentoo Handbook and Google
>> > (... )I didn't even know there was a better way of managing wireless
>> > networks!
>>
>> This is exactly the problem.
>>
>> I'm working on rewriting the Handbook's page on setting up wifi, but
>> I'm going to need some time to get into the Live-Environments to test
>> that my new version works :P I'll post a draft here & would appreciate
>> comments before I submit the bug report.
>>
>> On 26 September 2011 15:51, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On the other hand reading through the examples/comments for
>> > /etc/conf.d/net and wpa_supplicant.conf takes the whole of 10-20
>> > minutes.
>>
>> I absolutely disagree with this - while editing /etc/conf.d/net is
>> fine, wpa_supplicant.conf requires a pretty solid understanding of
>> both the network that you're trying to connect to, and the various
>> protocols/encryption mechanisms available. Back when I was first
>> trying to get wireless working on my systems, it was a major stumbling
>> block.
>>
>> The gentoo install is pretty tough going for the average new user,
>> with a lot of separate areas of new competence without getting into
>> wireless (assuming that they have a reasonable understanding of
>> computing to start). An additional 10-20 minutes of user intervention
>> is quite significant overhead.
>
> I have to agree that for a beginner who needs to install Gentoo getting the
> network connection going without a (major) problem or delay is quite
> important.  Otherwise, it can act as a disincentive of carrying on with the
> installation.  Therefore I would support the easy way to get there, but would
> also leave the manual configuration in there - for those who need to configure
> more convoluted set ups or are interested to look at what's happening under
> the bonnet.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Mick

Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly not a
power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I gotta say I
don't like that way this is all working on my system so far. TO BE
CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything configured as well as it
could possibly be, but I also suspect that would be true for the
majority of new wireless users on Gentoo after only a day or two.

My experience so far:

1) As discussed earlier, needing to mess with routes when changing
which network I'm using. Sad when both options actually point to the
same address.

2) If I start with wlan0 turned off and switch to root to disable eth0
and enable wlan0, I get a message that wlan0 is up but 'not active'.
Indeed, as a user if I start a browser it doesn't work. However, if as
root I ping the router I immediately get a response and then my
browser works fine.

3) If I disable wlan0 and then reenable it it doesn't work until I
restart wpa_supplicant

4) So far wpa_gui cannot find any networks, or at least doesn't
display anything when I attempt a scan.

I don't understand at this point how to make this work for normal
users. Anyone in my family of three might want to pick this laptop up
and go to a different part of the house, or even go out of the house
and use the laptop with some public network. I haven't a clue yet how
anyone is supposed to change networks when they aren't root. I
understand that flies in the face of typical Linux security, but it
seems to me that a well thought out wireless environment could figure
out how to do that, and possibly has already but I haven't found the
info.

Anyway, I am THRILLED to have wireless working at all and appreciate
all the help I got getting there. Without question I couldn't have
gotten here without it.

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[-- snip --]

> Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly not a
> power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I gotta say I
> don't like that way this is all working on my system so far. TO BE
> CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything configured as well as it
> could possibly be, but I also suspect that would be true for the
> majority of new wireless users on Gentoo after only a day or two.
>

Not to belittle non-power users, most everything can be done by putting some
more intelligence into the init.d scripts.

Of course, this should be implemented by Gentoo itself. I'll spelunk in the
relevant scripts and see what I can do.

> My experience so far:
>
> 1) As discussed earlier, needing to mess with routes when changing
> which network I'm using. Sad when both options actually point to the
> same address.
>

Solvable by putting commands to add/delete routes in postup() and predown()

> 2) If I start with wlan0 turned off and switch to root to disable eth0
> and enable wlan0, I get a message that wlan0 is up but 'not active'.
> Indeed, as a user if I start a browser it doesn't work. However, if as
> root I ping the router I immediately get a response and then my
> browser works fine.
>

Can you check if pinging to self (i.e., wlan0's IP) activates the interface?
If so, it will be a simple addition to postup()

> 3) If I disable wlan0 and then reenable it it doesn't work until I
> restart wpa_supplicant
>

Okay, this will be more involved, since I have no experience with, nor any
setup using, wpa_supplicant. But should also be possible through postup()

> 4) So far wpa_gui cannot find any networks, or at least doesn't
> display anything when I attempt a scan.
>

This I'm not sure how to fix, since my Gentoo boxen has no GUI.

> I don't understand at this point how to make this work for normal
> users. Anyone in my family of three might want to pick this laptop up
> and go to a different part of the house, or even go out of the house
> and use the laptop with some public network. I haven't a clue yet how
> anyone is supposed to change networks when they aren't root. I
> understand that flies in the face of typical Linux security, but it
> seems to me that a well thought out wireless environment could figure
> out how to do that, and possibly has already but I haven't found the
> info.
>

Valid points. That's why I'll volunteer to 'tweak' the net script.

> Anyway, I am THRILLED to have wireless working at all and appreciate
> all the help I got getting there. Without question I couldn't have
> gotten here without it.
>

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:08:05 +0700
Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:

> On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> 
> [-- snip --]
> 
> > Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly not
> > a power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I gotta
> > say I don't like that way this is all working on my system so far.
> > TO BE CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything configured as
> > well as it could possibly be, but I also suspect that would be true
> > for the majority of new wireless users on Gentoo after only a day
> > or two.
> >

Just to throw a small spanner in the works....

All my wpa issues were solved long ago by dumping the gentoo net
scripts, then installing and running wicd where it all JustWorks(TM).

init.d scripts work great for static servers.
wicd works great for mobile laptops.
There's very little overlap between these two.

Have you considered using wicd at all?




> 
> Not to belittle non-power users, most everything can be done by
> putting some more intelligence into the init.d scripts.
> 
> Of course, this should be implemented by Gentoo itself. I'll spelunk
> in the relevant scripts and see what I can do.
> 
> > My experience so far:
> >
> > 1) As discussed earlier, needing to mess with routes when changing
> > which network I'm using. Sad when both options actually point to the
> > same address.
> >
> 
> Solvable by putting commands to add/delete routes in postup() and
> predown()
> 
> > 2) If I start with wlan0 turned off and switch to root to disable
> > eth0 and enable wlan0, I get a message that wlan0 is up but 'not
> > active'. Indeed, as a user if I start a browser it doesn't work.
> > However, if as root I ping the router I immediately get a response
> > and then my browser works fine.
> >
> 
> Can you check if pinging to self (i.e., wlan0's IP) activates the
> interface? If so, it will be a simple addition to postup()
> 
> > 3) If I disable wlan0 and then reenable it it doesn't work until I
> > restart wpa_supplicant
> >
> 
> Okay, this will be more involved, since I have no experience with,
> nor any setup using, wpa_supplicant. But should also be possible
> through postup()
> 
> > 4) So far wpa_gui cannot find any networks, or at least doesn't
> > display anything when I attempt a scan.
> >
> 
> This I'm not sure how to fix, since my Gentoo boxen has no GUI.
> 
> > I don't understand at this point how to make this work for normal
> > users. Anyone in my family of three might want to pick this laptop
> > up and go to a different part of the house, or even go out of the
> > house and use the laptop with some public network. I haven't a clue
> > yet how anyone is supposed to change networks when they aren't
> > root. I understand that flies in the face of typical Linux
> > security, but it seems to me that a well thought out wireless
> > environment could figure out how to do that, and possibly has
> > already but I haven't found the info.
> >
> 
> Valid points. That's why I'll volunteer to 'tweak' the net script.
> 
> > Anyway, I am THRILLED to have wireless working at all and appreciate
> > all the help I got getting there. Without question I couldn't have
> > gotten here without it.
> >
> 
> Rgds,



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:08:05 +0700
> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>
>> On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>>
>> [-- snip --]
>>
>> > Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly not
>> > a power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I gotta
>> > say I don't like that way this is all working on my system so far.
>> > TO BE CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything configured as
>> > well as it could possibly be, but I also suspect that would be true
>> > for the majority of new wireless users on Gentoo after only a day
>> > or two.
>> >
>
> Just to throw a small spanner in the works....
>
> All my wpa issues were solved long ago by dumping the gentoo net
> scripts, then installing and running wicd where it all JustWorks(TM).
>
> init.d scripts work great for static servers.
> wicd works great for mobile laptops.
> There's very little overlap between these two.
>
> Have you considered using wicd at all?
>

Alan,
   I haven't seriously considered wicd because I don't understand what
it is, how it links into everything else on the system.

   For a user type the idea of dumping init scripts in favor of
something else is a _really_ foreign idea to me. As someone who has
used Gentoo for at least a decade please understand that I've never
done _anything_ like that before. I'm sure I can figure out more or
less how the scripts work, but there are other things I'd worry about
like some some system update deleting them, etc.

   Reading the wicd homepage it looks like it could help, but how many
hours am I going to have to invest to get it running? Understand that
I've already dumped maybe 10 hours into getting here. I figure I'll
need another 10 hours of work - reading web pages, trying things out
and failing - before I feel like I should ask a question here, so
that's 20 hours minimum. Please understand that wireless was working
on this machine in Windows in under 10 minutes - not 20 hours!

   The wicd homepage makes it all look so painless so I guess I should
go give it a try.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Michael Mol]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 9:43 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:08:05 +0700
>> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>>
>>> [-- snip --]
>>>
>>> > Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly not
>>> > a power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I gotta
>>> > say I don't like that way this is all working on my system so far.
>>> > TO BE CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything configured as
>>> > well as it could possibly be, but I also suspect that would be true
>>> > for the majority of new wireless users on Gentoo after only a day
>>> > or two.
>>> >
>>
>> Just to throw a small spanner in the works....
>>
>> All my wpa issues were solved long ago by dumping the gentoo net
>> scripts, then installing and running wicd where it all JustWorks(TM).
>>
>> init.d scripts work great for static servers.
>> wicd works great for mobile laptops.
>> There's very little overlap between these two.
>>
>> Have you considered using wicd at all?
>>
>
> Alan,
>   I haven't seriously considered wicd because I don't understand what
> it is, how it links into everything else on the system.
>
>   For a user type the idea of dumping init scripts in favor of
> something else is a _really_ foreign idea to me. As someone who has
> used Gentoo for at least a decade please understand that I've never
> done _anything_ like that before. I'm sure I can figure out more or
> less how the scripts work, but there are other things I'd worry about
> like some some system update deleting them, etc.
>
>   Reading the wicd homepage it looks like it could help, but how many
> hours am I going to have to invest to get it running? Understand that
> I've already dumped maybe 10 hours into getting here. I figure I'll
> need another 10 hours of work - reading web pages, trying things out
> and failing - before I feel like I should ask a question here, so
> that's 20 hours minimum. Please understand that wireless was working
> on this machine in Windows in under 10 minutes - not 20 hours!
>
>   The wicd homepage makes it all look so painless so I guess I should
> go give it a try.

Do your reading and such, but don't forget IRC exists. :)

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[covici]

James Broadhead <jamesbroadhead@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 26 September 2011 03:19, Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Or skip the net config/init scripts stuff and just use something like wicd.
> 
> Getting a manager to write your wpa_supplicant.conf for you (in
> effect), has been the right way of configuring wifi for the average
> user for years now. It's a real shame that this isn't promoted more in
> the gentoo handbook and/or the Wifi guide.
> 
> I added a patch to the wifi guide a while back, but I really find the
> gentoo documentation workflow so over-burdening that I usually work on
> gentoo-wiki instead. It's pretty dispiriting to see people using
> troublesome tools when there's better ways out there :(

If I am correct, wic only works if you have gnome -- what if you have a
server or a computer without gnome or kde?

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Pandu Poluan]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1206 bytes --]

On Sep 27, 2011 9:51 AM, <covici@ccs.covici.com> wrote:
>
>
> James Broadhead <jamesbroadhead@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 26 September 2011 03:19, Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>
wrote:
> > > Or skip the net config/init scripts stuff and just use something like
wicd.
> >
> > Getting a manager to write your wpa_supplicant.conf for you (in
> > effect), has been the right way of configuring wifi for the average
> > user for years now. It's a real shame that this isn't promoted more in
> > the gentoo handbook and/or the Wifi guide.
> >
> > I added a patch to the wifi guide a while back, but I really find the
> > gentoo documentation workflow so over-burdening that I usually work on
> > gentoo-wiki instead. It's pretty dispiriting to see people using
> > troublesome tools when there's better ways out there :(
>
> If I am correct, wic only works if you have gnome -- what if you have a
> server or a computer without gnome or kde?
>

The homepage says that a GUI is not needed, one can use wicd-curses to
manage things interactively.

That said, servers really shouldn't have any wlan* interface. Especially
enterprise-y ones.

For servers, init.d hacking should be more suitable.

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Pandu Poluan]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1798 bytes --]

On Sep 27, 2011 9:57 AM, "Pandu Poluan" <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>
>
> On Sep 27, 2011 9:51 AM, <covici@ccs.covici.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > James Broadhead <jamesbroadhead@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On 26 September 2011 03:19, Paul Hartman <
paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > Or skip the net config/init scripts stuff and just use something
like wicd.
> > >
> > > Getting a manager to write your wpa_supplicant.conf for you (in
> > > effect), has been the right way of configuring wifi for the average
> > > user for years now. It's a real shame that this isn't promoted more in
> > > the gentoo handbook and/or the Wifi guide.
> > >
> > > I added a patch to the wifi guide a while back, but I really find the
> > > gentoo documentation workflow so over-burdening that I usually work on
> > > gentoo-wiki instead. It's pretty dispiriting to see people using
> > > troublesome tools when there's better ways out there :(
> >
> > If I am correct, wic only works if you have gnome -- what if you have a
> > server or a computer without gnome or kde?
> >
>
> The homepage says that a GUI is not needed, one can use wicd-curses to
manage things interactively.
>
> That said, servers really shouldn't have any wlan* interface. Especially
enterprise-y ones.
>
> For servers, init.d hacking should be more suitable.

Ah yes, the Gentoo handbook explicitly states:

Note: wicd offers a command line utility in addition to the main graphical
interface. You can get it by emerging wicd with the ncurses USE flag set.
This wicd-curses utility is particularly useful for folks who don't use a
gtk-based desktop environment, but still want an easy command line tool that
doesn't require hand-editing configuration files.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Paul Hartman]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 8:43 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> I haven't seriously considered wicd because I don't understand what
> it is, how it links into everything else on the system.

At its most basic, it lists your network interfaces and you can
configure or connect with DHCP, scan wireless, enter the key,etc. Get
a nice little icon on the status area in KDE/Gnome/Whatever, click it
and do your thing. Probably easier than Windows 7. :)

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Indi]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 07:08:05AM +0700, Pandu Poluan wrote:
> 
>    Not to belittle non-power users, most everything can be done by putting
>    some more intelligence into the init.d scripts.
> 
>    Of course, this should be implemented by Gentoo itself. I'll spelunk in
>    the relevant scripts and see what I can do.
>

Just the other day, as I was editing my init scripts to use
extra_commands rather than opts, I wondered why this isn't done 
a bit more thoroughly out of the box...

But then, probably most of the user base either knows or will 
soon know how to deal with it. It's an educational feature. 
:)

-- 
caveat utilitor
♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ 

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Indi]

On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:47:18 -0400
covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:

> 
> James Broadhead <jamesbroadhead@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On 26 September 2011 03:19, Paul Hartman
> > <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Or skip the net config/init scripts stuff and just use something
> > > like wicd.
> > 
> > Getting a manager to write your wpa_supplicant.conf for you (in
> > effect), has been the right way of configuring wifi for the average
> > user for years now. It's a real shame that this isn't promoted more
> > in the gentoo handbook and/or the Wifi guide.
> > 
> > I added a patch to the wifi guide a while back, but I really find
> > the gentoo documentation workflow so over-burdening that I usually
> > work on gentoo-wiki instead. It's pretty dispiriting to see people
> > using troublesome tools when there's better ways out there :(
> 
> If I am correct, wic only works if you have gnome -- what if you have
> a server or a computer without gnome or kde?
> 

No, I've tested wicd in openbox, wmaker, and fluxbox, and also from the
console using ncurses -- no G or K stuff required.

It is true, however, that wicd can only use one interface at a time,
which is the only reason I don't use it.

-- 
caveat utilitor
♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mick]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: Text/Plain, Size: 3240 bytes --]

On Monday 26 Sep 2011 23:08:04 Mark Knecht wrote:

> My experience so far:
> 
> 1) As discussed earlier, needing to mess with routes when changing
> which network I'm using. Sad when both options actually point to the
> same address.

If you use ifplugd the eth0 will be activated auto-magically once a link is 
detected on wired NIC.  You can even further configure it to run commands of 
your choice once it detects that a link is up (i.e. is my wlan0 up then 
configure a route otherwise not, type of thing).


> 2) If I start with wlan0 turned off and switch to root to disable eth0
> and enable wlan0, I get a message that wlan0 is up but 'not active'.
> Indeed, as a user if I start a browser it doesn't work. However, if as
> root I ping the router I immediately get a response and then my
> browser works fine.

This is odd.  Something is amiss with your configuration ...

> 3) If I disable wlan0 and then reenable it it doesn't work until I
> restart wpa_supplicant

This is definitely *not* how it works here.  If by disabling it you mean 
running /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 then your /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 script should 
call wpa_supplicant.  You should not have to run wpa_supplicant by hand.

Are you sure you are calling the correct NIC driver for wpa_supplicant in your 
/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 file?  (e.g. you may need to use broadcom instead of 
wext if you are running an old broadcom card).


> 4) So far wpa_gui cannot find any networks, or at least doesn't
> display anything when I attempt a scan.

Assuming your init.d script and wpa_supplicant is correct then iwlist wlan0 
scanning (or scan) should be able to scan and list devices.  So should wpa_cli 
-i wlan0 (run it and then enter 'scan_results' on the prompt) and of course so 
should wpa_gui. 


> I don't understand at this point how to make this work for normal
> users. Anyone in my family of three might want to pick this laptop up
> and go to a different part of the house, or even go out of the house
> and use the laptop with some public network. I haven't a clue yet how
> anyone is supposed to change networks when they aren't root. I
> understand that flies in the face of typical Linux security, but it
> seems to me that a well thought out wireless environment could figure
> out how to do that, and possibly has already but I haven't found the
> info.

You can set which group is allowed to mess about with wpa_supplicant (this of 
course applies also to the wpa_cli/gui) in the 
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.  You can for example set:

  ctrl_interface_group=wheel

or

  ctrl_interface_group=users

or 

  ctrl_interface_group=my_wlan0_users_group

(this is I think commented comprehensively in your .example file and in the 
man page)

> Anyway, I am THRILLED to have wireless working at all and appreciate
> all the help I got getting there. Without question I couldn't have
> gotten here without it.

I think something is amiss with your configuration which causes the problems 
you describe above.  You can contact me off list if you want to keep the noise 
down and I'll take a closer look at your settings in case I spot something.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:43:13 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:

>    I haven't seriously considered wicd because I don't understand what
> it is, how it links into everything else on the system.
> 
>    For a user type the idea of dumping init scripts in favor of
> something else is a _really_ foreign idea to me. As someone who has
> used Gentoo for at least a decade please understand that I've never
> done _anything_ like that before.

You still run an init script, but it's the wicd init script, not the
net.wlan0 one. there's nothing magic about wicd, it just looks at which
interfaces are available and connects to the best one (best being defined
by you and then signal strength).

It can do a lot more, like running scripts when connecting and
disconnecting, which can be global or per-ESSID, and each network can be
set up as you want, but at its basic you set it to start with rc-update
and let it get on with the job.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

ST:TNG Diner - Now Featuring Our All You Can Assimilate SmorgasBORG!

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:43:13 -0700
Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Alan McKinnon
> <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:08:05 +0700
> > Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> >
> >> On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >>
> >> [-- snip --]
> >>
> >> > Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly
> >> > not a power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I
> >> > gotta say I don't like that way this is all working on my system
> >> > so far. TO BE CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything
> >> > configured as well as it could possibly be, but I also suspect
> >> > that would be true for the majority of new wireless users on
> >> > Gentoo after only a day or two.
> >> >
> >
> > Just to throw a small spanner in the works....
> >
> > All my wpa issues were solved long ago by dumping the gentoo net
> > scripts, then installing and running wicd where it all
> > JustWorks(TM).
> >
> > init.d scripts work great for static servers.
> > wicd works great for mobile laptops.
> > There's very little overlap between these two.
> >
> > Have you considered using wicd at all?
> >
> 
> Alan,
>    I haven't seriously considered wicd because I don't understand what
> it is, how it links into everything else on the system.
> 
>    For a user type the idea of dumping init scripts in favor of
> something else is a _really_ foreign idea to me. As someone who has
> used Gentoo for at least a decade please understand that I've never
> done _anything_ like that before. I'm sure I can figure out more or
> less how the scripts work, but there are other things I'd worry about
> like some some system update deleting them, etc.
> 
>    Reading the wicd homepage it looks like it could help, but how many
> hours am I going to have to invest to get it running? Understand that
> I've already dumped maybe 10 hours into getting here. I figure I'll
> need another 10 hours of work - reading web pages, trying things out
> and failing - before I feel like I should ask a question here, so
> that's 20 hours minimum. Please understand that wireless was working
> on this machine in Windows in under 10 minutes - not 20 hours!

Windows does it the right way for a mobile workstation, and wicd
follows the same general idea.

At boot-up , a wicd daemon starts, this is the thing that does the
heavy lifting and runs as root.

When the user's DE starts, you run the wicd-client. It comes with a
sensible config dialog where you set sensible stuff like 

wired interface takes priority over wireless
use wireless APs that have been sen before in preference to new ones
buttons to define pre-and post-connect scripts if you need them

when the client has decided what it's gonna do with your connections,
it requests the daemon to do it. It's all very well-thought out and
obviously designed with the needs of laptop users in mind. Sort of like
NetworkManager working properly without the issues of NetworkManager.

For me, it all just worked out of the box and connected every time to
all APS - WEP, WPA, even the weird funky corporate BS thingy someone
installed at work. Took about 10 minutes :-)



> 
>    The wicd homepage makes it all look so painless so I guess I should
> go give it a try.
> 
> Cheers,
> Mark
> 



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 4:19 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:43:13 -0700
> Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Alan McKinnon
>> <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:08:05 +0700
>> > Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> [-- snip --]
>> >>
>> >> > Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly
>> >> > not a power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I
>> >> > gotta say I don't like that way this is all working on my system
>> >> > so far. TO BE CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything
>> >> > configured as well as it could possibly be, but I also suspect
>> >> > that would be true for the majority of new wireless users on
>> >> > Gentoo after only a day or two.
>> >> >
>> >
>> > Just to throw a small spanner in the works....
>> >
>> > All my wpa issues were solved long ago by dumping the gentoo net
>> > scripts, then installing and running wicd where it all
>> > JustWorks(TM).
>> >
>> > init.d scripts work great for static servers.
>> > wicd works great for mobile laptops.
>> > There's very little overlap between these two.
>> >
>> > Have you considered using wicd at all?
>> >
>>
>> Alan,
>>    I haven't seriously considered wicd because I don't understand what
>> it is, how it links into everything else on the system.
>>
>>    For a user type the idea of dumping init scripts in favor of
>> something else is a _really_ foreign idea to me. As someone who has
>> used Gentoo for at least a decade please understand that I've never
>> done _anything_ like that before. I'm sure I can figure out more or
>> less how the scripts work, but there are other things I'd worry about
>> like some some system update deleting them, etc.
>>
>>    Reading the wicd homepage it looks like it could help, but how many
>> hours am I going to have to invest to get it running? Understand that
>> I've already dumped maybe 10 hours into getting here. I figure I'll
>> need another 10 hours of work - reading web pages, trying things out
>> and failing - before I feel like I should ask a question here, so
>> that's 20 hours minimum. Please understand that wireless was working
>> on this machine in Windows in under 10 minutes - not 20 hours!
>
> Windows does it the right way for a mobile workstation, and wicd
> follows the same general idea.
>
> At boot-up , a wicd daemon starts, this is the thing that does the
> heavy lifting and runs as root.
>
> When the user's DE starts, you run the wicd-client. It comes with a
> sensible config dialog where you set sensible stuff like
>
> wired interface takes priority over wireless
> use wireless APs that have been sen before in preference to new ones
> buttons to define pre-and post-connect scripts if you need them
>
> when the client has decided what it's gonna do with your connections,
> it requests the daemon to do it. It's all very well-thought out and
> obviously designed with the needs of laptop users in mind. Sort of like
> NetworkManager working properly without the issues of NetworkManager.
>
> For me, it all just worked out of the box and connected every time to
> all APS - WEP, WPA, even the weird funky corporate BS thingy someone
> installed at work. Took about 10 minutes :-)
>
<SNIP>
> --
> Alan McKinnnon
> alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Hi Alan,
   OK, so wicd really does seem to do the job. It was only about 10
minutes to get it working. Thanks to you and others for suggesting I
look at it.

   Basically, I've removed net.eth0 and net.wlan0 from rc-update and
added them with '!' to hotplug in rc.conf. Additionally I commented
out everything in /etc/conf.d/net just to ensure no one is using it. I
configured the settings for both networks in wicd to different ip
addresses and they seem to be what the machine is using. Switching
between the two networks is completely painless. All good so far.

   The only thing I've noticed is that ntp-client doesn't run when
booting. ntpd does run immediately after ntp-client fails. I'm not
sure if that's caused by some delay in the wired network coming up
using wicd or something else but it was working in my previous setup.
Any ideas about that one?

   Anyway, I suspect I could drop in at the library and get it to
connect there. I'll give that a try later this week.

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:56:55 -0700
Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Alan,
>    OK, so wicd really does seem to do the job. It was only about 10
> minutes to get it working. Thanks to you and others for suggesting I
> look at it.
> 
>    Basically, I've removed net.eth0 and net.wlan0 from rc-update and
> added them with '!' to hotplug in rc.conf. Additionally I commented
> out everything in /etc/conf.d/net just to ensure no one is using it. I
> configured the settings for both networks in wicd to different ip
> addresses and they seem to be what the machine is using. Switching
> between the two networks is completely painless. All good so far.
> 
>    The only thing I've noticed is that ntp-client doesn't run when
> booting. ntpd does run immediately after ntp-client fails. I'm not
> sure if that's caused by some delay in the wired network coming up
> using wicd or something else but it was working in my previous setup.
> Any ideas about that one?

Yes, I had that too. IIRC the fix is to tweak the ntp init scripts to
only run after the wicd daemon is running. The init script for ntp
assumes you'll be using the net.* stuff.

This might warrant a properly bug report actually.

>    Anyway, I suspect I could drop in at the library and get it to
> connect there. I'll give that a try later this week.



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 8:08 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:56:55 -0700
> Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Alan,
>>    OK, so wicd really does seem to do the job. It was only about 10
>> minutes to get it working. Thanks to you and others for suggesting I
>> look at it.
>>
>>    Basically, I've removed net.eth0 and net.wlan0 from rc-update and
>> added them with '!' to hotplug in rc.conf. Additionally I commented
>> out everything in /etc/conf.d/net just to ensure no one is using it. I
>> configured the settings for both networks in wicd to different ip
>> addresses and they seem to be what the machine is using. Switching
>> between the two networks is completely painless. All good so far.
>>
>>    The only thing I've noticed is that ntp-client doesn't run when
>> booting. ntpd does run immediately after ntp-client fails. I'm not
>> sure if that's caused by some delay in the wired network coming up
>> using wicd or something else but it was working in my previous setup.
>> Any ideas about that one?
>
> Yes, I had that too. IIRC the fix is to tweak the ntp init scripts to
> only run after the wicd daemon is running. The init script for ntp
> assumes you'll be using the net.* stuff.
>
> This might warrant a properly bug report actually.
>
>>    Anyway, I suspect I could drop in at the library and get it to
>> connect there. I'll give that a try later this week.
>
Thanks. I'll explore that and if I find the same thing I'll submit a
bug report if there isn't one already.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:08:45 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> >    The only thing I've noticed is that ntp-client doesn't run when
> > booting. ntpd does run immediately after ntp-client fails. I'm not
> > sure if that's caused by some delay in the wired network coming up
> > using wicd or something else but it was working in my previous setup.
> > Any ideas about that one?  
> 
> Yes, I had that too. IIRC the fix is to tweak the ntp init scripts to
> only run after the wicd daemon is running. The init script for ntp
> assumes you'll be using the net.* stuff.

Or run ntp-client from WICD's post-connect scripts.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Are Cheerios really doughnut seeds?

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mick]

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On Tuesday 27 Sep 2011 12:19:06 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:43:13 -0700
> Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Alan McKinnon
> > <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:08:05 +0700

> >   Reading the wicd homepage it looks like it could help, but how many
> > hours am I going to have to invest to get it running? Understand that
> > I've already dumped maybe 10 hours into getting here. I figure I'll
> > need another 10 hours of work - reading web pages, trying things out
> > and failing - before I feel like I should ask a question here, so
> > that's 20 hours minimum. Please understand that wireless was working
> > on this machine in Windows in under 10 minutes - not 20 hours!

Well, it could as little as 10 minutes to configure the /etc/conf.d scripts, 
for a particular AP (less than a minute if you've done it before) although it 
could take as long as 20 hours if you *want* to become expert at the most 
convoluted configurations.


> Windows does it the right way for a mobile workstation, and wicd
> follows the same general idea.

I am not sure that the vanilla scripts are much different to be honest (except 
that they don't come with a GUI).


> At boot-up , a wicd daemon starts, this is the thing that does the
> heavy lifting and runs as root.
> 
> When the user's DE starts, you run the wicd-client. It comes with a
> sensible config dialog where you set sensible stuff like 
> wired interface takes priority over wireless
> use wireless APs that have been sen before in preference to new ones
> buttons to define pre-and post-connect scripts if you need them 
> when the client has decided what it's gonna do with your connections,
> it requests the daemon to do it. It's all very well-thought out and
> obviously designed with the needs of laptop users in mind. Sort of like
> NetworkManager working properly without the issues of NetworkManager.

I have used NetworkManager in Kubuntu, but don't recall having any problems 
with it.


> For me, it all just worked out of the box and connected every time to
> all APS - WEP, WPA, even the weird funky corporate BS thingy someone
> installed at work. Took about 10 minutes :-)

Same here with the gentoo scripts and wpa_cli, or wpa_gui - should I fancy a 
GUI to look at.


Obviously wicd seems to be more user friendly than fiddling around with init.d 
scripts and permutations, but in my head it's just a front end to such scripts 
and wpa_supplicant . . .  Have I got this wrong?


PS.  I'm not advocating the use of anything other than the tool that suits 
each user - thankfully Gentoo still gives us options in this area.  ;-)
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Paul Hartman]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> Obviously wicd seems to be more user friendly than fiddling around with init.d
> scripts and permutations, but in my head it's just a front end to such scripts
> and wpa_supplicant . . .  Have I got this wrong?

It is a front-end to its own scripts, not the gentoo netscripts
specifically, but the concept is the same and you are basically
correct. :)