stop NetworkManager start network -> RTNETLINK answers: File exists

[Philip Rhoades]

People,

I have an old netbook that I have just installed F23 i386 XFCE 
Workstation on that I want to use (as lightly loaded as possible) as a 
remote webcam.  Since I need to be able to reboot it and have the 
network come back up with wlan0 working, it appears I have to use the 
old "network" system instead of Network Manager (NM requires a login to 
activate wlan0?).  So I am doing this:

systemctl stop NetworkManager

systemctl disable NetworkManage

systemctl enable network

systemctl start network

but network doesn't start and doing:

systemctl status network

gives lots of lines like this:

. . . RTNETLINK answers: File exists

Googling finds this problem all over the place - especially with old 
versions of Fedora - but I can't find a fix for my particular situation. 
  I imagine there is a simple fix but I haven't found it yet . . can 
someone enlighten me?

Thanks,

Phil.

[Ed Greshko]

On 12/29/15 11:14, Philip Rhoades wrote:
> NM requires a login to activate wlan0?

A login is not necessary.

When you configure the Wifi Connection all you need to do is go to the "General
configuration" tab for the connection and check the boxes "Automatically connect to this
network when it is available" and "All users may connect to this network".

That is the way I have it configured and I use NM and the network comes up on boot.

[Gordon Messmer]

On 12/28/2015 07:14 PM, Philip Rhoades wrote:
> gives lots of lines like this:
>
> . . . RTNETLINK answers: File exists
>
> Googling finds this problem all over the place - especially with old 
> versions of Fedora - but I can't find a fix for my particular situation.

We'd need all of your ifcfg-* files to know how to solve it for your 
particular situation.  Probably better to use NetworkManager.