wicd - better wireless network manager than NetworkManager?

Valent Turkovic valent.turkovic at gmail.com
Mon Mar 10 13:29:43 UTC 2008


On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 6:33 PM, Paul Johnson <pauljohn32 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 9:07 AM, Valent Turkovic
>
> <valent.turkovic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 4:40 PM, yonas Abraham <yabraham2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>  >  >
>
> >  >  /yonas
>  >
>  >  Any chance you make a package for us who are packaging-impaired :)
>  >
>  >  Valent.
>
>  Yes, I made a package, but  have mixed success with the wireless
>  detection in wicd 1.4.2t.  Maybe you should test it out, see if it
>  works for you.
>
>  http://pj.freefaculty.org/Fedora/8/i386/kups/packages/wicd-1.4.2-1f8.pj.noarch.rpm
>
>  http://pj.freefaculty.org/Fedora/8/i386/kups/packages/wicd-1.4.2-1f8.pj.src.rpm
>
>  wicd is not a "compiled" program, it is just python scripts, and
>  that's why it is noarch.
>
>
>  Turn off NetworkManager service, either by using system-config-services or
>
>  /sbin/service NetworkManager stop
>
>  That stops it temporarily, there is a chkconfig command that can do
>  so, but I always just use system-config-services because it "just
>  works" for me.
>
>  How to use it:
>
>  Install the first RPM, then start the wicd daemon with (as root)
>
>  # /etc/init.d/wicd start
>
>  Then start the gui configuration thing like so:
>
>  # /opt/wicd/gui.py
>
>  Tell it the name of your wireless device (for me, it is eth1, but for
>  people using the builtin Fedora setup, it is often wlan0).  I don't
>  know how to give it what it wants for WPA.
>
>  That does not automatically start a system tray icon, for that
>
>  # /opt/wicd/tray.py
>
>  Here's what you see in the terminal.  This is my third restart and
>  third separate environment testing wicd, and it is the first time I've
>  seen it work.  One different is that now I am within a full gnome
>  session, but yesterday I was trying it in a non-desktop setup with
>  just a window manager running. So maybe Gnome gives some glue that
>  holds it together., I don't know.  See it does find an ESSID here.
>
>  # /etc/init.d/wicd start
>  Stopping any running daemons...
>  Starting wicd daemon...
>  /opt/wicd
>  wicd daemon: pid 3753
>  # /opt/wicd/gui.py
>  attempting to connect daemon...
>  success
>  starting gui.py...
>  refreshing...
>  using global dns: 0
>  disabling ip
>  disabling dns
>  dns checkbox toggled False
>  global dns checkbox toggled False
>  no wired profiles found
>  Number of wireless networks detected: 1
>  using global dns: 0
>  ESSID : sbhsd Yello Sub
>  making a new network entry...
>  disabling ip
>  disabling dns
>  dns checkbox toggled False
>  global dns checkbox toggled False
>  0
>  found language key key
>
>
>  If I thought this framework was fundamentally sound, I might go to the
>  wicd group to try to find out why it doesn't work all the time for me.
>   Could be some inconsistency with the ipw3945 card, or possibly the
>  fact that I don't have any WPA bothers it. It is true that
>  NetworkManager is a pain, and wifi-radar is just OK. I'll keep trying,
>  now that I have seen it work once.
>
>  My personal opinion is that this program is not quite ready for people
>  who "really need to have an RPM" before they can use it,  if you know
>  what I mean.  If you really need somebody to build an RPM, it could be
>  a sign you aren't ready to wade through their Debian-oriented website
>  and translate it into Fedora-speak.  But you can try it and see.
>
>  Warning: this is not designed to fit in well with RedHat or Fedora
>  (and I did not take the initiative to re-craft the program for them).
>   The wicd framework does not use anything similar to a standard
>  filesystem and it sticks out like a sore thumb in a Fedora System,
>  dropping scripts into /opt/wicd. Plus the wicd starter they supply in
>  /etc/init.d is not consistent with chkconfig, so you have to start its
>  daemon manually (as I showed above).  On the wicd website, they have a
>  page discussing running wicd on Fedora 7 and that has what appears to
>  be a workable daemon starter.  If wicd had worked for me the first
>  time, I would have patched their code and/or the SPEC file and put in
>  a working daemon starter/stopper script, but since it did not, I did
>  not.
>
>  Other than that, I found the wicd experience to be completely satisfying.
>
>  Somehow, I feel as though I've just spent an hour punching a heavy bag
>  with boxing gloves on.
>
>  --
>  Paul E. Johnson
>  Professor, Political Science
>  1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
>  University of Kansas
>
>
>
>  --
>  fedora-list mailing list
>  fedora-list at redhat.com
>  To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>


I tested wich and it works great!
I really hope that NM gets this kind of configuration options that
wicd has! You can really easy choose all options, be it dhcp, static
IP, wep & wpa encryption, different profiles if you roam with your
laptop a lot on wired connection... in one word - excellent!

I really would like to see NM get these features and if not then that
fedora devels check this app and maybe even include it by default in
F10 if NM turns out to be not moving forward fast enough.

Cheers,
Valent.

-- 
http://kernelreloaded.blog385.com/
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