KDE WLAN and Network Profiles (for the guy on the go)

[jcmuse]

hi,
i am happy to say that i have had good success so far with this install of gentoo. right now i am trying to work out some things and one of them is the ability to change between wireless networks easily. Right now here is what i do when i boot up somewhere where i am not wired in:
1. boot up and wait for dhcpcd to fail since i am not plugged in.
2. start up kwifimanager to see what networks are available.
3. open up configuration editor from settings tab (aka Wireless Network in Controlcenter) and try connecting to some of the ESSIDS (with no real idea if they have encryption, wpa etc or not)
4. open up a console and run dhcpcd eth1 to get an ip address.

i'd really like to simplify this down to just booting a wireless profile in grub, starting a network manager program ( when i used gnome this was builtin windows style so i could assign ip address etc from the tray), selecting a network and entering a wep key if needed. Then i should be able to assign a static ip or grab one from the dhcp server.

Is this too much to ask? i searched gentoo-wiki and found hprofile (which would solve step 1) or something but i couldn't get it working (beyond me i think). Is there any easier way? Tutorial perhaps?

thanks a lot

[brickhaus]

Well, it depends on exactly what you know about the wireless APs you're going to connect to...

Do you know at least most of the ESSIDs and WEP keys? You could put them in your /etc/conf.d/wireless file (there's a "wireless.example" I used to configure things in that directory as well), which would then cause the wireless setup scripts to roll through them, setting "preferred_aps" with the preferences you have.

The idea is that you configure things like this (you may need to play with ESSID2's config a bit to get it working):

[jcmuse]

umm, not dhcpcd. It takes ~1.5mins, which is too long.

No, unfortunately i can't tell what is going to be available in the area before i go. That is why i am looking for a frontend that will allow me to do easy changes/connections.

Thanks for your reply, though.

[mariux2]

Try wlassistant.

[Xithix]

If you want to kill the wired dhcpcd wait time, emerge ifplugd. It's a wired ethernet autodetection daemon. It runs in the background instead of delaying your boot and should automatically run dhcpcd (also in the background) when it detects a plugged in connection.

If you don't like that idea, you could still go into /etc/conf.d/net and set the dchp args. Look at /etc/conf.d/net.example for more info. The argument you would want is "-t 15" for timeout after 15 seconds. That should be enough time for any dhcp server.

Kwifimanager is ok, but it has its downfalls. It's just a gui frontend for command line functions like iwconfig, iwlist, ifconfig.

I always just run shell scripts for wifi connecting though, one for each wifi network I use. Looks kind of like this (I'm not at my machine now):

[jcmuse]

great, i'll try both.

So for ifplugd, do i need to remove net.eth0 with rc-update del net.eth0 and then emerge and add ifplugd or is it done another way?

i'm not on my comp at the moment otherwise i'd try.

[Xithix]

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-464857.html

You used to have to do that. Current versions of baselayout just need ifplugd to be emerged and it will automatically start instead of the rest oif the standard net.eth0 script.

[imperator-x]

hi!

download wireless assistant!
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=21832

[jcmuse]

hi
i emerged ifplugd and i have seen no indication that it is working. in fact i see no indication that it is even running at boot like it is supposed to. when i boot, i still get the dhcpcd delay even with network cable unplugged.

what is the problem?

[Blue Lightning]

You need to set the ethernet interface to not be started on boot to remove the dhcpd delay, as ifplugd will start it when it detects the cable being plugged in. For ifplugd I assume you have done an rc-update add ifplugd default?

[jcmuse]

yes, i've done that with:
rc-update del net.eth0 default
rc-update add ifplugd default

i did this only after i tested after just straight emerging. if you read up, "Current versions of baselayout just need ifplugd to be emerged and it will automatically start instead of the rest oif the standard net.eth0 script."

is this right then?
ok maybe i just need to do rc-update add ifplugd default and not del net.eth0? i'll have to try that.

thx guys.

[kookay]

maybe you want to have a look at wpa_supplicant. So you're ready for wpa-encryption as well and there is a nice gui called wpa_gui, which allows you to scan for available networks and even shows you the used encryption.

[CyD]

it seems to me that unstable baselayout (1.12.etc) backgrounds eth0 by default. i hadn't heard about ifplugd until today. wlassistant looks nice, has anyone experienced the problems with it getting a gateway as described in its page's comments?

i also run into frequent problems with WEP association, i wish i could say wpa_supplicant cleared up those problems, but i haven't use wpa_supplicant since upgrading my testing machines to unstable baselayout. maybe that will bring some results.

[jcmuse]

i have found a great wireless network manager in wireless assistant.

as for ifplugd, i still have not been able to get it working. i also tried netplug and had no luck with that either. anyway i just removed net.eth0 from startup and i do dhcpcd eth0 manually. beats waiting 1.5 minutes on startup for something you know is going to fail.