Recommended Wireless managment GUI for FluxBox

lyallp

I don't use KDE or Gnome as a desktop, I use Fluxbox.
I was wondering if there is a recommended GUI tool for managing my Wireless network on my HP EliteBook 8540w, whereby the Wireless can be disabled by a physical switch.
Currently, I use Kismet to find the networks and edit the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file for any new networks.
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...Lyall

solamour · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:54 am Post subject:

Have you tried NetworkManager (http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/NetworkManager)? I tried it with "nm-applet", and it worked well, although I ended up going back to the simple "/etc/conf.d/net".
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sol

nlsa8z6zoz7lyih3ap · Guru Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 388 Location: Canada

John R. Graham · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:02 pm Post subject:

See the qt4 USE flag for wpa_supplicant and the supplied wpa_gui program, which doesn't depend on any particular DE.

- John
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lyallp · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:08 am Post subject:

I saw NetworkManager mentioned elsewhere.
What are it's supposed advantages?
Why did you give up on NetworkManager?

How does wicd compare?

I only have a laptop with switched wireless, which is usually disabled because it's connected to the corporate network 364 days a year.

I was hoping to find something along the lines of Windows, browse for networks, connect, enter password if required.
All a bit simpler than what I do, which is

Run Kismet
Look for the network to find it's SSID
Update /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Turn off Kismet
/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start
Cross fingers.

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...Lyall

cach0rr0 · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:35 am Post subject:

wpa_gui, wicd, and networkmanager will all fit that criteria

i personally dislike networkmanager, since it seems to sorta have its own way of doing things, demanding absolute wholesale control of your systems network settings to the point trying to do something outside of networkmanager, even without it running, is broken.

for me wicd or wpa_gui would be fine. I personally use wicd, and there's a 'wicd-gtk' if you have the 'gtk' use flag set when you merge wicd

wpa_gui is also nice, though it isn't as turnkey as wicd

if you need to do loads of fancy shit like setup a PPPoE connection, VPN, etc, networkmanager has stuff for this that's somewhat turnkey, but that's not worth it to me for the control it wants to have over my boxes.
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solamour · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:33 am Post subject:

As cach0rr0 mentioned, NetworkManager has its own way of doing things, which I didn't find agreeable. Other than that, it's fairly straightforward to use it. Just ask countless Ubuntu users.

As for the reason I don't use graphical configuration tools, my network configuration is dead simple, so I really don't need anything fancy.
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sol

cach0rr0 · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:42 am Post subject:

nomilieu · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 24

Wicd has a curses interface as well, which is pretty convenient.