Re: wicd - better wireless network manager than NetworkManager?

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On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 9:07 AM, Valent Turkovic
<valent.turkovic@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 4:40 PM, yonas Abraham <yabraham2@xxxxxxxxx> 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

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