Arch Linux

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

netcfg v2.1.0 beta

The changes in this release:
- Remove driver specific hacks/quirks, and require them to be opt-in via config option
- Separate automagic connection code from net-profiles
- Fix various bugs
- Add option to run iwconfig with whatever arguments before connecting (all wireless setups)

More details on the netcfg2 git branch on http://projects.archlinux.org

Documentation for the changes can be found on the Network Profiles development (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Net … evelopment) wiki page.

Testing
I need some good testing for this release. I'd like to make these scripts more stable and reliable. If you have an issue, please post your chipset, driver, the output of netcfg, and your profile.

I've also been pretty out of the loop for the last month or two. So if you sent me an email with a bug, if I promised to fix a bug, or you've had an issue, and I havn't responded/fixed it, please email/pm me again, or with a link. I'd really appreciate this, as I've totally lost track of what I've been working on with netcfg and where the issues are.

Also... please double/triple check your profiles, particularly if you get an association error. I still get a lot of people coming to me when they've mistyped the wireless key, essid or some other variable.

Cheers!
James

Last edited by iphitus (2008-06-25 12:08:54)

buddabrod

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-25

Posts: 220

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

I'll test it.. as soon as it is available for x86_64

faelar

Member

From: Amiens (FR)

Registered: 2007-12-18

Posts: 232

Website

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Chipset atheros, WPA, madwifi driver, and auto-connection works fine for me, great !

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bangkok_manouel

Member

From: indicates a starting point

Registered: 2005-02-07

Posts: 1,556

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

iwl3945, kernel-2.6.26-rc6-mm3 (zen-mm sources), WPA, netcfg is working as expected.
thanks for the hard work.

Venator85

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 62

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Sorry to be the first with problems...

I see that if dhclient is available, it is used, in contrast to the previous netcfg version which used dhcpcd.
I have a problem with the dns coming from a DHCP server. The resolv.conf file is correctly written at first, but after a few seconds it gets rewritten with totally wrong values, specifically

search localdomain
nameserver 172.16.117.1

My network is a classic 192.168.0.0/24, and the DNS server should be set to 192.168.0.1 (DSL router), with no search domain.
As of now, I downgraded netcfg to the previous release (using dhcpcd so) and everything is back to normal.
I'm on an iwl4965 card on a WPA network.
Any hints?

Thanks, bye

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Could you update again and set DHCLIENT=no?

I'll probably leave dhcpcd as the default, though I have been experimenting with dhclient. There's some things I still need to work out with dhclient before I should leave it as default.

Venator85

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 62

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Could you update again and set DHCLIENT=no?

Sorry for the delay, I was at the university.

Works now! I had to set QUIRKS=(preessid) though, as I was getting several "Wireless association failed" errors.
I added these tips to the wiki.
Thanks!
Bye

WhiteMagic

Member

Registered: 2007-03-01

Posts: 85

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

So I tested the new release in testing on both my laptop and my desktop and it worked on both.

The cards I had available were:
- RaLink RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g - using the rt61pci (rt2x00) driver
- Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) - using the old madwifi drivers
- Ralink Chip USB Dongle - using the rt73usb (rt2x00) driver

All three cards worked without any problems on my home network with ENCRYPTION = [none|wep|wpa]

stylopath

Member

Registered: 2007-07-26

Posts: 112

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

I tested the release on my notebook (HP Compaq Nx6325- Broadcom BCM4310 WLAN and Broadcom Gigabit-Ethernet), it works with:

WLAN: ESSID broadcastet, dhcp, Encryption: None/WPA - Auto-wireless also works
Ethernet: Static and dhcp

Thank you!

*EDIT* fyi: I'm using x86_64.

Last edited by stylopath (2008-06-27 16:00:09)

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Nice! Thanks for those responses! I was expecting pages of bug reports

Just curiosity, has netcfg2 been working for you guys all along, or is this an improvement?
What do you think of the separated auto scripts? Any other suggestions on how to do them!

Cheers!

James

venky80

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 1,002

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

iphitus do you have a wiki on what has changed or additional config options etc ?
I am trying to get atheros wifi chipset working here.
whitemagic can you share your WPA WEP configs for atheros card with me?

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Venator85

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 62

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Just curiosity, has netcfg2 been working for you guys all along, or is this an improvement?
What do you think of the separated auto scripts? Any other suggestions on how to do them!

It was already working fine for me
Actually, I was thinking of a little modification. How can I test if there is any profile active? What I have in mind is to add this check at the end of /etc/rc.d/net-profiles so that if it didn't activate any profile, it would call the net-auto script.
Thanks

WhiteMagic

Member

Registered: 2007-03-01

Posts: 85

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Here's my netcfg2 config when using WPA:

CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="Home WPA encryption"
INTERFACE=ath0
SCAN="no"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="Niflheim"
KEY="someverysecretkey"
WPA_OPTS="-Dmadwifi"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=120

There are three things which are a little special, SCAN="no" was needed because somehow my card refuses to scan and then simply fails to connect. TIMEOUT=120 was needed because sometimes the strength of the network I'm on is very low so it takes some time and also because my card isn't the fastest when it comes to connecting. Finally the WPA_OPTS="-Dmadwifi" is required to make wpa_supplicant work with the atheros drivers. I don't know what the newer ath5k drivers need to get working with wpa_supplicant but at the moment I'm sticking with the old madwifi drivers until they stop working or something :-)

For me netcfg2 already worked  previously. The only thing that changed is that the boot menu works again (perhaps it worked all along but I didn't set it up correctly) But I also never bothered with it because I only use 2 wireless networks. A question regarding netcfg-menu is there a way to have it bring up the connection in the background if used during startup? I never tried it but thought I'd ask if someone already done that.
As for the auto scripts I can't say much as I've never used them previously mostly because I don't really switch between alot of networks.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

venky80: Changes/New options: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Net … evelopment

Venator85: I want to try and keep heuristics and things like that out of netcfg and focus on the network connecting bit -- getting that right so people have something strong to build their own scripts on.

That said... to get that behaviour, add net-profiles and then net-auto to rc.conf, and change line 40 in /usr/bin/netcfg-wireless-auto from "netcfg2 $found" to "netcfg2 -c $found".

WhiteMagic: That's a good option to add to netcfg-menu, I'll do that. And I'll document some of the other options I've added without telling people

Venator85

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 62

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

That said... to get that behaviour, add net-profiles and then net-auto to rc.conf, and change line 40 in /usr/bin/netcfg-wireless-auto from "netcfg2 $found" to "netcfg2 -c $found".

Sorry, I was not meaning this. I was asking this because at home I have both wired and wireless connection, so the two profiles would be both activated, but I'd like to 'prioritize' the wired profile. I was thinking of letting net-profiles activate the wired profile but, if in case the cable was disconnected, to call net-auto to try the wireless. Note that the wireless should't be tried at all if the wired profile suceeds.
This said, how do you test if any profile on any interface is active?
Thanks for you help and your patience...
Bye

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

That said... to get that behaviour, add net-profiles and then net-auto to rc.conf, and change line 40 in /usr/bin/netcfg-wireless-auto from "netcfg2 $found" to "netcfg2 -c $found".

Sorry, I was not meaning this. I was asking this because at home I have both wired and wireless connection, so the two profiles would be both activated, but I'd like to 'prioritize' the wired profile. I was thinking of letting net-profiles activate the wired profile but, if in case the cable was disconnected, to call net-auto to try the wireless. Note that the wireless should't be tried at all if the wired profile suceeds.
This said, how do you test if any profile on any interface is active?
Thanks for you help and your patience...
Bye

Oh, network priorities and heuristics of profiles is beyond netcfg, though I'm waiting for someone to write a really nice profile manager/autodetector that does all that

An easy way to check is to use the functions in /usr/lib/network/network.subr under "Query". For example:

source /usr/lib/network/network.subr

if check_iface wlan0; then
  echo "oh no! a connected profile is using wlan0!"
  prof=$(get_iface_prof wlan0)
  echo "haha! The profile using it is: $prof"
  netcfg2 -d $prof
else
  echo "yay wlan0 is free"
fi

if check_profile homewireless; then
  echo "/etc/network.d/homewireless is connected!!!"
fi

And there's a few more functions. You can also just check for file existance in /var/run/network/.. though the above are a bit easier. There's various useful wireless functions in /usr/lib/network/wireless.subr too... and some others in the other files.

There's some cool stuff you can do with those functions. On my laptop, my xinitrc checks what network I'm connected to (check_profile). If i'm at uni, it starts up open office. If i'm at home, it'll start up pidgin.

Last edited by iphitus (2008-06-28 10:11:12)

Venator85

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 62

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

iphitus, I managed to make exact the modification I had in mind thanks to your helpful cooperation.
If anyone is interested, it is available at http://pastebin.com/f6dad8cea
Cheers

stylopath

Member

Registered: 2007-07-26

Posts: 112

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

just for the record: netcfg2 v 2.0 also worked flawlessly So this was a very smooth update without any changes required in my profiles.

Now i'm going to test it on my second notebook with Ralink rt61 (using rt2x00 kernel module). Results should be there within an hour or so.

ibendiben

Member

Registered: 2007-10-10

Posts: 519

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

iwl3945 WEP works now! netcfg didn't work for me before (could have been me though).

Last edited by ibendiben (2008-06-30 16:28:34)

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Why schools kill creativity | Once upon a school

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Whoa. It works?

If it doesnt work for you PLEASE post or bug report! I want to make this thing work!

If it does work, please post too! The positive responses also help, thanks to those who have responded.

James

irfan

Member

Registered: 2008-07-03

Posts: 26

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Hi,
my wireless card (iwl4965, none/wep/wpa, static/dhcp) works without any problems

Thanks

venky80

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 1,002

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

Irfan can you post your rc.conf and profiles?
The wili is confusing for auto wireless
What do we do with the networks thing? remove wlano from there?

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Acer Aspire V5-573P Antergos KDE

xdeusx

Member

Registered: 2007-10-15

Posts: 168

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

It works for me, just like the last version (b43 driver, bcm4318. wpa encyption)

The only thing I am not happy with, is this common error message.

Wireless Association failed

It provides no help at all, no debug messages, nothing.
A verbose switch for netcfg would be great.

ibendiben

Member

Registered: 2007-10-10

Posts: 519

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

A verbose switch for netcfg would be great.

+1

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Why schools kill creativity | Once upon a school

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 beta

It works for me, just like the last version (b43 driver, bcm4318. wpa encyption)

The only thing I am not happy with, is this common error message.

Wireless Association failed

It provides no help at all, no debug messages, nothing.
A verbose switch for netcfg would be great.

That message itself is your error message. It provides all the help you need if you read the wiki... I'd like to offer more information, but there isn't.

If it's WEP...
it means that after a certain timeout, iwconfig has failed to show association. Simple. iwconfig offers no information.

If it's WPA...
it means that after a certain timeout, wpa_supplicant has been unable to associate. WPA supplicant doesnt offer much more either.

Have a look on the wiki, it says that it is usually:
- Range
- Crap Driver
- Incorrect config

I'm going to add a verbose option, but to be honest with you, there's not much more to be said by these scripts.

Last edited by iphitus (2008-07-04 13:21:33)