netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

iphitus · 2008-08-06 13:26:28

This release is pretty much 2.1.0 unless I broke something badly. Barring any problems, I'll probably rename it and release it as 2.1.0 next week once I've updated the documentation. Then I can start on 2.2.

The changelog can be found on Gitweb - It's mostly bugfixes and some random quirks that some messed up drivers need.

Probably the most boring release in ages

James

Documentation for development releases: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Net … evelopment
Gitweb: http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=netcfg.git;a=summary

shining · 2008-08-06 18:38:02

Well, I really don't get it. One week ago, I was sure I needed both preessid and postscan quirks.
And now, I tried again with preessid only (still using beta2, and now with rc1), and it works perfectly.

But anyway, no problem on my side, using iwl3945 with no encryption.

catwell · 2008-08-06 22:57:12

OMG Jim Raynor released a new version of netcfg !

smartcat99s · 2008-08-07 02:14:57

It's a kernel oddity, but it seems that my wlan0 interface (iwl4965) isn't detected as being wireless on 2.6.27-rc2 (no $INTERFACE/wireless directory)

EDIT: Never mind, seems like the kernel docs misled me to think that this option wasn't necessary...

CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT_SYSFS:
  This option enables the deprecated wireless statistics files in /sys/class/net/*/wireless/. The same information is available via the ioctls as well.
  Say Y if you have programs using it (we don't know of any).

For reference, here's the contents of my /sys/class/net/wlan0 directory:

addr_len   carrier  dormant   ifindex    mtu        power/       tx_queue_len
address    dev_id   features  iflink     operstate  statistics/  type
broadcast  @device   flags     link_mode  @phy80211   @subsystem   uevent

Last edited by smartcat99s (2008-08-07 02:21:38)

iphitus · 2008-08-07 07:03:53

Is that an Arch kernel or your own? (just need to know so I can update netcfg before the kernel gets moved in)

Seeing as it's deprecated then I better update netcfg to not use that. Thanks.

shining · 2008-08-07 08:36:55

iphitus wrote:

Is that an Arch kernel or your own? (just need to know so I can update netcfg before the kernel gets moved in)
Seeing as it's deprecated then I better update netcfg to not use that. Thanks.

He is using 2.6.27-rc2 so not an Arch kernel.

And in fact, this change only appeared in 2.6.27-rc1.
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6 … 2.6.27-rc1

commit 22bb1be4d271961846cd0889b0f8d671db773080
Author: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
Date: Thu Jul 10 11:16:47 2008 +0200
wext: make sysfs bits optional and deprecate them

The /sys/class/net/*/wireless/ direcory is, as far as I know, not
used by anyone. Additionally, the same data is available via wext
ioctls. Hence the sysfs files are pretty much useless. This patch
makes them optional and schedules them for removal.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
Cc: Jean Tourrilhes <jt@hpl.hp.com>
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>

So well, I would say that there is no hurry, but it is a good idea to remove its use if possible and easy enough.

Pierre · 2008-08-07 13:18:02

netcfg works fine here. Maybe you could add a little man page for the final release.

buddabrod · 2008-08-07 15:53:21

netcfg test
:: test up                                                                                                                                                [BUSY] Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory                                                                                   
Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory                                                                                   
Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory

Since key parsing isnt easy to fix, i chose to use a seperate wpa_supplicant.conf. My wlan device (iwl4965) does connect, encryption is working, but then this error messages appear and no further device configuration like IP and gateway is done, although it is connected. So i have to manually dhcpcd' it or I have to use ifconfig... How can I avoid this error?

abhidg · 2008-08-07 17:57:44

netcfg has some problem connecting to my
wireless (unencrypted, static) at home at bootup. After
bootup, if I run netcfg manually, it works fine.

I have iwl3945 and I tested with both 'preessid'
and 'postscan' QUIRKS, but neither of them worked.
Right now, I'm calling netcfg from my .xinitrc so
it works around the problem.

Last edited by abhidg (2008-08-07 17:57:59)

samwise · 2008-08-08 01:22:45

shining wrote:

Well, I really don't get it. One week ago, I was sure I needed both preessid and postscan quirks.
And now, I tried again with preessid only (still using beta2, and now with rc1), and it works perfectly.

abhidg wrote:

netcfg has some problem connecting to my
wireless (unencrypted, static) at home at bootup. After
bootup, if I run netcfg manually, it works fine.
I have iwl3945 and I tested with both 'preessid'
and 'postscan' QUIRKS, but neither of them worked.
Right now, I'm calling netcfg from my .xinitrc so
it works around the problem.

Those of us with intel 3945 cards + iwl3945 driver aren't having much luck are we.

My home network has no encryption but does not broadcast the essid and works with the postscan quirk. Also wpa encryption with netcfg using wpa_supplicant works. No regressions from the beta for me.

EDIT: Hey the 2.6.26 kernel is out with a new iwl driver. The little 'wifi' LED now works, so I'm sure they've made other improvements.

Last edited by samwise (2008-08-13 04:25:37)

smartcat99s · 2008-08-14 22:29:30

iphitus wrote:

Is that an Arch kernel or your own? (just need to know so I can update netcfg before the kernel gets moved in)
Seeing as it's deprecated then I better update netcfg to not use that. Thanks.

Sorry for the delay, but it is my own custom kernel (I just ended up rebuilding it with that config option on).

For this release, a note in the docs would be sufficient. That or a way to force an interface to be wireless would work.

stefan1975 · 2008-08-18 19:21:36

Hello,

i am not sure if this is the netcfg thread to post this in, but I will give it a try.
I am currently using netcfg2.1rc for 1 wired network at work and one wireless network at home. Both networks by themselves work fine, however of course I use my laptop at both locations on a daily basis and would like for netcfg to "get this".

my /etc/rc.conf looks like this: NETWORKS=(wlan wired)

this sort of works since one network will always fail connection and the other will work fine, however is it possible to have netcfg connect to just one of those networks, i.e. the first one in range or if not UTP cable is connected wkip the wired interface or whatever works easily? It feels somewhat clunky to me to always have networking have to "FAIL" at boot since one of my two networks is unreachable at all times.

thanks a lot and otherwise 2.1rc seems very stable for me on a intel 3945 wireless.
stefan

shining · 2008-08-18 19:31:33

Have a look at exclusive there :
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=43863

stefan1975 · 2008-08-18 21:02:36

shining wrote:

Have a look at exclusive there :
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=43863

Hi,

thanks for the reply. I did read that thread and also fiddled with the NETWORKS_EXCLUSIVE option (i think that is what you are referring to) but like some others posted in that thread as well that does not seem to entirely cover what I was referring to, it only seems to disable other network interfaces After connecting them/one/all right? If for some bizarre reason I had a wired interface at home I would not mind them both being activated so I feel as if NETWORKS_EXCLUSIVE is not what I was talking about, or maybe I am getting it wrong.

in 99.9% of the cases I am either at work and thus wired only or at home and thus wireless only. For me I would prefer netcg somehow "seeing" this and not time-out at bringing and failing the wired interface at home and visa versa. maybe I am doing something wrong but this way there is always a failed interface during boot and it still brings up unneeded interfaces at either location, is this making any sense at all?

I seem to remember there being some sort of option of detecting wether or not eth0 was plugged in, this might help in deciding wether or not to bring up the interface or something.

something like: if eth0=!pluggedin then do ifup wlan0 else ifup eth0 fi

thanks again,
stefan

Last edited by stefan1975 (2008-08-18 21:06:45)

Aitch · 2008-08-21 13:38:58

Just to add more mud to the waters........

I've been having a few issues with iwl4965 lately see: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=52679

When I was trying out different variables in my netcfg profile I noticed that certain values used "quotes" and others didn't. I also noticed that the various example profiles posted in the forum make use of quotes differently. I've established now for instance that SCAN=no works on my system but SCAN="no" fails, however I've seen lots of examples showing SCAN="no", including the Wiki page!

Is the use (or not) of quotes a potential problem?

Army · 2008-08-21 14:56:33

Works fine on my machine without any modifications. I have a ipw2200, wpa encryption and dhcp. Connecting during the boot process works perfectly as well. Good to have good hardware

shining · 2008-08-21 15:01:43

Army wrote:

Works fine on my machine without any modifications. I have a ipw2200, wpa encryption and dhcp. Connecting during the boot process works perfectly as well. Good to have good hardware

The good hardware is the one that has good drivers
ipw2200 has also always worked flawlessly for me, and since I switched to a newer laptop with ipw3945, I had much more problems. However, once I find working settings for a given environment, it usually keeps working well.

Aitch · 2008-08-21 15:24:55

Army wrote:

Works fine on my machine without any modifications. I have a ipw2200, wpa encryption and dhcp. Connecting during the boot process works perfectly as well. Good to have good hardware

Can you do me favour Army or someone else? Take your connection down and add (or take away) quote marks on the SCAN option in your profile. Now try to bring the connection up again. Of course with such wonderful hardware you maybe don't need a SCAN option

Last edited by Aitch (2008-08-21 19:21:54)

Army · 2008-08-21 19:59:03

My profile looks like this

#
# Network Profile
#
CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION=""
# Network Settings
INTERFACE=eth1
HOSTNAME="the name of my band"
# Interface Settings
IP="dhcp"
IFOPTS="dhcp"
# Wireless Settings
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="blablabla"
KEY="top secret"
SCAN="no"
# WPA Specific Settings
WPA_OPTS=""
WPA_CONF=""

Is that what you want me to have?
I changed SCAN="no" to #SCAN="no" and still it works ... What is the problem?? Ok, I'm on netcfg in stable repo now, but the release candidate worked with my config. Should I test this with the newer version again?

Aitch · 2008-08-21 20:49:48

What I have found is that:

SCAN=no

works for me. Whereas:

SCAN="no"

fails.

If SCAN="no" works for you I was wondering what happened when you changed that to SCAN=no

Army · 2008-08-21 21:48:25

Works as well But as I said, I'm on

$  pacman -Qi netcfg | grep Version
Version              : 2.0.6-1

Don't really want to replace it again I'll check it again, as soon as this goes into [core], ok?

stefan1975 · 2008-08-22 05:58:18

besides my functional issue i have one error message when shutting down my pc on a wireless profile. I use a non encrypted wlan and when i shutdown I get something like:

error on line 162 in network.subr. some: command not found.

strange thing though is that when i look in /usr/lib/network/network.subr line 162 seems to hold:

#   take interface down

I did not run it yet with a "set -xv" to determine the exact cause of the error.

this does not happen when I connect wired.
it is no big issue networking still works but the startup dealy and this do make it a little less elegant for me.

stefan

iphitus · 2008-08-22 06:43:03

stefan, could you post your profile exactly or email it to me? iphitus@gmail.com

Regarding the "functional" problem...
You're asking for a level of "intelligence" in netcfg. The netcfg tool and scripts are meant to be dumb. It's designed only to disconnect and connect networks - no more. netcfg it's a foundation that someone can build the intelligence on top of. The idea is that someone could write a smarter tool, capable of doing "conditional" connections and other similar heuristics, that uses netcfg for the connection/disconnection bit.

The EXCLUSIVE= option was a stupid hack. I shouldn't have added it, as it's a weak and buggy attempt to add some 'brain' to netcfg and now people expect more similar things. It's intentionally undocumented and will be removed. auto-wireless is fine, as it's not hacked into netcfg. It only utilises some shared functions from the scripts, and netcfg for connection.

The whole SCAN=""and SCAN= thing.... wtf. That shouldnt make any difference whatsoever. Are you _sure_ there's not another factor?

stefan1975 · 2008-08-22 07:35:34

well it seems to be mainly my own fault. I copied a profile from the examples folder and customized it to my needs. What i now discovered that I missed a predefined entry in the example:

POST_DOWN="some command"

leaving that to the set default will cause this error. maybe it should be empty or commented out by default? or maybe I just should have looked better myself.

as to the functional stuff, i am not looking for high tech functionality. I was more or less thinking in the line of streamlining the scripting. I do not have a definitive technical idea as to how i would solve it myself, and adding dependencies to the scripts is not a great idea either but in general something like this:

> sudo mii-tool
eth0: no link

if that returns "no link", then do not bring up the interface and skip to the next one in the array. if it does have link bring it up if it is first in the array and end the routine. from the top of my head of course.

thanks,
stefan

Last edited by stefan1975 (2008-08-22 07:36:28)

Aitch · 2008-08-22 09:45:02

iphitus wrote:

The whole SCAN=""and SCAN= thing.... wtf. That shouldnt make any difference whatsoever. Are you _sure_ there's not another factor?

I agree it should be trivial, but the fact is if I change my profile to add the quotes then netcfg fails. If this is an issue for some users then it could explain some of the problems being reported in the forum. I was hoping someone else could check this out on their set-up.

I'll try and get time to do a lot more testing over the weekend and see if I can find out exactly what's happening.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-06 13:26:28

netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#2 2008-08-06 18:38:02

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#3 2008-08-06 22:57:12

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#4 2008-08-07 02:14:57

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#5 2008-08-07 07:03:53

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#6 2008-08-07 08:36:55

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#7 2008-08-07 13:18:02

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#8 2008-08-07 15:53:21

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#9 2008-08-07 17:57:44

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#10 2008-08-08 01:22:45

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#11 2008-08-14 22:29:30

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#12 2008-08-18 19:21:36

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#13 2008-08-18 19:31:33

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#14 2008-08-18 21:02:36

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#15 2008-08-21 13:38:58

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#16 2008-08-21 14:56:33

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#17 2008-08-21 15:01:43

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#18 2008-08-21 15:24:55

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#19 2008-08-21 19:59:03

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#20 2008-08-21 20:49:48

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#21 2008-08-21 21:48:25

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#22 2008-08-22 05:58:18

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#23 2008-08-22 06:43:03

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#24 2008-08-22 07:35:34

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

#25 2008-08-22 09:45:02

Re: netcfg v2.1.0 release candidate 1

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