Wicd and University Networks

Loser777 · 2012-07-30 21:28:27

This problem has followed me around for the past year or so with wicd. My university uses multiple access points that share an SSID, often with duplicates on the same channel. Inevitabily, wicd will always fail to connect on the first attempt to any access point with:

ERROR:dbus.connection:Exception in handler for D-Bus signal:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 230, in maybe_handle_message
    self._handler(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/share/wicd/gtk/gui.py", line 253, in handle_connection_results
    error(self.window, language[results], block=False)
KeyError: dbus.String(u'dhcp_failed')

Switching from dhcpcd to dhclient does not resolve the issue.

Further attempts yield more frustration or an eventual flaky connection. Of all the setups, my ninja access point using a self-bought hardware (connected to ethernet in dorm room) seems to be the least prone to failure. Given the number of dead-end thread on this issue in the past, I'm wondering if anyone has figured out a fix yet.

Morrad · 2012-07-30 23:50:52

I had similar problems when I was at school with both wicd and networkmanager. What I eventually learned to do when connecting to a university access point that I hadn't connected to before was boot into Windows and connect to the network (yes, I know it's a pain), and afterwards future connections through wicd would work fine.

I decided it was an issue with the University's equipment, but I could be wrong.

Trilby · 2012-07-30 23:52:18

I had similar issues on my universities network. I did some searching - but perhaps not an exhaustive search for a solution. I ended up giving up wicd for manual connection methods and have not looked back nor regretted it. Everything is much faster and smoother. This led me to patching together a script to automate the steps which is in my signature.

Sorry that's not much help with fixing wicd, but it is not just your system.

ANOKNUSA · 2012-07-30 23:58:19

Not the first time this has come up, but I haven't seen any solution since. Netcfg does a bit better, in my experience, but still has DHCP issues from time to time. Frankly I'm not sure where to even begin troubleshooting, as I'm sure most universities won't just hand out network info to anyone asking.

Loser777 · 2012-08-01 01:44:40

Morrad wrote:

I had similar problems when I was at school with both wicd and networkmanager. What I eventually learned to do when connecting to a university access point that I hadn't connected to before was boot into Windows and connect to the network (yes, I know it's a pain), and afterwards future connections through wicd would work fine.
I decided it was an issue with the University's equipment, but I could be wrong.

I recall that networkmanager worked somewhat better on this laptop, as it at least grouped the repeated access points together under one SSID. It seems that I can only connect to specific access points with WICD (despite the SSIDs being the same).

Last edited by Loser777 (2012-08-01 01:45:37)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-30 21:28:27

Wicd and University Networks

#2 2012-07-30 23:50:52

Re: Wicd and University Networks

#3 2012-07-30 23:52:18

Re: Wicd and University Networks

#4 2012-07-30 23:58:19

Re: Wicd and University Networks

#5 2012-08-01 01:44:40

Re: Wicd and University Networks

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