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not_a_yam

Member

Registered: 2013-03-23

Posts: 4

Netctl treating identical profiles differently?

I have two profiles; one is auto-generated by wifi-menu:

/etc/netctl/enp0s26u1u4-myessid

Description='Automatically generated profile by wifi-menu'
Interface=enp0s26u1u4
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa
ESSID=myessid
IP=dhcp
Key=mynetworkkey

and the other one is an exact copy except for the filename and description:

/etc/netctl/home

Description='Home WiFi'
Interface=enp0s26u1u4
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa
ESSID=myessid
IP=dhcp
Key=mynetworkkey

I'm using a (crappy) Belkin USB WiFi adapter, so I wasn't surprised when neither would connect. However, this adapter also has a light on it, and the light only flashes when I'm attempting to use the auto-generated profile, not when I'm trying to use the copied one. I tested this multiple times, at one point deleting both files, restarting, and auto-generating and copying again, and it's behaved the same way every time. Is there some reason why changing the profile name and description would cause it to automatically fail?

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edit: looking at the reason for failure using journalctl, I noticed that systemd is trying to use wlan0 (which doesn't exist on my machine) instead of the device specified in the profile. Again, this is only for the copied profile; the one generated by wifi-menu seems to be using the correct device.

...systemd[1]: Job sys-subsystem-net-devices-wlan0.device/start timed out.
...systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device sys-subsystem-net-devices-wlan0.device.
...systemd[1]: Dependency failed for Home WiFi.

Last edited by not_a_yam (2013-06-26 22:21:09)

hiob

Member

Registered: 2007-12-15

Posts: 21

Re: Netctl treating identical profiles differently?

The first part of the filename is the network-interface (in your case 'enp0s26u1u4'). So try 'enp0s26u1u4-home' as filename.

not_a_yam

Member

Registered: 2013-03-23

Posts: 4

Re: Netctl treating identical profiles differently?

If this is the case, is there any reason why

a). it is not documented in the netctl or netctl.profile manpage?

b). the interface name is also required within the file?

c). it attempts to use an apparently hardcoded default interface instead of failing?

I really think having to specify the interface in the filename is an unnecessary inconvenience if it's already in the contents of the file. The whole point of me renaming it was to avoid having to type a nonsensical string of characters. The facts that this is undocumented and that the most common case (in which the correct interface is already "wlan0") does not fail for the same reason, make me think it may be a hack, or not intended. I'll file a bug report and see if I can fix it myself as well. That is, unless someone convinces me that it totally makes sense.

Last edited by not_a_yam (2013-06-28 01:29:06)

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,358

Re: Netctl treating identical profiles differently?

No, it's not needed, not sure where hiob got that from. Do post a bug report to get to the bottom of it, but if the end result (being able to connect) doesn't happen in either case then I think it's a moot point.

As with any networking problem, try without netctl first to manually set up your interface, the wiki has a guide.

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