Arch Linux

kansei

Member

From: RIT - Rochester, NY

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 21

Cry for help: a decent network profile manager

Am I the only one that finds the default arch linux network profile management a bit.. lacking? Maybe I just don't have it set up right, but it only works for my ethernet connection and connecting to non-encrypted wireless networks. Problem is, I run WPA2-AES networks at home and at work. I finally got wpa_supplicant properly set up (I'm on wireless right now), but I can't just select the network profile from the menu and be on my way.

Here is what I have to do to get connected right now:

 [root@cdl-magnesium chris]# wpa_supplicant -dw -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dmadwifi -iath0
 [root@cdl-magnesium chris]# dhcpcd ath0

and I'm connected, everything working great. That's fairly simple, right? I'm thinking my network profile has a lot more in it than necessary.

#
# Network Profile
#

DESCRIPTION="57 May"

# Network Settings
INTERFACE=ath0
#HOSTNAME=myhost

# Interface Settings (use IFOPTS="dhcp" for DHCP)
IFOPTS="dhcp"
#GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

# DNS Settings (optional)
#DOMAIN=localdomain
#DNS1=192.168.0.1
#DNS2=

# Wireless Settings (optional)
ESSID="Galactica"
#KEY=
#IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID channel 6 key restricted $KEY"

WIFI_INTERFACE=wifi0   # use this if you have a special wireless interface
                        # that is linked to the real $INTERFACE

WIFI_WAIT=5            # seconds to wait for the wireless card to
                        # associate before bringing the interface up
USEWPA="yes"           # start wpa_supplicant with the profile
WPAOPTS="-D madwifi"             # use "" for normal operation or specify additional
                        # options (eg, "-D ipw")
                        # see /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf for configuration
#AUTOWPA="yes"          # automatically configure WPA

If I do a /etc/rc.d/network restart and select the profile from the menu, I get all sorts of errors about not being able to connect to wpa_supplicant (because for some reason it isn't running.. was I supposed to do something about that?).

I'm a bit tired right now so pardon any incomprehensible sentences or questions

ps: while we're on the subject, is there a way to re-sort the items in the network profile list? It always wants to connect to this broken wpa2 profile first, as I think it just goes in alphabetic order or somethin. I guess I should just turn off the timeout so it always waits for me to choose.

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: Cry for help: a decent network profile manager

The order is alphabetical. yes. I solved that by renaming my profiles like this: 1-dhcp-rj45  2-cccd-wlan  3-lug-wlan

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1000

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Cry for help: a decent network profile manager

i'm working on one.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_Scripts

James