Re: How To Tell NetworkManager There's a Wireless Interface To Manage?

On Wed, 23 May 2012, TuxaneMedia wrote:

> Somewhere in WICD 's configuration you should find an option called "
> Always use Wired Connection if available" Make sure it is unchecked.

Jens,

   I can now easily switch between WICD and NetworkManager so I can go look
for this and check its status.

> The existance of a wired and a wireless interface at the same time should
> not cause any problem. Normally the wireless always wins over the wired.

   With my Dell (with uses WICD), there are no eth0 routes when there's no
cable attached. When the radio sees a WAP it establishes routes and
connections.

   With the Sony running WICD the radio sees the WAP, gets an IP address, but
cannot access the server on the other side of the WAP. The apparent reason
is eth0 is UP and has routes with lower metrics in the kernel's routing
table.

   NM manages eth0 quite well: no cable, no eth0 UP, RUNNING, or routes; plug
in the cat5 and the interface comes up and access to the LAN and 'Net works.
With no cable attached, the kernel routing table is empty and wlan0 is down.
NM does not turn on the radio or bring up the interface. As root, when I run
'ifconfig wlan0 up' wlan0 is UP but not RUNNING. 'iwconfig wlan0' shows data
and 'iwlist scan' finds eight (secured) neighborhood WAPs. I need to take
the laptop to a site with an open WAP to see if it will connect once the
interface is manually brought up. That will further narrow the issue.

> You migth check dmesg , why the wlan0 is not brought up at boot time.
> Maybe the module doesn't get loaded ? rfkill has a hard and a softblock
> option to verify, also.

   I looked at dmesg and saw nothing relevant. 'rfkill list' shows no hard
blocks, but it shows three LANs: acer-wireless, sony-wifi, and something
like rhy0. I've no idea what these are or why there's an acer-anything in a
Sony laptop with an Intel Centurion 1000-N wireless radio. There's a soft
block on the acer-wireless LAN. Understanding this is beyond my current
knowledge.

> actually the interface should be visible from ifconfig after boot, but
> without an ip4 address. This is where wicd would kick in to cope with the
> encryption and make the connection and run dhcpcd.

   The interface is listed but it's neither UP nor RUNNING. I agree that WICD
(and NM) should take over and the issue is why neither does.

> Anyway you should not need to use an usb device, as it will maybe even
> make things more compicated

   The USB radio will be returned today as it does not solve the problem. In
any case, since wlan0 can be manually brought UP and it sees the WAP it is
not a hardware issue.

Thanks,

Rich