On Sun, 2008-03-30 at 01:51 -0400, Rick Bilonick wrote: > On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 11:30 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 2:13 PM, Rick Bilonick <rab@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > When I first set up Fedora 8, I had some problems getting wlan0 (via > > > ndiswrapper) working. Now I can prevent wlan0 from being activated, even > > > when I'm using a wired connection via eth0. > > > > > > > Step back from the details a minute. This post reminded me of a debate > > we had here last week about wireless. I think some extra services are > > running on your laptop. Also, I think there is some miscommunication > > about what it means to have wireless "on". > > > > You say you have to kill wpa_supplicant manually, and I think that is > > a sign of the first mis-configuration. The wpa_supplicant service > > should be turned off in system-config-services. In there you should > > wpa_supplicant is not turned on by system-config-services. (If I would > try to enable it via system-config-services, it would always fail to > start at boot - I could see this in the boot up display. But I never > have it enabled yet it always starts at some point.) > > When I am using NM wpa-supplicant is not being run by system-config-services. NM runs it. > > also have the network service turned off. > > network is enabled to start at boot (I'm at home using my wireless > connection) and here is the status: > > Configured devices: > lo eth0 wlan0 > Currently active devices: > lo wlan0 > > > I was afraid to turn this off for fear of screwing up ALL network > connections. So you are saying that this should NOT be used with > NetworkManager? > > > NetworkManager can start a > > wpa_supplicant process if it needs one, and it will turn it off for > > you when you stop the NetworkManager. > > > > If you turn off NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher as well, > > then it is absolutely impossible for the laptop to automatically > > bring up a wireless connection. It just can't happen. > > > > Now, if you run "/sbin/ifconfig" you should see no devices. Do you see devices? > > I will try this at the office on Monday. > > > > > My situation is like yours. I have wireless various places, and also a > > static IP at the office. > > > > I leave NetworkManager turned on. (network is off, wpa_supplicant is > > off). When I go to the office and start up, NM tries to search for > > wireless networks and join them, but always fails. It searches for > > wired DHCP as well. As soon as the network icon appears in the panel, > > then I click on that icon (nm-applet is the program it comes from) and > > turn off networking. Note I mean turn off all networking, not just > > wireless. > > > > Then I open a terminal and manually turn on my configured wired > > device, either with system-config-network or "/sbin/ifup eth0" (were > > I did the configuration before with s-c-n). > > > > After turning on the wire, I read the contents of "/etc/resolv.conf" > > to make sure the DNS server is correct. It is almost never correct, > > because without DHCP running, I have the last valid name server. > > Sometimes it is correct, and I think that is because, before I stopped > > NetworkManager, it scanned the environment and found a server that was > > willing to tell it the DNS. But that doesn't always happen. > > > > Even after going through this exercise, I still generally see the > > wlan0 device listed in /sbin/ifconfig output. IT is listed, but it is > > not associated, it has not obtained an IP number, and it does not > > cause trouble (yet). > > > > PJ > > > > -- > > Paul E. Johnson > > Professor, Political Science > > 1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504 > > University of Kansas > > > > Well I go through the process I described and always have to type in the > DNS info every time I use a wired connection at the office. So in the > end what I've been doing isn't any more work than what you're doing. > > I thought the whole idea of NetworkManager was to make connecting to > networks transparent but if it doesn't work with wired connections with > fixed IP's it cannot be that usable for many people. It appears to be a > major design flaw. (I'm not saying I won't continue to use it - it does > make connecting to wireless networks easier and it's the only way I've > found to connect to networks using WPA.) > > Rick B. NM for static ips is on the horizon and coming soon, as I understand it. -- ======================================================================= Real Users find the one combination of bizarre input values that shuts down the system for days. ======================================================================= Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
