Roaming Wireless & Laptop-NetConf - Etch
Hi all, I'm running Debian Etch with KDE (no GNOME), with both KWLan and KWifiManager installed. If this seems a bit confusing, there's a reason. Also, I'm not afraid to read a good howto/tutorial, if you know a good one.
I bought an Edimax wifi card with the RALink chip to replace a problematic bcm4318 card. I got the RALink card working with my wlan at home, but cannot seem to find the wlan at work. The job provides a completely open wlan - no WEP/WPA, nothing. Just give it the essid and go. The wlan is pretty pervasive - I've watched guys walk around the area where I work with their Windows laptops working just fine. It *should* be simple. Well, it isn't. None of the KDE utilities seem to be of any use in getting the card to detect the job's wlan. In the boot messages, I see a suggestion that I need to define at least one profile in /etc/laptop-netconf. I also saw references to waproamd failing. Can you see where I might be just a wee tad confused?
My first question: Should I attempt to remove waproamd, or would my ra0 be depending on that? The waproamd website has a big notice that WPA-Supplicant has superceded waproamd. I'm guessing - and only guessing - that my broadcom card was using waproamd, and that I probably no longer need it, but I am not sure on that point.
I believe my card is currently configured through /etc/network/interfaces. So my next question is whether I should really bother with laptop-netconf?
Moving right along, I looked at /etc/laptop-netconf to see what I can find.
/ect/laptop-netconf/opts:
My wlan card is correctly listed as "ra0". Everything else is commented out. At the bottom, there is a note that /ect/laptop-netconf/default will be run if no network is found. Given there is no profile defined, I'd say laptop-netconf is attempting to run, finding no profile, and quitting. I might be wrong, but I doubt it.
/ect/laptop-netconf/default:
This file wants me to link /etc/network/interfaces & /etc/resolv.conf to the replacement files in /ect/laptop-netconf/.
There are script and interface files for home and office.
As a final note, I have no way of establishing the channel, as they seem to use different channels, and the admin would have to look up the channel for the area where I work. But what if I want to work in a different area, using a different channel? Also, I would have to ask if I need specific info, such as the gateway, etc.
If I use laptop-netconf, and configure interfaces.office to use my job's wlan, I assume I would just set the interface as follows:
auto ra0
iface ra0 inet dhcp
and in 'opts', I have no clue how to set the "Office" profile. They're using WAPs all around the building. I don't have a clue about the hwaddress or any of those settings.
Thanks in advance for any help.
don
--
D.C. Parris
Minister, Editor, Free Software Advocate
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcparris
Reply to: