Re: How best to replace NetworkManager with wicd?
On 02/12/2012 02:44 PM, keitho@strucktower.com wrote:
Sometime back I moved one of my laptops from using Gnome to using a wm (i3
at present). I have been slowly trying to learn the various functions that
the Gnome DE does in the background (hides from the user) so that I can
replace the Gnome-related-software to software which is desktop
independent.
I'm a bit confused as to how to replace NetworkManager with wicd (using
both wired and wireless connections). After installing wicd, I thought
perhaps I could simply turn off NetworkManager, configure wicd, then when
I am satisfied everything works with wicd properly I will uninstall
NetworkManager. I am hoping that this approach won't leave me stranded
with an incomplete or non-working interface configurations.
I thought I could simply invoke
$sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
to unload the Networkmanager daemon while playing around with configuring
wicd, but that doesn't work. I get:
$NetworkManager is already running (pid 3879)
So then I try to kill the process, but it automatically restarts in about
20-30 seconds.
So then I think maybe I should stop the networking daemon. But then, when
I restart it how do I tell the system to use wicd instead of
NetworkManager?
So I guess there's a bunch of stuff I still don't understand (duh!).
Is there a tutorial someone can point me to that would help educate me on
how best to approach this task? Or do I need to go cold-turkey and
uninstall NetworkManager before configuring wicd?
So far I am looking at:
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php and
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch05.en.html
I have both NM and wicd installed. I use one or the other on 4
distributions but prefer NM.
One thing you should know is that the /etc/network/interfaces files are
VERY different. I have two different interfaces files and use a bash
script to choose which one to use.
< script to select wireless interface >
#!/bin/sh
# netup
wicd() {
# do Verizon setup
modprobe -r rtl8187
modprobe ath9k
cp /etc/network/interfaces-MiFi /etc/network/interfaces
sleep 5
service networking restart
sleep 5
service network-manager stop
wicd-curses
}
nm() {
modprobe -r ath9k
modprobe rtl8187
cp /etc/network/interfaces-wlan1 /etc/network/interfaces
sleep 5
service networking restart
sleep 5
service network-manager restart
sleep 5
ckif
ifup wlan1
echo "NM is setup."
}
task=$1
case "$task" in
wicd) wicd
;;
nm) nm
;;
* ) echo
echo "*** arg ( wice | nm ) required ***"
;;
esac
exit
--------------------------------------------------------
< the NM interface file >
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# Netgear wg111v2 rtl8187 module
#
# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
modprobe rtl8187
wpa-ssid Verizon MiFi2200 C4B5 Secure
wpa-psk your-password-goes-here
--------------------------------------------------------
< the wicd interfaces file >
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# up route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 dev lo
# down route del -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 dev lo
# ------ For Verizon MiFi Network
# Using wicd on X
#
# Need to correct this for NON X use
# The primary network interface
##manual eth0
##iface eth0 inet static
## address 192.168.1.11
## network 192.168.1.0
## netmask 255.255.255.0
## broadcast 192.168.1.255
# gateway 192.168.1.11
## dns-nameservers 66.174.95.44 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
# dns-nameservers 209.183.33.23 209.183.35.23 192.168.1.11
## dns-search dns-domain dns-sortlist
--------------------------------------------------------
The EMPTY interfaces is how I, finally, got wicd to work.
I hope this helps you in getting one or both working.
Wayne
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