Resolved: How best to replace NetworkManager with wicd?
Thanks to all who responded.
To Claudius- you are correct ... and that is why I was having the
difficulty. I'm not really sure why I was using the wrong form of the name
(NetworkManager rather than network-manager). Documentation is funny
sometimes in that names are not always consistent and I got confused.
To Brian- yes, because you taught me a few months ago about using
wpa_supplicant with ifplugd and helped me with configuration files
(/e/n/i), I think I can weave through that if I need to. Although for the
moment it turns out that I don't need any manual configuration.
To Wayne- although I haven't used your examples yet, they are helping me
learn a few things about bash script files :-)
I was able to stop network-manager and play around with wicd, moving back
and forth between them without manually creating any configuration files
(my needs are simple). I have subsequently removed network-manager and
don't plan on using it again.
Thank you for your generous help.
Keith Ostertag
> 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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