How to configure wireless network card

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006, Timothy Murphy wrote:

> On Tuesday 05 December 2006 15:56, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
>
>>>> Did you "chkconfig NetworkManager on" (so it starts at boot) and
>>>> "chkconfig netowrk off" (so NM manages the network) and "service network
>>>> stop" and "service NetworkManager start"?
>>>
>>> I didn't chkconfig NM on, I just ran "service NetworkManager restart".
>>> Does it really have to start at boot-time?
>>
>> It doesn't really, but IMO the most useful operational mode (for a laptop,
>> at least) is to have it start at boot so it can connect on login.  (There
>> was some discussion of supporting a mode that would connect on startup
>> without logging in.  Not sure what the status of that feature is.)
>>
>>> Also I didn't stop the network service,
>>> since it does not say one should do that in what little documentation
>>> accompanies NM in Fedora.
>>>
>>> I'll try both.
>>
>> It may no longer be necessary, but it couldn't hurt to not run the regular
>> network service when running NM.  You can probably start the network
>> service, but you should set the interfaces to not start at boot.  Having
>> them up will almost surely confuse NM.
>
> I must report that I now have NM working perfectly.
> Thanks very much for the advice I was given.

Good to hear of your success!

>
> I'm not sure precisely what got it working -
> I have NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher chkconfig-ed in,
> and network chkconfig-ed out.
>
> A couple of things about the system puzzle me slightly,
> but these are not very important.
>
> 1. If in fact one has to run NM and NMDispatcher,
> why are they not combined in one service?

Not everyone needs the dispatcher.  For example, I don't have it 
installed at all.

The dispatcher is for services that need to start after the network is up 
and stop before the network goes down.  They can't be initscripts because 
your network isn't started at boot anymore.  NTP used to be such a 
service, but it seems to have been fixed recently (FC5 or 6).

>
> 2. I did not find that nm-applet appeared automatically.
> For a while I had to start it with "nm-applet &",
> but now autostart seems to remember that it must be started.

Interesting.  You should see it in menu Preferences -> More Preferences -> 
Sessions -> Startup Programs.

>
> 3. nm-applet usually (about 2/3 of the time) links automatically
> to my access point,
> but sometimes it sees it, but I have to left click on the icon
> and choose it.
> I've no idea why I sometimes have to do this.

Linux wireless still exhibits unexplained quirkiness.  But this Q is best 
raised on the NetworkManager list at gnome.org.

>
> Thanks again for the help and support.
>
>
>

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs