The mystery of WiFi

[Rick Stevens]

On Mon, 2007-12-31 at 13:24 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Tod Merley wrote:
> 
> >> IIRC, Fedora - and other distributions -
> >> tried to bring up the interface <xyz>
> >> if there was a file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<xyz>.
> >>
> >> But this no longer seems to be the case -
> >> I have an ifcfg-eth0 which is completely ignored
> >> by "service network restart" and even "ifup eth0".
> >>
> >> How does Fedora now decide what interfaces to try to bring up?
> 
> > I believe they are using an automated environment overseen by
> > NetworkManager.
> > 
> > To play in a bit more static environment (from gnome desktop):
> > 
> > System > Administration > Services
> > Un-check NetworkManager
> > Checki Network (about 2/3 down the list)
> > Save!
> > Reboot or restart service.
> 
> Actually, I'm almost certain I wasn't running NetworkManager (NM)
> on the computer in question.
> I don't normally run NM, because it does not work
> with all the WiFi cards I use -
> in particular it does not work with my Orinoco PCMCIA cards,
> which I am reluctant to throw away as they have very good antennae -
> and I like to run as near as possible the same system
> on all my machines.
> 
> I've also found that "alias eth0 xyz" in /etc/modprobe.conf
> also seems to be often ignored.

"service network start|restart" depends on having an "ONBOOT=yes" line
in the ifcfg-eth0 file.  If you can type in "ifup eth0" and the card
comes up, then you probably have "ONBOOT=no" or no line in the file.

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- Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer             rstevens at internap.com -
- CDN Systems, Internap, Inc.                http://www.internap.com -
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-  Diplomacy: The art of saying "Nice doggy!" until you can find a   -
-                            big enough rock.                        -
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