What is the point of the NM keyring?

[Wolfgang S. Rupprecht]

samk at twinix.com writes:
> Sigh, getting rather tired of all these IT and Security GURUs telling us how we need to configure our systems all the time. Look, I have a machine that is UNATTENDED and uses a WIRELESS connection. The gnome keyring PREVENTS me from using the machine in this role. This machine must auto login and it must connect to the wireless net to work. The nearest user is about 20 miles away so there is NO login password and NO ONE to enter one. So, can't we just turn the damn gnome keyring OFF?? Sorry if I offend, but I am really fed up with this problem!

[ Hitting carriage return once every 70 chars or so would have made this
  much easier to read. -wsr]

There are two ways to get the wireless up and running.  One is the
new-fangled Network(Mis)Manager and the other is the older
wpa_supplicant.  You might try turning off NetworkManager, turning on
networking and wpa_supplicant and adding your wifi sid and password to
wpa_supplicant.config .

chkconfig NetworkManager off
chkconfig networking on
chkconfig wpa_supplicant on

Run system-config-network and fill in the addresses or select the dhcp
settings.

Add your SID and passwor to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.
Mine (minus real sid and password) is below.

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=10
update_config=1

network={
	ssid="NySID"
        psk=MySekretKey
	proto=RSN
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK        # assuming you use WPA2
	pairwise=CCMP
	priority=10
}

Then reboot and watch the services start being mindful or the red FAIL
messages.

wpa_gui is a nice tool once wpa_supplicant is running to check signal
strengths and which SIDs are within reach.  You can also forcefully
disconnect from one net and select another if you are within a few
AP's and need to find the most reliable one to configure in.

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht              http://www.full-steam.org/  (ipv6-only)
         You may need to config 6to4 to see the above pages.