Wpa_supplicant mystery

[Bill Davidsen]

Aaron Konstam wrote:
> <snip>
>> Documentation? NM has been around since FC6, and people seem to keep 
>> saying that the documentation is being worked on. At least on FC9beta it 
>> really didn't work, ignored the hardwire, and brought the WiFi up on a 
>> random open AP. I live between an apartment building and a college, 
>> there are enough open APs available to choose.
>> nations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot
>>
> http://live.gnome.org/DarrenAlbers/NetworkManagerFAQ
> 
> 
> http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager
> 
I appreciate that you're trying to be helpful, but the FAQ does 
hand-waving instead of giving useful answers.

Example

Q: "How does NetworkManager select which wireless network to connect to?"

A: (part1) NM only attempts to automatically connect to networks you 
have previously told it to connect to.  [not the case, it picked one]

(part2) If NM isn't connecting to the network you want, try to force it 
to connect to the network you wish to be connected,... [If I knew how to 
force it I wouldn't be reading the FAQ, now, would I?]

(part3) In version 0.6.6 and later there is a profile editor that can be 
used to add/remove networks.  [Again, effort saved by not bothering to 
tell the user HOW to get that tool running]


All it would take is a hyperlink at each point where the reader is told 
to do something unfamiliar. However, not only is there no hyperlink, the 
index points to a single sentence on doing this, "For version 0.6.6 or 
later Use the Network Profile editor to remove unwanted networks." Do I 
have to tell you that there doesn't appear to be a link in the table of 
contents which describes the Network Profile Editor and how one accesses it?


I have written documentation for GE, IBM, SBC and technical articles for 
national magazines, I've dealt with enough editors to know that this FAQ 
is simply not well written for the target audience. And if I knew the 
topic I would offer to make changes, but I don't. But as people are 
forced to switch from known easy to use tools like 
system-config-network, a lot of people are going to be unhappy trying to 
learn a complex tool of limited capabilities.

I would have hoped that there would be a simple way to enter a list of 
APs, and an option to use any of them if only one were available, if 
more than one were available ASK, if none of the preferred list are 
available ASK. That suggestion came from someone about FC6...

-- 

Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot