NetworkManager Is Driving Me Crazy!

[Aaron Konstam]

On Sun, 2008-03-30 at 01:51 -0400, Rick Bilonick wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 11:30 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 2:13 PM, Rick Bilonick <rab at nauticom.net> wrote:
> > > When I first set up Fedora 8, I had some problems getting wlan0 (via
> > >  ndiswrapper) working. Now I can prevent wlan0 from being activated, even
> > >  when I'm using a wired connection via eth0.
> > >
> > 
> > Step back from the details a minute. This post reminded me of a debate
> > we had here last week about wireless. I think some extra services are
> > running on your laptop.  Also, I think there is some miscommunication
> > about what it means to have wireless "on".
> > 
> > You say you have to kill wpa_supplicant manually, and I think that is
> > a sign of the first mis-configuration.  The wpa_supplicant service
> > should be turned off in system-config-services.  In there you should
> 
> wpa_supplicant is not turned on by system-config-services. (If I would
> try to enable it via system-config-services, it would always fail to
> start at boot - I could see this in the boot up display. But I never
> have it enabled yet it always starts at some point.)
> 
> 
When I am using NM wpa-supplicant is not being run by
system-config-services. NM runs it.
> > also have the network service turned off.   
> 
> network is enabled to start at boot (I'm at home using my wireless
> connection) and here is the status:
> 
> Configured devices:
> lo eth0 wlan0
> Currently active devices:
> lo wlan0
> 
> 
> I was afraid to turn this off for fear of screwing up ALL network
> connections. So you are saying that this should NOT be used with
> NetworkManager?
> 
> > NetworkManager can start a
> > wpa_supplicant process if it needs one, and it will turn it off for
> > you when  you stop the NetworkManager.
> > 
> > If you turn off NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher as well,
> > then it is absolutely impossible for  the laptop to automatically
> > bring up a wireless connection.  It just can't happen.
> > 
> > Now, if you run "/sbin/ifconfig" you should see no devices.  Do you see devices?
> 
> I will try this at the office on Monday.
> 
> > 
> > My situation is like yours. I have wireless various places, and also a
> > static IP at the office.
> > 
> > I leave NetworkManager turned on. (network is off, wpa_supplicant is
> > off). When I go to the office and start up, NM tries to search for
> > wireless networks and join them, but always fails.  It searches for
> > wired DHCP as well.  As soon as the network icon appears in the panel,
> > then I click on that icon (nm-applet is the program it comes from) and
> > turn off networking.  Note I mean turn off all networking, not just
> > wireless.
> > 
> > Then I open a terminal and manually turn on my configured wired
> > device, either with system-config-network or "/sbin/ifup eth0"  (were
> > I did the configuration before with s-c-n).
> > 
> > After turning on the wire, I read the contents of "/etc/resolv.conf"
> > to make sure the DNS server is correct.  It is almost never correct,
> > because without DHCP running, I have the last valid name server.
> > Sometimes it is correct, and I think that is because, before I stopped
> > NetworkManager, it scanned the environment and found a server that was
> > willing to tell it the DNS.  But that doesn't always happen.
> > 
> > Even after going through this exercise, I still generally see the
> > wlan0 device listed in /sbin/ifconfig output.  IT is listed, but it is
> > not associated, it has not obtained an IP number, and it does not
> > cause trouble (yet).
> > 
> > PJ
> > 
> > -- 
> > Paul E. Johnson
> > Professor, Political Science
> > 1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
> > University of Kansas
> > 
> 
> Well I go through the process I described and always have to type in the
> DNS info every time I use a wired connection at the office. So in the
> end what I've been doing isn't any more work than what you're doing.
> 
> I thought the whole idea of NetworkManager was to make connecting to
> networks transparent but if it doesn't work with wired connections with
> fixed IP's it cannot be that usable for many people. It appears to be a
> major design flaw. (I'm not saying I won't continue to use it - it does
> make connecting to wireless networks easier and it's the only way I've
> found to connect to networks using WPA.)
> 
> Rick B.
NM for static ips is on the horizon and coming soon, as I understand it.
--
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Real Users find the one combination of bizarre input values that shuts
down the system for days.
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Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net