Networking - Responding Barry's questions

Under development: PCMCIA, wireless, etc.
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HairyWill
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Location: Southampton, UK

#16 Post by HairyWill »

Aitch wrote:we need an easy way to get the wifi to turn off [ifconfig down or something]
I would also like to see a 2 colour blinky
One, green, which shows signal strength, the other, yellow maybe, showing [flashing] network activity,
doesn't
ifconfig eth0 down
work then?
It would be nice if rc.network supported
rc.network stop
rc.network restart

rutilt give you a coloured signal strength monitor
<edit>
Aitch wrote:6 puppy not remembering settings on reboot..................%
My understanding of this problem is that it is not that the settings are dropped, eth?mode and eth?wireless do contain the settings it is just that that rc.network is unable to apply them properly. Maybe it would be helpful to include more state checking and debugging output in rc.network. For example check the return state of iwconfig and dhcpcd calls and maybe compare the state of the interface with what it was supposed to have been set to

Code: Select all

ESSID="myaccesspoint"
ifconfig eth0 $ESSID
CURRENTESSID=$(iwconfig eth0 | grep ESSID | sed 's/^.*ESSID:"\(.*\)"/\1/g')
[ ! "$ESSID" = "$CURRENTESSID" ] && echo "houston we have a problem: failed to set accesspoint at line 999" > /tmp/network.log
If the log contains messages when rc.network completes then it should be shown to the user. I realise that this enhancement is not strictly about user expectations but it would help to give better feedback on any failure points in the script
</edit>
Last edited by HairyWill on Thu 27 Mar 2008, 11:26, edited 1 time in total.
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urban soul
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#17 Post by urban soul »

@Aich
auto-update or auto-installer
You wont see these in Puppy.
Please get this app, some of yourideas are in there.

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Aitch
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#18 Post by Aitch »

@Urban Soul

That's Aitch, by the way
Please get this app, some of yourideas are in there.
Yes, thanks, I'd spotted that earlier, but it's a bit academic now,

as I'm hard wired :lol:

Aitch

PS @ HairyWill

If you remember [last year?] it was you who persevered and got me sorted

Big up the HairyWill!! :lol:

KJ
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#19 Post by KJ »

As a relative Linux n00bie and a command line challenged person, I find setting up wifi frustrating. I wonder if kernel issues may be adding my problems.

I have good MS drivers that ndiswrapper works well with in some versions but not others. Until recently I have had no success with auto detection and Linus drivers.

My MS ZD1211Bu driver works with ndiswrapper in 214R, 216, 301Ret and 302a1barebones (but not the normal 301 which is the base for other derivatives) . The Athros5005 in my Acer dual- core laptop works with none of these older versions but is auto detected and works with 396 and 397 tho info is not saved for reboot. Ndiswrapper and the MS ZD1211Bu driver do not work with the Puppy 4 alphas.

Another issue that I have not seen discussed is an easy way to enable and disable wifi .... for instance, disabling wifi for puppy use on an airplane.

I am grateful for the work being done on wifi issues as this is my preferred internet connection method.

Thanks,
KJ

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urban soul
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#20 Post by urban soul »

@ Aitch: sorry my keyboard's a bitch. Outch!

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Aitch
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#21 Post by Aitch »

@ Urban Soul
@ Aitch: sorry my keyboard's a bitch. Outch!
LOL no probs,

I'm just responding politely, in case people have got the completely wrong impression of me from my other posts

OK fugdy :oops:

:wink: Aitch

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urban soul
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#22 Post by urban soul »

Are there check marks available for this kind of menu ?

Code: Select all

<menubar>
    	<menu>								
    		<menuitem stock=\"$PROFILE\">
   		<action></action>
      		</menuitem>		
      		<label></label>
	</menu>
</menubar>
Is there a widget called 'combobox_with_checks' or something ?

thx in advance,
Urban

Minnesota
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Joined: Thu 11 Sep 2008, 11:25

Network Ease of use

#23 Post by Minnesota »

May I make a couple of points... if you want to find ease of use.. get your significant other, or a teen or a purely Win user to try to hook up to your wifi network.

Assuming your hardware is detected correctly the sequence of events in the wizard can be confusing the first time you encounter it. If you have never hooked up a wifi...you are lost.... in fact let us go back one step...

I know absolutely nothing about a network... all I know is I want to get to the net... SO....I first hit the browser button. Guess what I simply get a not found... now what????? Frankly took me a long time to realize this was actually the second step in the process... Especially since my first experience with wif.. the system had automatically located the network and hooked up automatically.

Ok... somehow you found out you need to set up your network. I think the single button connect is very good... if you have a basic knowledge of what kind of hardware you have.. you or with some help, will find the correct button to press for your hardware.

OK the wizard itself...

Let us say we are going to use Internet by Network or Wireless Lan button.

Assume your hardware has been detected correctly... YOU see the box with the different networks.. you click one on... nothing happens... you selected the network.. why is nothing happening... OH THERE are buttons below corresponding to the networks... HUMMMMMM....

"clicking the lan in the top box only highlights the line.. nothing happens"

We hit the wireless0 button:
Next screen; AH a button that says wireless... click this on..
Next screen has 12 buttons.. which one do I want? I don't have a profile... I don't know what a profile is....

Finally by accident or by hitting all the buttons I find the SCAN button...

Ah.. now I see networks..... it finds your network.. your say use this network... click "use this profile".. it comes back to you.. .and you wait ... or go back to the desktop.. and click your browser again.. HUMMMM same not found page.... GO BACK to wizard... what is "TEST Interface... and what does it do???" And of course what is Auto DHCP all about??? I clicked on my wireless button, told it the correct router... what is this DHCP??? OK.... a bit of comic relief.. but the point is if this is your first experience with a network.. it is all very mysterious... The steps are not obvious at all.

Possibly putting big 1,2,3.... next to the correct buttons would help. Or different sequences for different cases?

One other point, if you use the load your own module option, as the auto does not find what you need... why is the LOAD button at the top of the window?.. You normally expect the load or install to be at the bottom of the page... The NEXT thing to do after selecting the desired module.

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread.. networking is not a plug and play, so anything that can be done to make it easy and fool proof will benefit us all. Users do not read and they do want to go to the command line.

Greg

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