Ok, I've progressed a little in trying to discover why connecting at boot
fails... but it only makes things a little confusing.
If I try to scan with the interface down, I get the "doesn't support
scanning" error, but it also tells me the interface is down:
Code: Select all
sh-3.00# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
So we know that isn't the problem.
On the other hand, if you write a wrong interface name it
does give
exactly the same error reported!
Code: Select all
sh-3.00# iwlist wlanBLA scan
wlanBLA Interface doesn't support scanning.
So it would seem the info given by iwlist is not very specific...
What I was thinking is maybe the problem at bootup is something like
we've had before with the time it takes firmware to load (at the moment
it sleeps for 10 seconds before starting, but maybe we need more).
Anyway, there is something I haven't mentioned before, that can make
tracking this problem easier:
In order to test the boot code you don't need to reboot!
You can run rc.network at any time, in order to do the autoconnecting.
In fact, I've just added support for a "connect" argument, so you can
use it at any time and it will skip the irrelevant code.
So you could add a desktop icon for autoconnecting to the net, which will
just point to /etc/rc.d/rc.network and pass "connect" as the argument
(Rox enables you to do this, just right-click on the icon and select "Edit
Item", then put it in the second field.)
One thing I wasn't sure about is whether I should give message windows
telling you it is connecting (like the wizard does). Anyone have an
opinion?
Note that rc.network also supports the "stop" argument, if you want to
kill the connection and bring down the interfaces.
Now that I think about it, the "Connect" appdir could be modified to add
options for autoconnecting and disconnecting ethernet/wireless networks,
without having to run the network-wizard every time! I'm including an
attachment with modifications to enable it (note that any error messages
will be directed into /tmp/xerrs.log).
Ok, another thing I've done is modify the wireless profiles dialog, to
try and make it a little clearer as to how things work.
I just made some quick changes, so the wording and layout might need some
improving (any suggestions welcome), but note that I'm trying to keep
the window from getting too big -- it's already problematic on 7" screens.