Wpa_Gui: Finally a real network manager for puppy

Message

jemimah · #16 Post by **jemimah** » Thu 22 Oct 2009, 22:53

Hey Technosaurus, I was testing your build of wpa_supplicant on my EEE 701 and got an error to the effect of "could not initialize communication with the driver", whereas my build of it worked. Since you turned off debugging, I can't really tell you more than that. You may have turned off something important, but I don't know what.

technosaurus · #17 Post by **technosaurus** » Thu 22 Oct 2009, 23:46

my .config is attached with the pet. I didn't add any extra drivers that aren't in puppy by default.

davesurrey · #18 Post by **davesurrey** » Fri 23 Oct 2009, 01:03

Thanks for your help Jemimah.
Dave

jemimah · #19 Post by **jemimah** » Fri 23 Oct 2009, 01:10

Did you get it working Dave?

Technosaurus, if i get a chance, I'll build it with your config and turn on debugging and see if I can figure it out. My build is basically whatever the defaults were.

technosaurus · #20 Post by **technosaurus** » Fri 23 Oct 2009, 01:17

My intention was to build it with everything, but was missing some header files for various drivers that aren't in Puppy default so I had to comment those out or track down their sources and include them

jemimah · #21 Post by **jemimah** » Fri 23 Oct 2009, 02:26

Weird, I don't know then. The only other difference is my custom kernel. No one else has complained so far. I'll investigate when I get a chance.

davesurrey · #22 Post by **davesurrey** » Sun 25 Oct 2009, 23:51

jemimah wrote

Did you get it working Dave?

Sorry for the delay in replying. Yes I did get it running after I extracted
libQtGui.so.4.3.2 and libQtCore.so.4.3.2 from the pet you supplied.
Many thanks
Dave

hayagix · #23 Post by **hayagix** » Mon 26 Oct 2009, 21:11

Puppy's network manager works fine for me but this tool has some good features.
It is nice to have quick access to networks via taskbar icon.
It is also nice to be able to toggle the network on and off quickly.

I needed to install the full qt package to get it working properly and delete profiles in NetworkManager.
It works fine with a Wep network. I am curious to see how it handles Wpa but it will be some time before I can test.

This was in 4.3.1 and Thuxxx's 4.3

Good job and much appreciated!

jemimah · #24 Post by **jemimah** » Thu 05 Nov 2009, 20:42

I think I've discovered a working gtk-based alternative to wpa_gui, that also uses wpa_supplicant as the backend. It's part of the dhcpcd project. Screenshots are here: http://roy.marples.name/projects/dhcpcd-ui/screenshots

The interface is simpler, less confusing, and integrates dhcp setup. It requires dbus, and libnotify, but I think I can make it use yaf-splash instead so libnotify and notification daemon are not required.

I am testing it in Puppeee right now so we'll see how it goes. So far, wpa-gui seems to confuse a lot of people, so hopefully this small and simple alternative will work out. I'll post a pet shortly.

technosaurus · #25 Post by **technosaurus** » Thu 05 Nov 2009, 23:40

the only extra dependencies I see are dbus and dhcpd-dbus (aside from wpa-supplicant)

jemimah · #26 Post by **jemimah** » Thu 05 Nov 2009, 23:56

Hmmm, actual field testing shows it to be rather unstable. I was really hoping it would work. I'll keep poking at it, but I can't recommend it at this point.

EDIT: perhaps I figured out the problem... we'll see. This is why I hate programs that need multiple daemons. Way too many moving parts!

EDIT2: okay so I forgot to copy some files for dhcpcd, now it's much happier. Also it was putting quote marks around the key, causing wpa_supplicant to misidentify the type of encryption. That's fixed, at least for WEP. I don't have a wpa network to test on. This tool lacks a way to disconnect, and reconnect without re-entering your key. That's probably easy enough to add.

jemimah · #27 Post by **jemimah** » Fri 06 Nov 2009, 18:41

I've been thinking about this and doing some more research. Wpa_supplicant also comes with a wpa_cli utility that seems completely full featured. I think it would not be hard to modify Pwireless to be a usable wpa_supplicant front-end. I may attempt this if I get a free weekend. It would probably also be trivial to create a monitoring script that throws up a yaf-splash whenever your network status changes, making an applet unnecessary.

jemimah · #28 Post by **jemimah** » Fri 06 Nov 2009, 21:03

Well the yaf-splash notifications are done. The new version of dhcpcd has event-hooks that will run whatever scripts you want whenever network changes happen. Very cool!

jemimah · #29 Post by **jemimah** » Tue 10 Nov 2009, 15:17

I had a free weekend and Pwireless2 is now almost complete.

It supports open,wep,and wpa-personal networks. It's a lot faster than the original Pwireless and it's completely event-driven, so it never needs to reload itself. It requires wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd to be running in the background, just like wpa_gui.

I was even able to create a simple applet for it that allows you to connect and disconnect with an icon that changes depending on network status. Dhcpcd takes care of notifications, so the applet is optional.

Rupp · #30 Post by **Rupp** » Tue 10 Nov 2009, 22:57

jemimah · #31 Post by **jemimah** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 03:43

You can use fltk schemes with it to make it look a little different. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 666#347666 It also looks a lot better with the antialiased font patch.

I plan to release a new flwm package when things with puppeee slow down. Likely real soon now.

Hopefully I'll have time to make a pwireless2 pet tomorrow.

technosaurus · #32 Post by **technosaurus** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 06:38

Are you using fluid (fltk) or gtkdialog (gtk) for your wireless gui? The flwm window just made me wonder

chrome307 · #33 Post by **chrome307** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 13:14

Is Pwireless2 available to download as a PET file?

TIA

jemimah · #34 Post by **jemimah** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 14:31

Technosaurus, it's gtkdialog.

I'm working on the Pet today. I'll let you know when I post it.

chrome307 · #35 Post by **chrome307** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 14:35

Thanks

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Wpa_Gui: Finally a real network manager for puppy