PeasyWiFi - a reliable WiFi connection manager

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Marv · #31 Post by **Marv** » Wed 02 Jul 2014, 14:07

Quick test of v1.9.
On the ipw2200 laptop, stripped everything including profiles back to the bare un-Frisbee'd kernel 3.15 Carolina 1.2. Rebooted, installed v1.9. Used v1.9 to connect, using config button to edit .peasywifi, search to look at ssids, profile, auto.. pretty much everything but the Encrypt feature. Just didn't think of that. All in all just works. And the Help is superb

I will run it past the iwlwifi laptop but don't have anything else to test it on that isn't boringly intel. Hope the exotica owners will take it out for a walk too.

rcrsn51 · #32 Post by **rcrsn51** » Wed 02 Jul 2014, 14:13

Excellent. I have to confess that it's easier to get my own SSID by searching for it than by typing it in.

Note that Encrypt cannot be used with Auto because there is no way to enter the PIN during bootup.

greengeek · #33 Post by **greengeek** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 09:30

Tested v1.9 on my Tosh laptop Slacko 5.3 install and it works perfectly.

EDIT : - all perfect including the auto function - Peasy connects flawlessly after every boot or after an X restart.

This is a pleasing result because I have previously had to manually kick the network wizard into life every boot for the last year - even though Frisbee was installed and appeared to try to connect.

Interestingly - when I first tried Peasy on this machine it appeared to do it's thing correctly (and said 'connected') but no IP was actually acquired. There were some onscreen messages that were obviously nothing to do with Peasy (like a truncated version of yaf-spash - I think they may have been xpupsay or something similar) so I figured Frisbee must be interfering. I uninstalled Frisbee and now Peasy does the whole job perfectly.

(This is the laptop that shows wifi as eth1)

I like the way Peasy offers a nice balance between manual control and automatic behaviour. Especially like the config button to ensure the right file gets opened and I don't have to hunt for it.

Will try other machines over the next few days.
.

rcrsn51 · #34 Post by **rcrsn51** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 09:48

Thanks. I did some testing on a Puppy that had Frisbee as the default manager and it drove me crazy. I couldn't make it die no matter what I tried.

The whole point of PeasyWiFi is to be transparent. If it doesn't work for someone, we will be able to find out why.

The forum is littered with comments like these. "I cannot get network manager A to work so I only use B". "B is garbage. The only true manager is A." "I got tired of fighting with A and B, so I switched to C". "C works, but not the way I would like."

Connecting to WiFi is not rocket science - it just takes two commands.

Sylvander · #35 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 15:19

See this thread:
Puppy USB WiFi Adapter at the PC Guide Forums.
Cuc Tu couldn't manage to get his USB Network Interface dongle = "iogear gwu625" to work in "slacko-5.7 no pae".
I suggested he try PeasyWiFi.

Do the Puppy experts here think PeasyWiFi will help fix his problem?
Might someone more expert than myself give him some help?

rcrsn51 · #36 Post by **rcrsn51** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 15:54

PeasyWiFi takes no responsibility for handling the kernel modules required by the wifi adapter. That's the job of the kernel or user.

However, PeasyWifi will tell you immediately if you have a functioning device - just click the I/F button, set up your configuration and scan your neighbourhood for access points.

Assuming that the adapter is working , PeasyWiFi is very good at making connections.

Sylvander · #37 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 18:35

What is "the I/F button"?

greengeek · #38 Post by **greengeek** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 19:15

Sylvander wrote:What is "the I/F button"?

On the first picture in the first post of the thread you can see the I/F button at bottom left of the Peasywifi dialog box. If you click this button it makes Peasywifi take a look at the wifi interfaces that it finds installed on the machine. If it finds one (or more) it will list it's device type eg: eth1 or wlan0, depending on what type of hardware it is.

Once you have this information it can be used to tell Peasywifi whether it needs to connect to eth1 or wlan0 etc.

If the particular wifi device is not properly installed or supported by the kernel then Peasy can't see it or connect it. (but then - nothing can). So the first challenge is to use a puppy that supports the device (ie correct module plus any required firmware) and then Peasy can handle the connect/disconnect phases.

Sylvander · #39 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 20:13

Thanks for the explanation greengeek.

Understood.

rcrsn51 · #40 Post by **rcrsn51** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 21:12

greengeek wrote:Peasy

We need a better nickname. I am going to suggest PWF.

gcmartin · #41 Post by **gcmartin** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 21:46

Hello @Rcrsn51

Questions

Have you brought this new facility to the attention of those on the Slacko thread as they progress thru the development phases?
Are you a member at WOOFCE for GIT?

Your effort, here, on this seems to offer advantages in w/l use and problem discovery.

rcrsn51 · #42 Post by **rcrsn51** » Thu 03 Jul 2014, 23:02

Have you tested it yourself yet? A report would be nice.

Also, I have absolutely no idea what "w/l use and problem discovery." means.

rcrsn51 · #43 Post by **rcrsn51** » Fri 04 Jul 2014, 13:50

Update: PeasyWiFi (hereafter known as PWF) v2.0 has two additions.

1. You can now, at your peril, use Auto with Encrypt. See the discussion here.

2. If you have an unsupported WiFi adapter, you probably need to do some kernel modprobing/blacklisting. If you don't want to bother using the Puppy BootManager, you can insert the commands directly into PWF. Go to /usr/local/peasywifi and open peasywifi in a text editor. At Line 5, add the required commands. For example, this would be a convenient place to invoke

Code: Select all

modprobe ndiswrapper

greengeek · #44 Post by **greengeek** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 06:06

Just used PWF 2.0 on an old version of Turbopup and it was successful at connecting. Didn't really expect this as it is a very old pup, so I'm pleased that it worked.

The only issue I had was that during the installation the installer said that peasywifi_tray was missing a dependency - libgio-2.0.so.0 which has the effect that nothing appears in the tray. No biggie - PWF is available through the menu and works fine.

rcrsn51 · #45 Post by **rcrsn51** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 09:25

Excellent. The tray tool was compiled in Wary 5.3, so it is backwards compatible a fair distance. You could also drag /usr/share/applications/peasywifi onto the desktop. That would be easier than launching it through the menu.

I am hoping that v2.1 will be FINAL for a while. There really isn't anything else to add or fix.

I am still trying to figure out the best way to kill off Frisbee. What at PITA.

greengeek · #46 Post by **greengeek** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 09:35

rcrsn51 wrote:I am still trying to figure out the best way to kill off Frisbee. What at PITA.

I suppose it will depend on how Frisbee got to be there in the first place. In my Slacko 5.3 installation it was not originally there and I added it as a .pet, so I was lucky enough to be able use the PPM to delete Frisbee.

Different story with other puppies where Frisbee is already grafted in. I do remember reading that in such instances you can sometimes install the same program from PPM (even though it is a part of the main puppy sfs) and then uninstall it and the original files disappear. I guess that might work sometimes...

rcrsn51 · #47 Post by **rcrsn51** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 09:47

I am going to upload another v2.1 package that contains a second, larger, icon. It will be more appropriate for running PWF off the desktop instead of the tray.

LateAdopter · #48 Post by **LateAdopter** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 10:15

hello rcrsn51

I am still trying to figure out the best way to kill off Frisbee. What at PITA.

When I want to stop something running at startup, I just remove the execute permissions. That way I can always reenable it easily.

The only puppy, I have with frisbee running, is emsee saucy. I took away the execute permissions from /etc/init.d/frisbee, which is the script that runs frisbee at startup. Then it doesn't run.

I haven't tested PeasyWiFi because my PC is only 2" from the router connected by wire!

rcrsn51 · #49 Post by **rcrsn51** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 10:20

LateAdopter wrote:The only puppy, I have with frisbee running, is emsee saucy. I took away the execute permissions from /etc/init.d/frisbee, which is the script that runs frisbee at startup. Then it doesn't run.

Thanks. The one that is giving me trouble is PhatSlacko which has integrated Frisbee. Even your suggestion wasn't good enough. I eventually killed it, but now I don't know how I did it!

[Edit] See the new instructions on Page 1.

rcrsn51 · #50 Post by **rcrsn51** » Sat 05 Jul 2014, 13:46

rcrsn51 wrote:I am going to upload another v2.1 package that contains a second, larger, icon. It will be more appropriate for running PWF off the desktop instead of the tray.

Done. This will be more convenient for users with small displays or poor eyesight, or for old Puppies where the tray icon does not work.

Drag /usr/share/applications/peasywifi onto the desktop.

Use Right-click > Edit Item to change the title.

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PeasyWiFi - a reliable WiFi connection manager