Bugzilla – Bug 131523
Configuring WLAN with external tools fails
Last modified: 2008-06-25 09:22:56 UTC
I often change my wireless networks on the fly and I don´t want to use YaST2 to set the wireless network, but some external tools. I noticed when I leave the SSID field blank I can´t use the WLAN interface. So I suggest adding such an option, so that the user can skip the network selection and configure only the device parameters with YaST2.
With Managed mode and no encryption or WEP encryption, you should be able to omit the ESSID. Or what exactly do you mean by "can´t use the WLAN interface"? What are the expected and actual results? Please attach the y2logs: http://www.opensuse.org/Bug_Reporting_FAQ#YaST By the way, what external tools? Aren't they able to configure the Wifi card all by themselves? It seems unusual to do half the config in one tool and half in another.
AFAIK the wireless networek interfaces use those "wireless extensions". What I mean is to let YaST configure the device (aka the kernel module and parameters) but doesn´t set the actual network, IP etc. This should be done by another program (a wifi-scanner or something). Unfortunately I don´t have access to the laptop on which I tested this now, but I´ll look for that ASAP. You can close the bug report, I´ll reopen if it doesn´ßt work as you told me.
OK, reopen if you get more info.
Ok I´ve some more info. What you said unfortunately doesn´t work, because when I don´t write a SSID the strongest network is connected to (as said in the explanation on the left side). I´d like to configure the hardware with YaST but configure the actual network with KWifiManager. YaST isn´t suitable IMHO when I´ve changing networks and it should have an option not to connect automatically to a network but let other tools do that (setting SSID, getting an IP address etc). The hardware configuration should still be in YaST though. Any more information needed?Or does this new network manager app allow searching for networks and connecting to them on-the-fly?
Yes, NetworkManager will be the preferred system for switching wifi networks. Anyway, do you really need to set the module and parameters? The udev system should load the module automatically.
I think it even works without using YaST (can´t test it ATM because I don´t have cards which work properly) but I´m used to configure my devices in YaST. Since it´s difficult to connect through wireless networks as it is now (I´ve to know the SSID and I can´t search for networks) I looked for an alternative. If network manager will provide that I´m really happy with that :) But what about just changing sao that "any" as SSID will connect to the strongest one and nothing won´t connect to any network at all. Or perhaps add some radio boxes for "strongest", "none" and "SSID" (would be best IMHO). This would be even more flexible and would let any user a choice which program to use.
Could you please give some info about this. As I wrote above device config should be in YaST2 but the user should have the choice which tool to use to connect to wireless networks. So there has to be an option in YaST2 which just skips all settings like ssid and doesn´t connect to a network, so that the user can use e.g. kwifimanager to connect to a network.
Reassigning to the new maintainer of yast2-network.
move to later
mass reopening all 10.2 LATER+REMIND bugs.
close all 10.2 LATER/REMIND bugs as WONTFIX. Reopen yourself if you still plan to work on it.