PeasyWiFi - a reliable WiFi connection manager

[rcrsn51]

Thanks for listening to the squeaky wheels.

I tend to get my opinions from the last person I talk to.

It is the only net manager that has correctly modprobed the lib80211_crypt_ccmp and lib80211_crypt_tkip libs on its own for the ipw2200 drivers.

That's interesting because PeasyWiFi does NO modprobing at all! It relies on the kernel to initialize the wireless interface. So what are these other network managers doing?

I do need the dropwait option for that card so have added it into your pet with the initial value in /root/.peasywifi set at 0..

Could you post a snippet of modified code instead, so other people can see it? Or post the whole PET if you prefer.

The nice thing about PeasyWiFi is that you can easily modify the script for special situations.

Thanks.

[Marv]

That's interesting because PeasyWiFi does NO modprobing at all! It relies on the kernel to initialize the wireless interface. So what are these other network managers doing?

Could you just post a snippet of modified code instead, so other people can see it? The nice thing about PeasyWiFi is that you can easily modify the script for special situations.

Thanks.

The encryption libs puzzle me a bit too. I started with the bare carolina, checked with lsmod after boot and only the ipw2200 drivers were loaded. Ran peasywifi sucessfully and rechecked immediately with lsmod and the crypt libraries were present and loaded correctly. With Frisbee, SNS, and Dougal, using wpa2 ALWAYS returns an "invalid password" using the ipw2200 until I manually modprobe the crypts.

Attached is a gz with the lines I modified or added in /usr/local/peasywifi/peasywifi. Short as I could make it. To run the modified version, the original .peasywifi must be removed so it will be rewritten with the modified one.

[rcrsn51]

Thanks for the mods. I hunted through jemimah's code and I suspected as much. I am going to change it slightly in case the dropwait argument is something other than -j. When I tested this in an old Puppy, it choked on "-j 0".

The module loading is a mystery. Maybe line 14

Code: Select all

ifconfig $INTERFACE up

is triggering it. Do a restart and try it from the command line using your interface.

[Edit] Here is what I suspect is happening. PeasyWiFi is using wext as the default driver and it is smart enough to load the required modules. The other managers are picking a different driver from Puppy's wifi driver database and it doesn't load the modules.

[rcrsn51]

Marv: I have posted v1.8. I changed DROPWAIT to the more flexible OPTION. See the Help for details.

[greengeek]

Just tried v1.8 on a slacko 5.6 derivative (no savefile) running on an Acer netbook and it works perfectly.

After running the 'make profile' the name of the new profile is not immediately reflected in the 'auto' tab so I can't select it straight away. Is this part of the same 'must_restart_peasywifi' requirement you mentioned before or might there be some way around this?

(would be nice to make a profile and set it as auto in the one session if poss - not that its hard to start peasywifi now that I realise I can use the taskbar icon instead of the menu )

[rcrsn51]

Is this part of the same 'must_restart_peasywifi' requirement you mentioned before

Yes.

or might there be some way around this?

Not without a major restructuring. However, you could just manually paste the profile name into the Select a Profile box. But it would be safer to do a restart so you get the name right.

not that its hard to start peasywifi now that I realise I can use the taskbar icon instead of the menu

Exactly.

Thanks for testing. I think that we are close to the end of this little project.

[Marv]

Marv: I have posted v1.8. I changed DROPWAIT to the more flexible OPTION. See the Help for details.

Thanks, I'll test it on the ipw2200s.

Edited once: Works just fine. OPTION="-j 15" used for my ipw2200 laptops. No dropwait needed for my iwlwifi laptops so the OPTION line is left at the default on them.

[greengeek]

Can I make one more suggestion before you wrap up? I think it would be really handy if there was some way to combine/extend the functionality of the eth0 and I/F buttons...

Imagine if I could click a button called "choose interface" and it would let me do the following:
1) Switch to eth0 (as your eth0 button does)
2) Set export interface to eth1 (extend functionality of I/F button instead of manually editing /root/.peasywifi)
3) Set export interface to wlan0 ( " " ")

...so that the I/F window that currently shows the options for choice of wifi interface (wlan0 or eth1 depending on machine) could also show eth0 (if present) and allow selection between them - automatically updating the .peasywifi config as required.

[rcrsn51]

Here are my thoughts on this idea.

1. I need to get some house painting done this week.

2. There are a number of situations, like Marv's, where people need to manually edit their config file. So it's worthwhile learning how to do it. This is Puppy Linux after all - people are expected to get their hands dirty.

Thanks for all your help.

Bill

[rcrsn51]

Hi guys:

I have posted v1.9 and fixed a few things.

1. There is now a Config button on the toolbar that directly opens the config file in a text editor. So you don't have to hunt for it.

2. I have (hopefully) improved I/F detection. But this needs more testing.

3. If you try to access a non-functioning server, you may end up with a bogus 169.254.x.y IP address. But because your machine now has a lease for that address, you can't connect to a working server until you destroy the garbage lease. The Disconnect button now does that. Follow it with a reboot.

A bogus IP address can also occur if your WiFi adapter is not working correctly, usually because of a driver problem.

-----------------------------------

[Marv]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

What is "the I/F button"?

[greengeek]

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]

Thanks for the explanation greengeek.

Understood.

[rcrsn51]

Peasy

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