How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

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Fragadelic
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:11 am
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How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by Fragadelic »

It works well but I have to click on my home network and enter the key every time I reboot.

I checked and there doesn't seem to be a user config file for it.

A suggestion might be to have a .lxnm in the users folder with this info so it doesn't have to be entered on every boot.
firmit
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 7:08 pm

Re: How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by firmit »

Note: I am not a developer in the LXDE-team. The notes below is what I have read, and what I understand about LXDE and LXNM.

LXNM is a Network Deamon made to easily connect to a - especially - wlan. At the moment, looking through the code, it does not write a status file saving information about the last known configuration etc. Maybe it should, and frankly, this is not difficult to implement. Maybe this is a tip to the developers - why not save configuration files based upon the connection point, so when a user connects to a friends wlan when he's "revisiting his network", the configuration is already present, and there's no need to type in the key.

However, LXNM, is at the moment, not for persisting connection in the sense you are looking for - at least not at the moment. If you want to autoconnect to your wlan, I suggest you write your own configuration file where it is "meant" to be - /etc/network/interfaces

I will give you an example (my own configuration):

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auto wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
   wireless yes
   wireless-mode managed
   wireless-essid <homenetwork>
   wireless-key <homekey>
This minimal configuration is enough for my local wlan at home - and I believe it is quite universal. Swap <homenetwork> and <homekey> with your own SSID and KEY. Just add the code above to your interfaces-file and run

Code: Select all

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Also - try doing a reboot to make sure it connects automatically. Though, it should be enough to restart the lxnm-deamon:

Code: Select all

sudo /etc/init.d/lxnm restart
Remember, your key will now be exposed to readers of the interface-file. If you are worried about security, it is possibly to make an external encrypted key-file from the interface-file.
stefe
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:22 pm

Re: How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by stefe »

ho to use a passphrase rather than a key?

stefe
PCMan
Posts: 85
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:52 am

Re: How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by PCMan »

Please contact Fred Chien <cfsghost (at) gmail.com> for further info if you cannot get any help here. He developed and maintained this part. Other developers here may not be familiar with this tool since it's a little bit complicated. For me, I'm using network-manager myself, and some other users suggest wicd. If lxnm cannot make you satisfied, feel free to try other alternatives.

We don't force the users to use any component and there are always alternatives. This is LXDE.
stanjam
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:59 am

Re: How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by stanjam »

My connection has been persistent. It auto connects each time. Perhaps this has to do with madwifi. LXDE would not see my wireless (ra0). I installed madwifi in an attempt to connect, and configured madwifi to connect to my WPA. Now the network manager in LXDE sees my wireless card, and autoconnects each time I log in.
Fragadelic
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:11 am
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Re: How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by Fragadelic »

I ended up using Network Manager for the distribution I created.

I know how to set these up from scratch by hand but was inquiring about the lxde tool itself as I would prefer to use that instead of others.

Wicd is also very good.

All in all, LXDE is very impressive.

I've actually defended it to some that said it was just a collection of different tools just put together - well, thats what any desktop environment is isn't it - lol.
stanjam
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:59 am

Re: How to get lxnm to remember wifi connection info

Post by stanjam »

Yep, the Gnome Network manager will indeed work with LXDE. To get it to autostart you need to remove the "SHowOnlyIn=GNOME" line in the autostart, or add LXDE to it. Or you can move to something like wicd, which is what I use now. Wicd seems to work nicely, and I have not had any problems yet.
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