[NTLUG:Discuss] Laptops, Wireless & Network Routing

[Stephen Davidson]

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Hi Chris.

Chris Cox wrote:
> . Daniel wrote: 
>> I don't suppose you have considered switching distros have you?  Many have 
>> moved away from SuSE for moral reasons...
> 
> :)  Not an especially helpful comment... and just plain wrong for a
> myriad of reasons.  A distro switch is not going to fix the
> fundamental brokenness of NetworkManager.

Also impractical at the current time.  Maybe on my next upgrade cycle...

Rest of my response inlined.


> 
> However, using the ifup/ifdown way doesn't address the dynamics
> of an ever changing network (e.g. wireless on the move).
> 
> 
> 
>>> Greetings.
>>>
>>> I am having an issue with my networks, have been ever since SuSE started
>>> picking up and using my laptop's onboard wireless around 10.0.  Whenever
>>> the wireless card is enabled, when I am plugged into a LAN, the routing
>> >from the LAN's DHCP does not get picked up (with consequences I don't
>>> have to spell out here).  This failure occurs even when the wireless
>>> card can not find a network, and especially when there is a secure
>>> network that it can not log on to in the vicinity.  My 'workaround' has
>>> been 'pccardctl eject 2' (as the onboard wireless seems to be plugged
>>> into an internal PCMCIA port).  With the Network Manager in SuSE 10.1
>>> (and with the increasing availability of wireless networks), this is
>>> starting to become less workable.  I have been quietly googling for a
>>> solution, but have not yet found the appropriate search terms, and no
>>> fix has yet been issued.  Is there a config issue somewhere, or
>>> something else that I change to get this working properly?
> 
> 
> I'd switch to ifup/ifdown instead of using NetworkManager.
> Then for the /etc/sysconfig/ifcfg-eth-id-* for your wired adapter,
> I'd make sure you have STARTMODE='ifplugd' (actually, do the
> same for wlan interface too).
> 
> It's been awhile since I played with this.. but I don't remember
> it doing the wrong thing... :)

That seems to be my previous and current configuration.  I had to
disable NetworkManager completely in my current version, and in the
previous version of Suse, Network Manager was not yet available.  And
that version also had this issue.

Something else I have noticed now that I have started paying more
attention, I get the same issues when I have a PCMCIA LAN card plugged
into the side of my machine (sometimes I need to use linux laptop as
firewall/router for MS Laptop at customer site). To get that set up to
work, if I have the extra NIC plugged in when I boot, I have to pop the
nic and pccardctl eject 2, restart the network (so the onboard NIC can
get an IP Address and routing info), and then plug the extra nic and M$
machine in.  Things work very smoothly however when I am plugged into an
Open, Unsecure, Wireless Network.  (Plugging into secure Wireless
Networks is why I would very much like to get Network Manager working,
btw -- Security is a good thing).

I am hoping there is a way to get things working (like Secure Wireless
LAN) and working smoother (networking in general).  Any help would be
appreciated.

Regards,
Steve

> 
> 
>>> If it would be helpful, I can be at the Linux Install Project this 
>> Saturday.
>>> Regards,
>>> Steve

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