VillageBox Support Page

[melodie]

Hi,
In Ubuntu, whether you start it or not from a desktop file or from the autostart file, the result is the same. The key is probably somewhere else "out there", in the python code or such.

My idea of the problem is that it belongs to the developers of the wicd program. I make use of it in Archlinux, where I am not using wifi for the time being. In Ubuntu I have reinstalled the gnome network manager package because it contains nm-applet.

I think nm-applet is better because it faces more situations, then as you know each user can switch later at will, if he wants another program better.

The ideal scheme here would be to be able to bring some valuable content with some relevant logs and precise information on the hardware, software used, conditions, and go bring some feedback upstream.

See here for information: https://bugs.launchpad.net/wicd/+bugs

The title of this issue looks like the issue we met when trying at home:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/wicd/+bug/415719

At the last pages of the bug reports, you can open the first bug and the last bug of the page, and notice one is from 2012 and the last one is the most recent as of 2013 and they seem to have been posted in the void for no one answered.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/wicd/+bugs?orderby=-importance&memo=&start=150&direction=backwards

This does not look very good to me.

[Taco.22]

My issue with network-manager-gnome is the amount of crud it brings with it.  Full install is 19.1/41.9mb including gnome-icon-theme and imagemagick(!), and even without recommends it's still 12.6/22.8mb - still with that dang theme.  What about network-manager on its own?  Maybe not - it needs a front end.  Problem is that Debian recommends wicd for lightweight systems like XFCE and OB without Gnome dependencies.  I hate getting too close to the likes of Gnome - I gave up on Nautilus because of all the tentacles.  Really starts to add ballast to "light-weight" systems. 

My main problem is that I don't have wireless here set up for Linux.  The two units using wireless are an iPad and a Windows laptop, so I don't have a way to test things.  However, thinking out loud, I could run VillageBox on USB through the laptop - that might give me a test bed.  Something to try out.

And don't ask about the Windows thingy - that was an accidental acquisition

[mimas]

Wicd could not connect to the wifi spot on my laptop when I tested Bento. It's strange because I use wicd to manage wifi connections on my archlinux and it works well. Is the Ubuntu version buggy ?

I'll try wicd again and look up for a way to resolve this issue.

[djohnston]

I'm using wicd-gtk --tray and am very happy with it.
There must be a permission conflict somewhere in that
directory.

Can you post a screenshot of wicd showing local wireless networks? Or a screenshot of the connect to a wireless network dialog?

[patrick013]

Can you post a screenshot of wicd showing local wireless networks? Or a screenshot of the connect to a wireless network dialog?

Yes, but I'm not using Scorpio right now.   I'll try it out on
the test reinstall of Scorpio I did on a flash drive.    Perhaps
that will replicate some problem.   The eth0 part works
fine on that however.

What does your terminal say about that ?     Perhaps kill it
and restart it in the terminal to get some error clue  ?

[djohnston]

I was finally able to connect to my wireless network using wicd. I booted from a standard Debian installation with the LXDE desktop. wicd is the network manager installed by default with the LXDE desktop packages. The wireless interface is not entered in the configuration by default. You have to fill in the blank. Left-click on the wicd icon in the systray. The app will scan for wireless networks and probably report there are none. Left-click the arrow to the right of the Refresh button to get a drop-down menu. Select Preferemces. Under the General Settings tab, fill in wlan0 for the wireless interface.



Save and close the window. Click the Refresh button, If you're lucky, some wireless networks will show. Click the Connect button for the one you want to connect to. If it's password protected, fill in the password. After saving the password, you'll have to click the Connect button again.

On the first three attempts, my wireless network would not negotiate the password. It's a long one, but nm-applet has no trouble with it at all. On the fourth try, the password was finally accepted. I waited for an assigned IP address. It failed. I tried a fifth time. The password negotiation was successful, getting an assigned IP address failed again. On the sixth try, after waiting about a minute, I finally got a connection. (Note that the password was entered only once. It was retained in the settings for each subsequent attempt.)

General comparisons:

wicd showed a signal strength of 97% for my network. nm-applet showed 83%.
wicd showed 3 available networks. nm-applet showed 6.
wicd took approximately 60 seconds to connect. nm-applet took approximately 5 seconds.
wicd took 6 attempts fo connect. nm-applet connects successfully the first time, every time.

YMMV

[patrick013]

Scorpio with wicd.

Works 100% here.

[Taco.22]

I finally managed to prise the Windows laptop from my daughter's hands!  I mounted VillageBox from a USB stick and using the default installed wicd-gtk went looking for our wireless network.  It doesn't pick things up automatically - you have to tell it to look.  I don't know much about wireless as I am firmly attached to our ADSL line!  I followed djohnston's instructions - it did find a network,  mentioned encryption and then wouldn't connect without a key.  Key, what key?!?  Turns out it needed a password.  Had to hit my youngest daughter up for that one!  So armed with a password and picking the right protocol I finally had the wireless network up and running.  I'm in new territory here - anyone else would have done that straight-up.  On our setup it was all straight forward.

My inclination is to leave WICD as default in VillageBox.  It works for some, not so well for others but it is the lighter of the options.  It is a bit like selecting a web browser - whatever is chosen as default will be replaced by a proportion of users with their own choice.  I guess if wicd-gtk really doesn't work for your system then you need to replace it with gnome-network-manager - with or without recommends I'm not sure.

Just out of curiosity, is it possible to get wicd-gtk to auto-connect to a wireless network like it does to a wired one.  I know it may ask for a password but if Windows and Apple can do it, why not Linux?     

[mimas]

> is it possible to get wicd-gtk to auto-connect to a wireless network like it does to a wired one.  I know it may ask for a password but if Windows and Apple can do it, why not Linux?

It is possible to do so with wicd. There is a checkbox "Automatically connect to this network" (or something similar) with every wifii network listed in the wicd-gtk windows. If wicd doesn't detect any wifi netkwork, well... you can't check it.

[patrick013]

My inclination is to leave WICD as default in VillageBox.   

I've always been happy with wicd whenever it was installed OK.
Preferences, Properties, have to have a few config's filled in.

The modem/router wireless key/password is usually on the
bottom of the unit unless somebody went inside (with the
router system password) and changed it.   Everything's
automatic then.    WEP has to be WEP, WPA2 has to be WPA2
also.     Can't mix those up.

[djohnston]

It is a bit like selecting a web browser - whatever is chosen as default will be replaced by a proportion of users with their own choice.

True.

I guess if wicd-gtk really doesn't work for your system then you need to replace it with gnome-network-manager - with or without recommends I'm not sure.

I like things as light as possible, too. That's why I did the following. After installing the network-manager-gnome package, I removed everything I could. Here's the full list of packages first installed, including recommended packages:

Code: [Sélectionner]

bluez (4.99-2)
dnsmasq-base (2.62-3+deb7u1)
gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 (3.4.2-1)
gnome-bluetooth (3.4.2-1)
gvfs-backends (1.12.3-4)
imagemagick-common (8:6.7.7.10-5)
libbluetooth3 (4.99-2)
libc6-i686 (2.13-38)
libcdio-cdda1 (0.83-4)
libcdio-paranoia1 (0.83-4)
libcdio13 (0.83-4)
libexif12 (0.6.20-3)
libgd2-xpm (2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-6.1)
libgnome-bluetooth10 (3.4.2-1)
libgphoto2-2 (2.4.14-2)
libgphoto2-l10n (2.4.14-2)
libgphoto2-port0 (2.4.14-2)
liblqr-1-0 (0.4.1-2)
libmagickcore5 (8:6.7.7.10-5)
libmagickwand5 (8:6.7.7.10-5)
libnetfilter-conntrack3 (1.0.1-1)
libnl-route-3-200 (3.2.7-4)
libnm-glib-vpn1 (0.9.4.0-10)
libnm-glib4 (0.9.4.0-10)
libnm-gtk-common (0.9.4.1-5)
libnm-gtk0 (0.9.4.1-5)
libnm-util2 (0.9.4.0-10)
libopenobex1 (1.5-2)
libsoup-gnome2.4-1 (2.38.1-2)
modemmanager (0.5.2.0-2)
network-manager (0.9.4.0-10)
network-manager-gnome (0.9.4.1-5)
obex-data-server (0.4.5-1+b3)
obexd-client (0.46-1+b1)
That's quite a list. I knew you don't need imagemagick packages for a network manager, so I set about removing anything unnecessary. After refreshing the packages list from the repos, I marked the following for complete removal and removed them:

Code: [Sélectionner]

gnome-bluetooth
imagemagick-common
libmagickcore5
libmagickwand5
obex-data-server
gvfs-backends
libgphoto2-2
libgphoto2-l10n
libgphoto2-port0
That left the following packages showing in Synaptic as auto-removable:

Code: [Sélectionner]

bluez
gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0
liblqr-1-0
libopenobex1
obexd-client
libbluetooth3
libcdio-cdda1
libcdio-paranoia1
libcdio13
libexif12
libgd2-xpm
libsoup-gnome2.4-1
After removing all those packages, as well, the total list of necessary packages for network-manager-gnome comes to:

dnsmasq-base (2.62-3+deb7u1)
libc6-i686 (2.13-38)
libgnome-bluetooth10 (3.4.2-1)
libnetfilter-conntrack3 (1.0.1-1)
libnl-route-3-200 (3.2.7-4)
libnm-glib-vpn1 (0.9.4.0-10)
libnm-glib4 (0.9.4.0-10)
libnm-gtk-common (0.9.4.1-5)
libnm-gtk0 (0.9.4.1-5)
libnm-util2 (0.9.4.0-10)
modemmanager (0.5.2.0-2)
network-manager (0.9.4.0-10)
network-manager-gnome (0.9.4.1-5)

Those are the ones still installed. Functionality is still the same. Note that libgnome-bluetooth10 cannot be removed without removing network-manager-gnome. Any bluetooth packages wanted can be reinstalled without upsetting the network-manager-gnome dependency chain.

[Taco.22]

OK, I bit the bullet.  I have removed wicd from my test VillageBox  and installed network-manager-gnome by installing only those items you listed as remaining in your previous post.  libc6-i686 was already installed, but gnome-icon-theme HAS to be installed, and it takes up most of the 24mb of install space!  I hate that theme!!  And why the hell tie in themes as dependencies??  But don't get me started!

Anyway it all seems to be working fine - I haven't tried to do anything with it as I don't do wireless, but the icon appears in the tray, gigolo works and info bit shows all the right things.  I'll sit on it for a bit - if wicd proves too problematic we may have to go with this, or we could at least try it out and see which one of the two is least problematic. 

[melodie]

Hi,

Wicd can be problematic at times, and it would need to be debugged and bug reported. And yes, gnome icon theme is the very load in those distros, including Ubuntu where I could get rid of it… just it was replaced by a theme yet bigger! ^^

Could you let me know about the link to the new version once available, so I can replace the former version?

[Taco.22]

VillageBox_2013-1 is now uploaded for evaluation.

VillageBox_2013-1.iso           442mb
VillageBox_2013-1.iso.md5   56b

This is VillageBox with the repos set to Wheezy Stable - will stay that way until the repos settle down.  There has been a general clean-up and error fixing, but the one big change is in networking.

Network-manager-gnome has been installed in preference to wicd, due to inconsistencies some users have been having with wicd.  It is a stripped down version of network-manager-gnome as per djohnston's efforts.  We can now do a back-to-back comparison between network-manager-gnome and wicd and see which is the least problematic.

I won't be putting this version of VillageBox out into the public arena until I am sure it works the best for the most.

[melodie]

I won't be putting this version of VillageBox out into the public arena until I am sure it works the best for the most.

Does this mean the above link should be the only one, or would you like me to add it to the webspace at tyruiop for convenient download anyhow?