On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:13:14 +0100, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote: > [..] > > The only relevant change is, IMHO: > > > -bssid = B4:14:89:D0:31:E3 > > > +bssid = B4:14:89:83:F9:B3 > > > > Why is this happening? Multiple APs with same ESSID? > > I happen to connect my laptop on my university's WiFi, which has ~600 APs > which all provide 3 ESSIDs…
That's what I expected.
> > Other than that, I see nothing "unsuitable" for /etc/. Consider this
> > snippet of
> >
> > a newly-found network:
> > > +[B4:14:89:83:F9:B0]
> > > +afterscript = None
> > > +bssid = B4:14:89:83:F9:B0
> > > +encryption = True
> > > +has_profile = False
> > > +encryption_method = WPA2
> > > +essid = epfl
> > > +postdisconnectscript = None
> > > +beforescript = None
> > > +hidden = False
> > > +predisconnectscript = None
> > > +channel = 1
> > > +mode = Master
> >
> > Those are reasonable things to be kept under /etc/, I'd say.
>
> I disagree. If it is not something I (as user with "root" rights) have
> manually entered, it's not suitable. As told above, if I happen to walk
> around with my WiFi on, I will encounter 100's of APs, which will all land
> in /etc/ while I haven't configured anything to connect to them.
>
> > Maybe "channel" can change, but it doesn't change that often, and it's
> > needed for connection, so I'd keep it too.
> >
> > Here's my proposal: let's drop all the networks with "has_profile = False"
> > (and let's drop "has_profile" too altogether). Sounds ok?
>
> Honestly, I really think that /etc/ should be kept for "root user" hand
> configuration. All the network configurations I hand to wicd trough non-root
> GUIs have (IMHO) nothing to do in /etc/ but can perfectly live in
> /var/lib/wicd/${USER}/configs/${ESSID} .
There's surely room for improvement. But it'd require drastic changes to the
code -- and time.
What you want is per-user configuration; while /etc/ only retains "system"
configuration (i.e. manager-settings.conf).
I agree it's needed, but no-one complained about it until now, so don't expect
a quick fix :)
Re the writing to /etc/: at the moment, the user is not really unprivileged.
You have to add it to the "netdev" group to be able to connect, and you must be
root to do so. So you know that wicd users are going to write to /etc/wicd/.
> As a personal "crash test", I consider one should be able to run Debian with
> /etc mounted readonly (I know it will fail due to /etc/resolv.conf, etc, but
> those are bugs too IMHO).
Wicd can connect (apart from resolv.conf); just don't change any setting :)
More seriously, that's just because of the missing per-user configuration.
> Furthermore, my /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf has ~ 4000 lines; it's
> absolutely not suitable to be edited by hand.
I'd say that's because of all the has_profile=False ones, which could be safely
dropped.
I'll work on it. Would you be interested in pre-testing packages?
Kindly,
David
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