User interface to wifi connection [Solved]

[King_DuckZ]

Hello, it's about one year that nm-applet has disappeared after an upgrade, is there a replacement for that? Graphical or command line, but that doesn't require root access.
I recently installed a WPA2 wireless at home, and whenever I boot I have to login as root and run a .sh that calls wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd. It would be nice to skip the su/sudo part.

[Fitzcarraldo]

You don't say which DE you're using. GNOME? Xfce? E17? LXDE? Fluxbox?...

Anyway, what happens when you try to install nm-applet?

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$ su
Password:
# equo install networkmanager nm-applet
# equo conf update
# rc-update add NetworkManager default
# rc-update del wicd default
# /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
# exit
$ nm-applet &

To use NetworkManager you'll also need to block OpenRC from attempting to automatically initialize your network interfaces. This can be done by modifying /etc/rc.conf (if it has not already been done) to contain:

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rc_hotplug="!net.*"

[King_DuckZ]

Right, sorry, I'm using kde. Everything is up to date. I have just tried your solution, but I get an ugly icon with an ugly menu (something from gnome, seen the dependencies that nm-applet pulled in). The real problem, however, is that it doesn't work. It kills my connection (the one I started from the command line) and yet it reports to be connected. If I disconnect and reconnect it succeeds after a while, but in fact I have no network. A kde message then pops up saying that a network connection has been terminated. In the console I can't see any message.

I should say that I have wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd running in the background as root, and that I've edited /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf to contain the password of my wifi.

[Fitzcarraldo]

This is why it is so important for people to provide sufficient information to enable others to provide advice. If you're using KDE, you should be using the KDE front-end to NetworkManager, rather than the GNOME/Xfce/LXDE front-end nm-applet. You need to uninstall nm-applet and install the KDE Plasmoid (widget) kde-misc/networkmanagement, which is the standard KDE front-end to NetworkManager.

[King_DuckZ]

I had never heard of it. I remember nm-applet was also used on kde until one year ago or so. Good thing to hear there's a kde-specific frontend now
By the way, I removed nm-applet and its dependencies and installed kde-misc/networkmanagement-0.9.0.4 but... where do I find the widget? I can't see any new entry in the menu, nor anything by the name of "network" in the add objects panel.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I remember nm-applet was also used on kde until one year ago or so. Good thing to hear there's a kde-specific frontend now

The predecessor of kde-misc/networkmanagement was kde-misc/knetworkmanager and has been around since November 2009 (http://dot.kde.org/2009/11/07/introduci ... orkmanager).

By the way, I removed nm-applet and its dependencies and installed kde-misc/networkmanagement-0.9.0.4 but... where do I find the widget? I can't see any new entry in the menu, nor anything by the name of "network" in the add objects panel.

Click on Desktop Icons (the 'cashew') at the top right of the Desktop, select 'Unlock Widgets', select 'Add Widgets', enter "net" (without the quotes) in the Search box, drag the Plasmoid (widget) named 'Network Management' to the position on the Panel that you prefer, click on Desktop Icons (the 'cashew') at the top right of the Desktop, select 'Lock Widgets'.

[King_DuckZ]

System tray widget began to display the new icon automatically after rebooting. I can't find the widget you mention in the "Add objects" panel (if I type "net" in the filter I only see the comic strip widget), but having it in the tray is enough for now. Maybe I'm still missing some other package, but as far as I'm concerned this is solved. No more root login for networking! Thanks for your help!