[Tfug] Anybody try "wicd" as a replacement for Network Manager?

[Jim March]

I had heard there were issues with Network Manager in Ubuntu in
general and Gutsy specifically.  Hadn't had any problems until NM
completely tossed it's cookies on me today - literally vanished and
managed to do so in a fashion that left me unable to connect wired or
WiFi to *anything*, even via manual configuration.  Not good!

I brought my rig up with a Feisty LiveCD first to prove my hardware
was OK.  It was.  OK, did some digging, found other trouble reports -
and people who were ripping NM out wholesale and replacing it with
"Wicd".  Managed to get both the 1.3.1 (stable) and 1.3.4) ("testing")
.deb files downloaded and copied to an external USB disk.

Brought up my crippled Gutsy and installed the 1.3.4 and dayum, it's
all BACK.  I have wired and WiFi again.  With some interesting
goodies: I can detect WiFi nets that don't broadcast SSIDs and can
detect what type of security they have :).  It also has the ability to
auto-execute scripts on net connect (even do so depending on which net
it attaches to) and the ability to absolutely select a given WiFi net
(or wired of course) as default - and it'll stick with it.

It feels a bit "Geekier" than NM and a "granny type" user would need
more handholding - but not by THAT much.  Initial setup means running
iwconfig to determine what hardware is around and picking that from a
Wicd pull-down menu, and putting "/opt/wicd/tray.py" as a startup item
somewhere (under "sessions" in Ubuntu).  Should work for Dapper on up.

Instructions at:

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/linux/2007/10/18/ubuntu-gutsy-wireless-help

http://www.ossgeeks.co.uk/?p=166

http://wicd.sourceforge.net/features.php

Wicd:

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=194573

So far I'd call this highly recommended.

Jim