Chapter 5 - How to Kill Your Wireless Without Really Trying

So in my quest for an app that lets one move easily between networks, I managed to kill my wireless. Here's the Reader's Digest Version

• Searched for apps


• Found this site http://tuxmobil.org/wireless_unix.html


• Decided to try Wlanassistant


• Got the error "/etc/resolv.conf not writable
• Tried to edit /etc/resolv.conf from command line
• After much crying and gnashing of teeth I found out that Debian doesn't let you edit /etc/resolv.conf!
• Tried to configure wireless using wavelan configuration and kwlan as I had done previously
• Found out that wavelan configuration utility needs pump which was removed by Wlanassistant
• Attempt to reinstall pump
• Eventually give up and reinstall Knoppix
• For some reason it took me several installations before I could get wireless to work again

So here's my current problem (which I haven't really had time to research).

Kwlan is unable to start WPA supplicant which allows me to configure the ip address, enter password (for encrypted networks), and enter DNS server information. This is not neccessary when using an open network such as at the public library or at a coffee house. It does become rather tedious when returning home or logging into the network at work since the information has to be entered in manually with wavelan configuration each time.

I've found many other candidate applications but after killing wireless once, I am reluctant to do anything that might cause me to have to install once again and start from zero with programs and configurations.

So, I'm going to try to find a way to get WPA supplicant to work.

In the meantime I've been

1. Trying to get an decent OCR program running (I tried ocrad/kooka and had terrible results)
2. Trying to figure out why Kalarm doesn't want me to work out on Tuesdays. It consistently crashes on Monday nights while I'm sleeping. I may try a different song.
3. Trying to figure out my IM situation. Gaim lets yahoo spam through and I'm tired of people telling me about "a great adult website I found!". I tried to install the Linux version of yahoo but ran into dependency problems. Yahoo online works ok but I have to remember to login. I just started working on this today so I'm sure I'll come up with something.
4. Trying to find a way to play wma files. Apparently there are codecs for Xine which make this possible.