I have set up an Acer Aspire 5520 laptop with Wheezy and smxi.
Installed plasma-widget-networkmanagement for wireless networking.
This application is IMHO buggy, because it installs Kwallet too.
The wireless channel has security WPA/WPA2 Personal, so it has a password.
I also installed this widget on another computer without any problems, but on this one it keeps popping up the Kwallet upon entering X, and I have to enter password for it.
Only after that it will connect wireless, very annoying because setting is to connect automatically.
But that is not all, when attempting to run smxi it will not detect an internet connection, and ask to install several drivers, I suppose the best match would be option 1) at76c503a, because it is an Atheros card, here is info from lshw:

--------------------------------------------------------
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 00:1d:d9:12:c0:b2
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k driverversion=3.2.0-1.dmz.4-liquorix-amd64 firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.127 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
resources: irq:19 memory:d0400000-d040ffff
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not even sure that I need to do this, since wireless works on X, problem is that I have to wire computer for upgrades every time.
I could also post in Debian forums for support on this.
I am also thinking on uninstalling the widget and kwallet, and install some other solution, but will hold off until understanding problem better.
Thank you.

< Edited by ckosloff :: Jan 25, 12, 18:28 >
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That's unfortunate in terms of that kde app not following standard methods in terms of letting the system know networking is running.

wifi has always been an issue however.

Kelmo's ceni is much more stable and reliable in my opinion, that's why I include is the one aptosid item endorsed by smxi and installable by smxi.

I should probably update the version I have though.

I'd have to do some major data collection to see why that plasma wifi thing is glitching and not showing itself, gui wifi managers are often a pain to figure out and get running the way you want them to, ie, the way ceni runs it.
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Cannot say if kelmo is still in aptosid, their website is inaccessible for me, and I don't know why, it is the one inaccessible site.
Even then, I think their team info is outdated.
He is not in the IRC channel, and Ceni is not in Debian repos.
I am aware that smxi can install Ceni, the more I think of it I am leaning towards uninstalling (purging) the widget and kwallet, I have no need for an app that asks me for password all the time.
The interface is beautiful but buggy.
So, one question: if wireless works in X, it means driver is installed, so no need to install driver mentioned in smxi, right?
Will post question about the plasma widget in the Debian forums, and let you know.
I don't want to overwhelm you with questions that are better answered in the specific forum.
I think aptosid is a dead distro, latest release too old to be installed, problem is: who will maintain Ceni?
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yes, smxi is just showing some old behavior when it thinks there is no networking present, I should probably remove that feature to be on the safe side, it used to be more relevant when the system had to recompile various wifi drivers each kernel install, but it's much less common now.

I have no idea about kelmo's whereabouts, although I do wish him well given he was the most sane and competent person in the kanotix/sidux/aptosid project. I also hope he finds better ways to spend his life here on earth than hanging out with those guys, for his own good.
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Just to take some burden off you, I posted issue in Debian forums
forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=75146&p=416629#p416629
Since Ceni has no maintainer I think I will go with Wicd, but still have not decided anything.
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I'd install ceni, it is a perl script, simple, if it works now it should keep working, unless there's a dependency issue with perl at some future point.

I do not understand why ceni is not in debian, kelmo is connected to debian, it's a great tool, and it's simple. I also don't understand why inxi is not in debian, it's useful and nothing else really does what it does.
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I updated smxi, now it offers you two ceni versions, one for debian stable, and one for debian sid/testing.

That is found in package install, utilities.

This does not add repos, just downloads the debs from my serve then installs them.

I will update the sid/testing version now and then if I remember, to more or less track it, but given that I added version 2.21 in 12/25/2010, and version 2.24 was released in 2012, there's not a huge flood of changes coming to this script.
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Great! so now we have a Ceni maintainer.
Will purge the buggy widget and install that.
Will notify the guys at the Debian forums.
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I'm not a maintainer, period. I just grabbed the packages/source etc and use them via wget download.

Being a maintainer requires more commitment than I have, I maintain enough stuff as it is.
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Oh well, if you don't want to call yourself a maintainer so be it.
I am very happy with the solution you posted in smxi.
Purged the widget, it removed 23 packages, a lot of bloat, no?
At least it cleaned its network manager and kwallet too.
Installed Ceni sid version from smxi, perfect.
Init 6 to restart, configured Ceni from Konsole after becoming root, piece of cake, rebooted again, this time without wire.
Connection was fine, init 3 to shut X, smxi detected internet connection immediately.
The only thing I missed was no indicator, except the LED on the laptop, but I guess that is the trade-off for such an effective script, boot times are faster because the damn widget doesn't load.
Even after purging the damn thing I had to remove it from panel with right-click because it was throwing error.
So you are a solver ;-)
You do a great job.
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