JP mentioned there was a job opening for someone to run the wifi section of Zenwalk. I know a fair bit about wifi, but I would ask what would be the goal of wifi in Zenwalk? Roaming laptop support? Home network connectivity at boot? Wifiradar doesnt seem to cut it, but what else is there?

iwlist

Edit: Sorry, once again I just skimmed the other posts before reading it. If you are interested go ahead and let JP know, there is lots that could be done in the area. I think that the option to connect at boot up if the wireless network is available would be nice, you could also test for more than one network depending on what the user wants. I think that we would probably want a wireless-firmware package containing as many legal firmwares that we can put in it, a wireless-drivers, and mabey an edited wifi-radar?

Hey,

Now that I think about it, I might want to try maintaining the WiFi related packages. I've messed with WiFi a fair deal, and could try working on this. I already have 2... really 3 cards total that I could work with (all different chipsets, and I can easily borrow others). I personally don't mind WiFi Radar, they have added a few long needed features - but I think that if anything is needed, why can't we code it? I don't code in Python, but I  don't think it would be too hard to figure out for just editing it.

Cheers,
sega01

PS: Yes, I don't think anything will ever beat iwlist and iwconfig - but most users want a GUI :-).

Im perfectly happy with the base tools and a handful of scripts. i use wpa_supplicant to connect to all my networks, as it does this already. just list them and it takes care of it. I just dont know what the users want...

The idea really is to make it easier for newbies, or save time for the experienced.

Example:

On Pardus, when you boot up it fires up its network tool (i don't know what its called) and all you do is click on the icon in the bottom corner, a list appears above it and you click on which ever essid you want. If the network has no security, you will be connected in seconds. With security? Maybe a click or two more to type in your password.

This beats the hell out of trying to figure out how to use iwconfig, iwlist, and wpa_supplicant when you are a newbie.

Also they have some sort of system for detecting interface types, and installing (or modprobing already installed ..) drivers to make the work for the user very close to none.

For something as basic as internet connectivity (ok, i use the term "basic" lightly considering how complicated networking actually is on a low-level) this should be how we do things on Zenwalk, I feel.

So who is the maintainer now? Can we pump up a thread with a) what the user wants from Zenwalk in the networking area and b) Possible solutions/skrips/hacks for a)

I think good (wireless-)networking could get ZenWalk  far ahead of other Distros...