Wireless LAN for Runlevel 3 in Fedora Core 12
I’m writing this guide for Fedora Core 12, but I’m sure that it’s the exact same procedure for Fedora Core 11. It does not work pre Fedora Core 11. Also, this guide uses GNOME as a GUI.
I see that some folks over on FedoraForum.org are struggling with this. Hopefully this guide will help those who, like me, need a wireless connection from runlevel 3.
If you are not in runlevel 5 already, run “startx” in your command line to get to your GUI. You do not need to do this as root but you *will* need root access further down. Right click on the Network Manager icon and select “Edit Connections…”
On the Network Connections dialog which appears, switch to the Wireless tab, select the wireless connection that you wish to have available in your runlevel 3, then click “Edit…”. If your wireless network is not set up at this point, you will need to Add it first.
Once you provide the root password, you’ll be presented with the properties of the connection. Here, make sure you place a tick in the “Connect automatically” and “Available to all users” check boxes, then click “Apply…”
Reboot and your wireless should connect at runlevel 3. Let me know if this has or hasn’t worked for you and if there’s anyone who has managed to get this behavior from just the command line, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Related posts:
I just noticed that the upcoming release of Fedora 13 will have a command line tool for NetworkManager operations. Here is the link for more information: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NetworkManagerCmdline
Here is a script I wrote for just such occasions: http://geekinsnthings.homelinux.com:4444/bwifitool.sh
You may need to stop NetworkManager. Should be fine if it’s running and not connected.
Here is a tarball with a version for locked networks:
http://geekinsnthings.homelinux.com:4444/bwifitool_1.01.tar.gz
Ben,
The issue is not connecting to a wireless network from the command line.
It is to set the connection to survive a reboot to runlevel 3.
As you can see from my post, I know how to achieve this by doing it via a GUI, like GNOME.
What would be useful is to learn how to achieve the same result from just the command line.
Add this to /etc/rc.local if you like:
iwconfig wlan0 essid your_network_here
dhclient wlan0
Network Manager is awesome! I've recently connected my Fedora laptop to Cytamobile Vodafone 3G via my Nokia E75 mobile. It only took me like three clicks.