[Mageia-dev] Drakxnet, drakroam and Draknetcenter : let's fix it or throw it.

Mon Aug 1 14:35:11 CEST 2011

Hi Wolfgang, *, 
+
+On Mon, 1 Aug 2011 13:10:08 +0200
+Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com> wrote:
+
+> 2011/8/1 Thomas Lottmann <skipercooker at gmail.com>:
+> > Hello,
+> >
+> > I should have written this mail much sooner, but finally, I am totally,
+> > completely and starting to be hatefully fed up of these tools.
+> >
+> > The Mandriva/Mageia tools that manage the network on computers, especially
+> > the wireless networks are completely dysfunctional. While the Network Center
+> > does not seem to even communicate with the system tools to know what is
+> > happening during the link setup, it does not auto-refresh network lists
+> > properly.
+> >
+> > Since 2010.1 now even mixes up itself in it's own network scripts (the ones
+> > stored in wireless.d). This maxes it wrongly detect numerous wireless points
+> > (he seen WPA2 Enterperise hotspots as opened or WEP, or more nerving,
+> > becomes incapable or storing the right authentication information). A tool
+> > that breaks itself is a complete shame!
+
+I agree, I had this happening to me as well. I'm running Mageia 1, the stable distribution, not a Cauldron installation. 
+
+I have already entered a bug report about my problem (see https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1263) and it is annoying. 
+without any reason (at least, not one, that I can see) my wireless connection disconnects and every try to reconnect ends in failure. And if I check then the configuration, the connection is set to either OPEN or WEP instead of WPA2. 
+
+> >
+> > The GUI is also appalling. Despite it's numerous possibilities, it is a mess
+> > and 60% of it cannot be used by something else than the system or a network
+> > expert.
+
+I don't have a specific opinion about the GUI. When it works, it's fine. I am wondering sometimes, what all those options are for, but since now, I've always managed to get a working connection, so this is not a mayor issue for me. 
+
+> >
+> > The code itself is undocumented and it extremely difficult to read.
+> >
+> > These tools are getting really bad and not working properly anyway since a
+> > long time now. So either we fix it and improve it (recoding?), either we
+> > definitely switch to Network Manager. I am ready to participate if necessary
+> > (despite my lack of competence), but I do not want to see these tools 'as
+> > is' on my computer anymore, and no longer want to see these issues that down
+> > Mageia's reputation in comparison to other popular projects here such as
+> > Arch, Fedora or Ubuntu, who do have proper tools delivered by default.
+> >
+> > This is not the first time I complain about this tool. We should not leave
+> > this unchanged. It is far too annoying and pushing to so much loss of time.
+
+I can't say anything about the code, I haven't looked at it. (Not that I understand much about coding). ;) 
+
+> 
+> While I cannot confirm the problems you are talking about in former
+> Mandriva (2010.x) nor in Mageia 1, I do have the problems in Mageia
+> Cauldron, mostly caused by (guess what?) - network-manager! I reported
+> about this in the forum
+> (https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=869).
+> Just current case: after an update run in Cauldron my wifi does not
+> connect, then connects and disconnects again after a few seconds.
+> After trying several measurements like removing the setup-script,
+> removing the connection in MCC, etc., all without result, I
+> de-installed network-manager and configured wifi again by the draktool
+> without NM - it works now.
+> 
+> As you see, my "mileage" varies from yours. :)
+
+Yes, indeed, the experiences vary. But this doesn't mean, that one opinion or experience can be dismissed because you have some different experiences. (Wobo, this is not meant as a comment to you personally, it's more a general comment!) 
+
+Sigrid
+