Hope this is not completely a result of my newbieness. I've been searching for ways to get my 14.1 installation online with USB wireless adapters. It seems hopeless.
Along the way I've seen advice to use something called 'wicd', with details of how to get the slack package, install and use it, etc. There is even mention of it in slack doc on 'configuration' - without any details of where it is. I have the 6-disc set, maybe it is on there but I don't know where.
I DO KNOW that there is a 'KDE-wicd' listed, but Alien Bob makes a big point of avoiding 'kde tools' as they are 'incompatible with slackware'.
Also, the link to wicd website is down, and there are no slack packages for wicd on SF or Launchpad.
Finally, there is mention of the 'packages.slackware.com' site, and I searched there, but the download links for wicd are broken - at least for me they lead to 'Forbidden' errors.
OK - so to get started, can anyone tell me where I might find a recent (later than v1.6.1) slackware 'wicd' package?
Many thanks.
jrc

it's in extra directory, just outside of Slackware directory
http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackwa....1/extra/wicd/
http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackwa....1/extra/wicd/

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For a USB adapter, I would recommend using NetworkManager rather than wicd, as wicd has not supported USB modems.
For advice on setting up NetworkManager, see here. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...9/#post5236776

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Thank you for your responses, I appreciate the help.

jrc

@jrch, just for a future note, http://packages.slackware.com/ can find any package that is in the Slackware tree, including items in extra, for almost any version (doesn't support any versions earlier than 8.1). And if you need to find out if a file belongs to a Slackware package, you can change the mode dropdown to content.

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OK, that does not appear to be factual. I went there, as I said. The search for 'wicd' turned up a listing; it had exactly two links for downloads; both of them just bombed out, saying 'no access' or something like that. If one is supposed to 'log in' I saw nothing at all that indicated that. So I just do not understand your comment.

OK. So I've tried to use this 'Network Manager', but failed to find any way whatever to activate it.
I followed the instructions in SLack 'Beginners Guide', aka 'configuration' guide., ran (as root) 'netconfig' which required:

a hostname;
a domain name (? what is this? Is it something that I'm supposed to know? Does it already exist?)
...
finally a choice, one of which is 'loopback'. I chose that, first time thru, following instructions.
Next time thru, I chose 'Network Manager'; ok, then after repeating all the same stuff I did before,
it said 'a Network Manager tab - or option - is being added to your (kde?) menu'.

Well I'm using Xfce, not kde. I am now unable to find any 'menu item' or any other way to activate this
'Network Manager'. Entering it at the command line (as root) just bombs, saying 'no such command'. I've checked
every 'menu' that shows on Xfce - the only thing is a 'network connections' thingy that also is lacking
in any clear discussion of how it is supposed to be used. It was there *before* I used netconfig the
first time, anyway.

Is 'that' what is being called 'Network Manager' ?

I am willing to do the steps; its just that there seems to be very little clear documentation on what to do.

jrc

Well, just for closure, I went back to packages.slackware.com, did the search for wicd, clicking thru I got a page with exactly two listings - one for the program, one for 'files included'.

Left-clicking on the package mirrors link gives me "404 not found".

Right-clicking and 'download link' on the package mirror link saved me one file of size exactly 1 kb. This cannot possibly be right.

Left-clicking on the 'see a list of files' link gives me several pages of filenames and directories, again showing the program cannot possibly be 1 kb only.

But even this is more than I got yesterday.

I don't really believe the problem is 'busy servers'.
jrc

As far as 'Network Manager' goes, I do not find any evidence of this file on my new Slackware 14.1 system, installed 3 days ago as a 'full install' of all packages but KEDI. I used, find, locate, which, everything I know of, from root home, turns up absolutely nothing with 'networkmanager', 'network-manager', NetworkManager', or 'Network-Manager'.
Meanwhile, here on LQ I see quite a few messages about NM being either missing or broken in new Slackware, and recommending use of wicd. That is why I was looking for it in the first place.
I did finally find it on a mirror somewhere out of the US, I don't remember how I found it. (NOT thru packages.slackware.) And the download size of the .txz is some 342 kb.

So I will try that approach for now.

to use it, first run as a root user in a terminal:
and when asked choose NetworkManager.

Then, as a regular user type:
to get a widget on the tray allowing you to set up your connection.

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Well, my thanks to all who posted. I am now online after working all day on it. I'm posting using this new Slack 14.1 now.
From my previous experiences on/off with Slack, this is a record *short* time - at least for me.

I think those who suggested Network Manager actually helped me out quite a bit. I believe what I see in Xfce settings menu as 'network connections' is in fact 'Network Manager'. I did use it, after downloading and compiling the Realtek driver for my tiny Edimax USB adapter, and eventually stumbled onto the right combinations. I think it 'is' NetworkManager because I see that daemon loaded at boot.

One more thing that helped was that I logged into my Linksys router (standard ip probably everyone in the world knows) and got all the data needed - ESSID (my network name), the default gateway, nameservers, etc etc.

But altho I did find a 'wicd' I never had to use it. With this new Slackware, it is easier, I should have gone to Xfce earlier and not tried to outguess everything from the command line ahead of time. I'm certainly no comd line guru.

The last hiccup came when firefox would not connect, even tho I had 4 of 5 bars showing wireless strength. I found I had somehow entered the wrong name for duckduckgo, my home page. So I was getting frustrated but it was actually connected all the time.

I'm grateful to everyone who helped, even tho I did get frustrated.

I spent some time with Debian 7 while waiting for my slack disks to arrive. It must be that awful 'systemd' or something, but that distro is very restricted in what software is allowed to run. Glad to be back to Slack.

Thank you PV.

jrc

There is no way to log in. Once I clicked on the link for wicd, it brought me to the following page:

http://packages.slackware.com/?r=sla...4-x86_64-4.txz

and when I clicked on the link to download it, it downloaded the package to my computer.

http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackwa...4-x86_64-4.txz

I'm not sure what happened with yours. My guess is that the mirror script linked to a server that no longer holds Slackware files (or was temporarily down), but I don't know who to talk to about fixing that. Either way, it can let you know where the file is, and you can go to your favorite mirror site to grab it (I usually use http://slackbuilds.org/mirror/slackware).

Either way, glad you got it working

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I think that Robby Workman takes care of the dynamic features of the website (thanks for these handy features, Robby), but for such a transient issue I'm not sure he can do much.

PS @All: whenever you come across an HTTP 404 (file not found) error or something like that, please take a note of the complete faulty URL to help determine which mirror was involved (and what file). That could certainly help to investigate the problem and fortunately solve it.

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