Now before you all start throwing rotten fruit and vegetables at me, maybe some eggs as well, and the dog´s dinner... I know this has been done a thousand times, or more, already on the Internet.

Setting up a wireless connection on Slackware ARM on a Raspberry Pi

This is just a simple little project I did for two reasons.
1. I knew someone who might benefit from a tutorial such as this.
2. I´ve recently acquired a WNIC without any indication of make/model/version stamped on it.
4. I´m tired of tripping over damned Ethernet cables!!!
5. I needed to learn how to use ´wicd´ so I could appreciate what all the Debian and Ubuntu users were talking about whenever the term ¨network manager¨ is mentioned.
6. Jaffa cakes.

So, this project would be suitable for those who might find themselves in the same predicament as me with regards to anonymous wireless USB adapters. Or where connecting to the network via an Ethernet cable is simply not an option. Or if you just want to connect wirelessly for fun, etc.

I hope it leaves no stone unturned but if you think of something that should be there that isn´t, please let me know.

Read it, use it, have fun with it.

Cheers!

Nice work, however, I must ask what desktop are you using? Default Xfce setting for F10 is MenuBarAccel. If this is not changed and one is using Xfce4-terminal for SSH session, F10 will not save settings but instead pull down the window's File menu. I am using current but to follow your howto I installed wicd-1.7.4-arm-3 from 14.2. On my bananapro I can only use 'SHIFT' and 'S' to save if I back up to a tic box. Using that while still on the password line just appends an 'S' to my password. Might be different on your Rpi's, dunno, none to test with.

I I usually work headless and preferusing wicd to networkmanager but these little quirks are annoying. I also had to replace the netentry_curses.py script as going into Config with the right arrow was failing with the infamous bitrate error message after initial configuration. Again, this might be just a banana, not a raspberry, thing. I'll have to go back and install current's wicd-1.7.4-arm-1 and see how that goes now.

Hi justwantin,

First of all "thanks". You've probably taught me not to be so assertive in future. Fair dinkum cobber.

I have to admit, I do not own a Banana Pi and this wireless project was carried out on a Raspberry Pi 3 on command line, as stated in the tutorial. For all things Slackware ARM driven on the Banana Pi, Mozes is your man. However, that being said, it shouldn't make any difference as all software should work the same, I'm assuming, and that's where I've most likely dropped a clanger, that working with 'wicd' on command line is the same as in a terminal. As stated in the wireless tutorial, we were working from the command line and not within a desktop environment. You can use a mouse though. Have you tried clicking on 'Save' at the bottom with your mouse to see if it works? Again, this is a guess because I don't really know for sure. I'm not a great user of the desktop environment and 99.9% of the things I do in Linux are from the command prompt.

I did notice when I was looking for a wicd wiki or "how to use wicd for noobs" (like myself) that information was quite scarce. I even visited the #wicd channel on Freenode and hung out there for a day after asking the question, "where is the wicd wiki?" but received no response. So, after much ferreting around in the man pages and on the Internet I was able to find my way around enough in order to get it working to a satisfactory level. This doesn't help you though, does it? Hmmm...

I would try running 'wicd-curses' before you 'startx'. Or if you boot straight into the desktop, try exiting to the command prompt and running 'wicd-curses'. I'll look into this issue because obviously wicd might not accept F10 as an input key in the desktop as it's probably assigned to carry out some other function.

I've an article on docs.slackware.com where I talk abourt setting up an access point on a slackware box ... it's all runing on a rPI2 currently. There's a section where I talk briefly for connecting clients where I use wpa_gui which only requires wpa_supplicant to be started correctly.

Right justwantin,

I've done a few minutes of testing and found a solution.

From the desktop, after installing 'wicd' and starting it with '/etc/rc.d/rc.wicd start', run 'wicd-client'. From here it's easy, just click on your WLAN connection and enter your password. I've also tested running 'wicd-curses' in a terminal and the 'SHIFT + S' key combination worked for me. The 'F10' key did not work for me. I was using Xfce on Slackware ARM current.

I shall update the tutorial to accommodate these revelations. Thank you kindly for your feedback. It has been most helpful and enlightening.

Cheers!

Hi Louigi,

I have read that doc 100 times or more.

I usually setup WNICs by editing /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf manually.

That's why I made a point of stating in my OP that this procedure has been done many times before. There's more than one way to achieve this. I felt it was better to do it the easy way before asking users to try and get their head around editing the network configuration files in Slackware ARM.

I was on a Xfce desktop but logged into an SSH session on a bananapro where I was working CLI. The problem with F10 is it's default mapping in Xfce which prevents it being used in the SSH session with Xfce4-terminal to save the configuration. There is no problem if one were to use Xterminal or UXterminal. I have changed F10's default setting in the Settings Editor because I do allot CLI in Xfce4-Terminal and use F10 with midnight commander and mcedit.Yes that will work from my desktop in either an SSH session or via UART which I also use a bit.

I do not boot into an x session on my sbc's, however, I usually install Xfce though in case I do and I have out of frustration in the past started an Xfce session via SSH just to access wicd-gtk and setup wireless. Never figured out how to use wicd-cli. Pity, its much more straightforward to use scripts with wicd compared to network manager. For example, a two line ntpdate script in the postconnect directory sets the system time at boot when rc.wicd runs.

If you haveto read it hundres of times maybe I need to rewrite it to make it easier to read and understand: any comments are welcome (and/or wiki edits)

... no need to mention that with my DDI you can have your dongle connect automatically when you plug it in the usb port ... but that requires even more editing

I prefer to get my head around the basics of it rather then getting my head around the way some other fancy UI aid tool developer wants me to do something ... LOL

I used to do edit manually wpa_supplicant.conf but I discovered that wpa_gui was better then me at spotting unnoticeable differences and writing into wpa_supplicant.conf the correct values for accessing any arbitrary AP ... so I tend to use wpa_gui for adding new AP.

There´s nothing wrong with your guide, or any other guides, on Slackdocs. Usually I go through the same set of instructions many times over because I´m searching for one specific piece of information in order to make ends meet. The amount of information I can be dealing with at any one given time is only relevant to me until the desired knowledge is attained or results/outcome are achieved. So, I guess you could say my memory is ´session based´. Then I´ll move on to the next thing and deal with that. Obviously, some things are remembered but there is so much information about so many things that one cannot be expected to recall every piece of it at will. For that you need places like Slackdocs and Linux Questions forums, amongst others.

Even though I created the SARPi Project website, wrote all the tutorials, projects and guides, I still go back and read through them as/when needed. So, it serves me as a reference and also all other users who find it helpful.

Well a lot of the wiki articles I've written also have come back handy to myself
This morning I added a chapter about remote administration to the one I mentioned earlier.