Wicd
Related articles
Wicd is a network connection manager that can manage wireless and wired interfaces, similar and an alternative to NetworkManager. Wicd is written in Python and GTK+. Alternatively, a version of Wicd for KDE, written in Qt, is available from the Arch User Repository. Wicd can also run from the terminal in a curses interface, requiring no X server session or task panel (see #Running Wicd in Text Mode).
Contents
- 1 Installation
- 2 Getting started
-
3 Troubleshooting
- 3.1 Autoconnect on resume from hibernation/suspension
- 3.2 Importing pynotify failed, notifications disabled
- 3.3 D-Bus connection error message
- 3.4 Problems after package update
- 3.5 Note about graphical sudo programs
- 3.6 Eduroam
- 3.7 Two instances of wicd-client (and possibly two icons in tray)
- 3.8 Bad password using PEAP with TKIP/MS-CHAPv2
- 3.9 Wicd skips obtaining IP address on wlp
- 3.10 dhcpcd not running
- 4 See also
Installation
Base package
Install wicd, available in the official repositories. It includes everything needed to run the wicd daemon and the wicd-cli
and wicd-curses
interfaces.
GTK+ client
For a GTK+ front-end, install wicd-gtk, available in the official repositories. It includes everything needed to run the GTK interface of wicd and the autostart file for the client to appear in the system tray.
KDE client
For a KDE front-end, install wicd-kdeAUR[broken link: archived in aur-mirror], available in the AUR.
Notifications
To enable visual notifications about network status, you need to install the packages notification-daemon and python2-notify.
If you are not using GNOME, you may want to install xfce4-notifyd instead of the notification-daemon, because it pulls a lot of unnecessary GNOME packages.
Alternative
The wicd-bzrAUR buildscript is available in the AUR, which should build the latest development branch. If you need an alternative version or you just want to roll your own package, you can easily build it using ABS.
Getting started
Initial setup
Wicd provides a daemon that must be started.
First, stop all previously running network daemons (like netctl, netcfg, dhcpcd, NetworkManager).
Disable any existing network management services, including netctl
, netcfg
, dhcpcd
, and networkmanager
. Refer to Systemd#Using units.
Start the wicd systemd daemon and enable it at system start up.
Add your account to users group:
# gpasswd -a USERNAME users
If you added your user to a new group, log out and then log in.
Running Wicd in Desktop Environment
If you have installed the wicd-gtk and entered the desktop environment. Open a virtual terminal to run one of the following commands.
- To start Wicd as system service, start the
wicd.service
systemd unit.
- To load Wicd, run:
$ wicd-client
- To force it to start minimized in the notification area, run:
$ wicd-client --tray
- If your desktop environment does not have a notification area, or if you don't want wicd to show tray icon, run:
$ wicd-client -n
Running Wicd in Text Mode
If you did not install wicd-gtk then use wicd-cli or wicd-curses:
$ wicd-curses
Switching WPA supplicant driver
Wicd still suggests to "almost always" use Wext as WPA supplicant driver and defaults to it. This is outdated behavior. One should use nl80211 instead, except with old drivers that do not support it. The relevant option is located in Preferences > Advanced Settings.
Autostart
The wicd-gtk package puts a file in /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop
, which will autostart wicd-client
upon login to your DE/WM. If so, enable the wicd
systemd unit.
If /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop
does not exist, you can add wicd-client to your DE/WM startup to have the application start when you log in.
Scripts
Wicd has the ability to run scripts during all stages of the connection process (post/pre connect/disconnect).
Simply place a script inside the relevant stage folder within /etc/wicd/scripts/
and make it executable.
The scripts are able to receive three parameters, these being:
$1 - the connection type (wireless/wired). $2 - the ESSID (network name). $3 - the BSSID (gateway MAC).
Stop ARP spoofing attacks
The script below can be used to set a static ARP, to stop ARP spoofing attacks. Simply change the values within the case statement to match those of the networks you want to set static ARP entries for. Launch it as root:
#!/bin/bash #Set the parameters passed to this script to meaningful variable names. connection_type="$1" essid="$2" bssid="$3" if [ "${connection_type}" == "wireless" ]; then #Change below to match your networks. case "$essid" in YOUR-NETWORK-NAME-ESSID) arp -s 192.168.0.1 00:11:22:33:44:55 ;; Netgear01923) arp -s 192.168.0.1 10:11:20:33:40:50 ;; ANOTHER-ESSID) arp -s 192.168.0.1 11:33:55:77:99:00 ;; *) echo "Static ARP not set. No network defined." ;; esac fi
Change MAC using macchanger
See MAC address spoofing#systemd + macchanger + dhcpcd (no NetworkManager)[broken link: invalid section].
The script below can be used to change the MAC address of your network interfaces.
To change the MAC whenever you connect to a network, place this script under /etc/wicd/scripts/preconnect/
.
Take a look at macchanger --help
to adjust the macchanger command to your liking.
#!/usr/bin/env bash connection_type="$1" if [[ "${connection_type}" == "wireless" ]]; then ip link set wlp2s0 down macchanger -A wlp2s0 ip link set wlp2s0 up elif [[ "${connection_type}" == "wired" ]]; then ip link set enp1s0 down macchanger -A enp1s0 ip link set enp1s0 up fi
Troubleshooting
See Network configuration#Troubleshooting for troubleshooting wired connections and Wireless network configuration#Troubleshooting for troubleshooting wireless connections. This section covers only problems specific to wicd.
Autoconnect on resume from hibernation/suspension
If for some reasons autoconnect on resume from hibernation or suspension does not work automatically, you can manually restart Wicd by enabling the following service file for your user; see systemd/User#Basic setup.
~/.config/systemd/user/wicd@resume.service
[Unit] Description=Restart Wicd autoconnect service on resume After=suspend.target [Service] Type=oneshot User=%i RemainAfterExit=no ExecStart=/usr/share/wicd/daemon/autoconnect.py [Install] WantedBy=suspend.target
Importing pynotify failed, notifications disabled
In case the python2-notify package did not get installed automatically. You can install it from official repositories.
D-Bus connection error message
If wicd suddenly stopped working and it complains about D-Bus, it is quite likely that you just need to remove wicd fully, including and all its configuration files, and re-install it from scratch by first removing wicd. Then remove its configuration files:
# rm -rf /etc/wicd /var/log/wicd /etc/dbus-1/system.d/wicd*
Then reinstall the package. Check this link for more details: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=577141#p577141
Wicd-client also throws a D-Bus connection error message ("Could not connect to wicd's D-Bus interface.") when wicd is not running due to a problem with a config file. It seems that sometimes an empty account gets added to /etc/wicd/wired-settings.conf
in which case you simply have to remove the
[]
and restart wicd.
If the above does not work, you could try https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1268721
Problems after package update
Sometimes the wicd client fails to load after a package update due to D-Bus errors.
A solution is to remove the config files in the /etc/wicd/
directory.
# systemctl stop wicd # rm /etc/wicd/*.conf # systemctl start wicd
Note about graphical sudo programs
If you are receiving an error about wicd failing to find a graphical sudo program, install one of gksu, ktsussAUR, or kdebase-runtime, then use the relative command:
$ ktsuss wicd-client -n
$ gksudo wicd-client -n
$ kdesu wicd-client -n
Eduroam
See WPA2 Enterprise#Wicd.
Two instances of wicd-client (and possibly two icons in tray)
See the note in #Running Wicd[broken link: invalid section] about the autostart file in /etc/xdg/autostart
and the forum post and bug report provided in #External Links[broken link: invalid section]. Essentially, if /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop
exists, remove it. You only need the wicd
service enabled in systemd.
Bad password using PEAP with TKIP/MS-CHAPv2
The connection template PEAP with TKIP/MS-CHAPv2 requires the user to enter the path to a CA certificate besides entering username and password. However this can cause troubles resulting in an error message of a bad password [1]. A possible solution is the usage of PEAP with GTC instead of TKIP/MS-CHAPv2 which does not require one to enter the path of the CA cert.
Wicd skips obtaining IP address on wlp
This can be caused by dhcpcd running alongside wicd as systemd service. A solution would be to stop/disable dhcpcd.
dhcpcd not running
Normally it should not be required, nor recommended to run the dhcpcd service next to wicd. However, if you encounter the error message that dhcpcd is not running, then you can try starting the dhcpcd
systemd unit and see if you encounter any incompatibilities when using both services at the same time.
Alternatively, as a workaround you might consider switching to dhclient in the Wicd settings.
See also
- Forum post about two instances of wicd-client and
/etc/xdg/autostart
- Bug report mentioning /etc/xdg/autostart and wicd-client behavior