1WICD(8)                     System Manager's Manual                    WICD(8)
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NAME

6       Wicd - Wired and Wireless Network Connection Manager
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THEORY OF OPERATION

10       Wicd is designed to give the user as much control over behavior of net‐
11       work connections as possible.  Every network, both wired and  wireless,
12       has  its  own profile with its own configuration options and connection
13       behavior.  Wicd will try to automatically connect only to networks  the
14       user  specifies  it should try, with a preference first to a wired net‐
15       work, then to wireless.
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17       For wired connections, users have many  options  for  determining  what
18       network  settings  to use.  Wicd allows creation of an unlimited number
19       of wired profiles, each of which has its own unique settings.  The user
20       can  choose  to  automatically  connect  to a selected default profile,
21       choose a profile from a pop-up window every time wicd connects, or have
22       wicd automatically choose the last profile used to manually connect.
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24       For  wireless connections, users can select any number of wireless net‐
25       works to automatically connect; wicd will choose the one with the high‐
26       est signal strength to try to connect.
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28       If  the  user chooses, wicd will try to automatically reconnect when it
29       detects that a connection is lost.  If the last known connection  state
30       is wired, wicd will first try to reconnect to the wired network, and if
31       it is not available, wicd will  try  any  available  wireless  networks
32       which  have automatic connection enabled.  If the last known connection
33       state is wireless, wicd will first try to reconnect to  the  previously
34       connected network (even if that network does not have automatic connec‐
35       tion enabled), and should that fail, it will try both a  wired  connec‐
36       tion  and  any available wireless networks which have automatic connec‐
37       tion enabled.
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39       Wicd uses built-in linux wireless-tools, such as ifconfig and iwconfig,
40       to  get  and  configure network info.  There is some flexibility in its
41       use of DHCP, providing support for dhclient, dhcpcd,  and  pump.   Wicd
42       uses  wpa_supplicant  to  handle  all wireless encryption settings, and
43       uses a template-based system to create the configuration files used  by
44       wpa_supplicant.   These  templates can be edited, and new templates can
45       be created by the user and imported into wicd, allowing  connection  to
46       networks with uncommon encryption settings.
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STRUCTURE

50       Wicd  has two major parts: the daemon, which runs with root privileges;
51       and the user interface, which runs with normal  user  privileges.   The
52       two  parts  run as separate processes and make use of D-Bus to communi‐
53       cate.
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55       The daemon is responsible for making and configuring connections, read‐
56       ing  and  writing configuration files and logs, and monitoring the con‐
57       nection status.  The daemon's job is split between two processes: wicd-
58       daemon.py  and  monitor.py.   All  the connection status monitoring, as
59       well as the auto-reconnection logic, takes place in monitor.py.   Ever‐
60       thing else is done by wicd-daemon.py.
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62       The  user  interface  (stored  in wicd-gtk), which is made up of a tray
63       icon, a main GUI window, and its child dialogs, gets configuration  and
64       network info from the daemon either by querying it using the methods in
65       the daemon's dbus interface or by receiving signals  emitted  from  the
66       daemon  over  D-Bus.  Any configuration changes made in the user inter‐
67       face are passed back to the daemon, which actually applies the  changes
68       and writes them to configuration files.
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70       Since  the user interface just queries for connection and configuration
71       info from the daemon, it is possible to run wicd  without  the  GUI  at
72       all.   Also,  the daemon is started by wicd's init script during system
73       startup (before any user logs in), making it possible to use wicd  with
74       "headless" machines.
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USAGE HINTS

78       Choosing Alternate Tools
79       Wicd  supports  several  alternatives regarding the networking tools on
80       linux.  In the "External Programs" tab of the Preferences menu, you can
81       choose  your  preferred  DHCP  client, link detection tool, and routing
82       tool if the defaults aren't suitable for your  particular  distribution
83       or system.
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85       Custom Scripts
86       If you need to run any custom commands before or after connecting to or
87       disconnecting from a network, Wicd supports  this;  however,  you  will
88       need to have a graphical sudo helper installed (currently supported are
89       kdesu, gksu, and ktsuss). Also see /etc/wicd/scripts/ in FILES.
90       If you do not have a graphical sudo helper installed,  you  still  have
91       the  ability  to  use  custom scripts, but you will have to set them up
92       manually.  See  wicd-wired-settings.conf(5)  and/or  wicd-wireless-set‐
93       tings.conf(5) for more information on how to do so.
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95       Automatically Connecting to Networks
96       Wicd  uses  the  BSSID  to  recognize a particular network (and thus to
97       decide whether it should automatically connect to it).  If you are on a
98       network  that  has many different access points which all have the same
99       ESSID (many universities have such networks), there is an option in the
100       "Advanced  Settings"  to  "Use  these settings for all networks sharing
101       this essid."  With this option enabled, Wicd will autoconnect  to  that
102       network, regardless of which node it sees.
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FILES

107       /etc/dhcp/manager-settings.conf
108       This file contains global settings for Wicd.
109       See this file's own man page for more information about it.
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111       /etc/dhcp/wired-settings.conf
112       This file contains settings related to the wired interface.
113       See this file's own man page for more information about it.
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115       /etc/dhcp/wireless-settings.conf
116       This file contains settings related to the wireless interface.
117       See this file's own man page for more information about it.
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119       /etc/wicd/encryption/templates/
120       This  directory  contains  various  templates  for encrypted (WEP, WPA,
121       etcetera) connections.  If none of them fit your needs, you may  create
122       your  own and add it to this directory.  If you do this, please contact
123       the authors (see below) of Wicd.
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125       /etc/wicd/scripts/
126       Dropping a script in the relevant directory will cause it  to  be  exe‐
127       cuted  when the specified event is preformed upon connection or discon‐
128       nect from or to any  network.  Please  note  that  pre/post  disconnect
129       scripts  may  be executed multiple times on already-disconnected inter‐
130       faces.
131       Available directories are:
132       /etc/wicd/scripts/predisconnect
133       /etc/wicd/scripts/postdisconnect
134       /etc/wicd/scripts/preconnect
135       /etc/wicd/scripts/postconnect
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137       /var/lib/wicd/configurations/
138       This  directory  contains  individual  configuration  files  for   each
139       encrypted network you set up in Wicd.
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141       /var/log/
142       This  directory  contains logfiles of Wicd's activity.  Please refer to
143       the log if you are having connection or other problems.
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SEE ALSO

147       wicd-manager-settings.conf(5), wicd-wired-settings.conf(5),  wicd-wire‐
148       less-settings.conf(5),    wicd-curses(8),   ifconfig(8),   iwconfig(8),
149       wpa_supplicant(8),   route(8),    ip(8),    mii-tool(8),    ethtool(8),
150       dhclient(8), dhcpcd(8), pump(8).
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WICD AUTHORS

155       Adam Blackburn <compwiz18@gmail.com>
156       Dan O'Reilly <oreilldf@gmail.com>
157       Andrew Psaltis <ampsaltis@gmail.com> (curses client)
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MANPAGE AUTHOR

161       Robby Workman <rworkman@slackware.com>
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166                                  wicd-1.7.0                           WICD(8)
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