1WICD(8) System Manager's Manual WICD(8)
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6 Wicd - Wired and Wireless Network Connection Manager
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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.
16 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.
23 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.
27 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.
38 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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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.
54 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. Every‐
60 thing else is done by wicd-daemon.py.
61 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.
69 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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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.
84 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.
94 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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107 /etc/wicd/manager-settings.conf
108 This file contains global settings for Wicd.
109 See this file's own man page for more information about it.
110 /etc/wicd/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.
114 /etc/wicd/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.
118 /etc/wicd/dhclient.conf.template
120 This is used to replace /etc/dhclient.conf during Wicd activity, if
121 you're using dhclient(1) as DHCP client. See dhclient.conf(5) for more
122 information.
123 /etc/wicd/encryption/templates/
125 This directory contains various templates for encrypted (WEP, WPA,
126 etcetera) connections. If none of them fit your needs, you may create
127 your own and add it to this directory. If you do this, please contact
128 the authors (see below) of Wicd.
129 /etc/wicd/scripts/
131 Dropping a script in the relevant directory will cause it to be exe‐
132 cuted when the specified event is preformed upon connection or discon‐
133 nect from or to any network. Please note that pre/post disconnect
134 scripts may be executed multiple times on already-disconnected inter‐
135 faces.
136 The scripts will be passed different parameters, depending if Wicd is
137 acting on a wired or a wireless network. In the former case, "wired
138 wired wired" will be passed (three times, just for compatibility with
139 the wireless case). If Wicd is acting on a wireless network, it will
140 pass "wireless ESSID BSSID" to the script.
141 Available directories are:
142 /etc/wicd/scripts/predisconnect
143 /etc/wicd/scripts/postdisconnect
144 /etc/wicd/scripts/preconnect
145 /etc/wicd/scripts/postconnect
146 /var/lib/wicd/configurations/
148 This directory contains individual configuration files for each
149 encrypted network you set up in Wicd.
150 /var/log/
152 This directory contains logfiles of Wicd's activity. Please refer to
153 the log if you are having connection or other problems.
154
157 wicd-manager-settings.conf(5), wicd-wired-settings.conf(5), wicd-wire‐
158 less-settings.conf(5), dhclient.conf(5), wicd-curses(8), ifconfig(8),
159 iwconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8), route(8), ip(8), mii-tool(8), eth‐
160 tool(8), dhclient(8), dhcpcd(8), pump(8).
161
165 Adam Blackburn <compwiz18@gmail.com>
166 Dan O'Reilly <oreilldf@gmail.com>
167 Andrew Psaltis <ampsaltis@gmail.com> (curses client)
168 David Paleino <d.paleino@gmail.com>
169
172 Robby Workman <rworkman@slackware.com>
173 wicd-1.7.4 WICD(8)