HOWTO: Automatic network configuration

[blueplazma]

Still the same - scanning not supported.

You might need to look into the networking forum to see if your specific card is supported under Ubuntu.

[ulisse]

Ok, I've seen how to configure whereami to choose between a static wired connection and a wireless, the choiche is all about the cable, if it is inserted or not.
But I can't figure out how to set it up for two static-ip wired network, with different IP ranges.
I have this IP at home network: 192.168.254.253
and this other at work: 192.168.0.251

How can I determine on wich of the two network I am?

[ulisse]

No matter, I solved using "Divine", it can be configured for many static networks and uses ARP instead of ping to determine on wich network the laptop is (either I completely ignore what it means...).
Divine can be found here: http://www.fefe.de/divine/

[reckless2k2]

My eth0 is not a problem no matter where I am but I'm having problems with multiple wireless configurations (home, work, random detect of broadcasting ssid).

#detect.conf

#use wired by default
default down

#check for an ethernet cable in the wired interface
testmii eth0 wired

if wired #if it finds a cable
set INTERFACE eth0
notat down #then there must be some kind of connectivity, let's use it
else
notat wired #no cable found, must not be wired
always set INTERFACE eth1
testssid <myhomessid> secure-wireless #make sure your ssid is present
testssid <myworkssid> work-wireless #make sure your ssid is present
fi

#whereami.conf

=rm /etc/network/interfaces.last

+secure-wireless cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.last
+secure-wireless cp /etc/network/interfaces.wireless /etc/network/interfaces
+secure-wireless /etc/init.d/networking restart

+work-wireless cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.last
+work-wireless cp /etc/network/interfaces.wireless /etc/network/interfaces
+work-wireless /etc/init.d/networking restart

+wired cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.last
+wired cp /etc/network/interfaces.wired /etc/network/interfaces
+wired /etc/init.d/networking restart

As it's set now, even if I'm at home, it will look for my work ssid. If I take out my work profile, then it "stops" at home wireless and works. How can I make it work that at home it'll stop at my home ssid and at work it'll detect my work ssid?

Also, is there a way to detect nonsecure broadcasting networks and setup like if I were at coffee shop with free wireless?

Thanks.

[coaxx]

blueplazma,

thank You very much for Your good HowTo.

Next days I will configure settings for my notebook (different wlan places, vpn, wired) and will sho 'em (hopefully working) configs here...

Anybody else having experience with devine??

[pestilence4hr]

	=rm /etc/network/interfaces.old

+home-wired /etc/init.d/networking restart
+home-wired /etc/init.d/firestarter restart
+home-wired setresolver search <put in your settings here>

There are really three things that need explanation here. First is the equals sign (=), which means to always perform the command, regardless of which network we were on before. The plus (+) means to perform this command only if we were not on this network before, and the minus (-) means to perform this command only if we were on this network before, but are NOT anymore. See the documentation for specifics.

Good post, but I think you might have a typo in here. According to the page you have linked to:

The 'equals' indicates that this action applies whenever whereami finds that you are in this location, regardless of whether your last location was different.

So, I think what you meant to type above was

=any rm /etc/network/interfaces.old

Otherwise it will try to execute /etc/network/interfaces.old whenever it is entering or exiting the network "rm". Is this correct?

[reckless2k2]

bump...bump...

...I'm begging...

is blueplazma even around anymore to respond?

in the meantime...I'm just using a custom script connected to Kwifi that I run on KDE startup. Dirty but it works. I'd like to get the whereami to work though.

anyone???

My scripts are in posts above....

[pestilence4hr]

anyone???

My scripts are in posts above....

I strongly suggest doing the following:

sudo whereami --scriptdebug shutdown
sudo whereami --scriptdebug

In between putting whereami into shutdown and running it again, you can also check to make sure the interfaces are down (i.e. ifconfig eth0 down). Using this debug feature, you should be able to figure out what's going wrong.

[mlomker]

Ran across this post while troubleshooting my detect.conf file. The version of whereami that I have on Hoary amd64 doesn't accept the following syntax, which I've seen in a variety of places:

testdhcp 192.168.1.0/24 home-wired

This works:

testdhcp '192.168.1.*' home-wired

Thought I'd pass that along in case someone else is having trouble with the tests.

[foxy123]

OK, I tried to configure it but miserably failed. I've got a laptop with wired and wireless connection (Broadcom chip PCMCIA card with ndiswrapper). So I need it to autoconfig three types of networks:

1. Wired unsecure
2. Wireless secure (with WEP)
3. Wireless unsecure and unknown

At home I usually use my unsecure wired connection with a direct cable to my router. However, sometimes I have to go downstairs and use wireless. So I want to plug out the cable, insert the card and get the connection without rebooting and changing anything.

However, sometimes I have to use laptop out of my home with a unknown wireless unsecure network. So I want to boot the laptop and hook on the network automatically. Yes, I know that I want too much.

So I decided to handle my home connections.

First of all I installed whereami and edited detect.conf file in this way (using this topic):

default down
testmii eth0 wired
if wired
set INTERFACE eth0
notat down
else
notat wired
always set INTERFACE wlan0
always testssid connexant secure-wireless
fi

then I created to files:
interfaces.wired

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
	script grep
	map eth0

# The primary network interface

iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth0

#iface wlan0 inet dhcp
#wireless-essid conexant
#wireless-key *******************

#auto wlan0

and interfaces.wireless

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
	script grep
	map eth0

# The primary network interface

#iface eth0 inet dhcp

#auto eth0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid conexant
wireless-key *******************
auto wlan0

basically I took a 'interfaces' file and commented wired stuff in .wireless and vice versa.

Then I edited by copy and paste from this topic whereami.conf file:

=rm /etc/network/interfaces.last
+secure-wireless cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.last
+secure-wireless cp /etc/network/interfaces.wireless /etc/network/interfaces
+secure-wireless /etc/init.d/networking restart
+wired cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.last
+wired cp /etc/network/interfaces.wired /etc/network/interfaces
+wired /etc/init.d/networking restart

well, as aresult nothing worked. I guess I did it too mechanically without really geting into it, but I am not good in it at all. I looks quite logical to me I do not know why it did not work. Any help?