Starting The Network (Before Xfce Is Loaded)

[Pleng]

If I toggle wifi from minimenu, or any other desktop environment, before XFCE has been loaded, I am unable to connect to networks. If I load an XFCE session and then switch to another desktop environment, I am able to connect from within that environment. What is XFCE loading that minimenu isnt??

 

[paulguy]

Could be networkmanager. I figure there'd be something for connecting to a wireless network in the other WMs, but I haven't used anything other than xfce and no X at all. Either way I use wpa_supplicant directly and a small shell script to set things up, like power save/rate tweaks and IP and stuff. I had awful luck with networkmanager, personally. I should retry it with the new driver I have yet to try.

 

[Pleng]

No, I can launch network manager... and I can toggle wifi.... but nothing's connecting... I'm guessing networking hasn't been enabled. I wonder if I need to start networking manually.... how would I do that?

 

[Pleng]

sorted - just needed to add the line nm-applet & to my chosen gui's startup sequence.