[SOLVED] Minor issue after today's system update.

[Papasot]

Package json-c was upgraded today from version 0.13.1 to 0.15. A few packages requiring json-c were recompiled as a result (most notably gimp). slapt-get -u does pull new version of gimp (and the other packages affected by this change) but does not pull the new version of json-c itself. As a result, packages recompiled against the new version of json-c fail to run. The solution is trivial, I guess.

I am more concerned about another thing though. As of August 1, wicd is removed from Slackware-Current, mainly because it doesn't work with newer versions of Python. The changelog says "NetworkManager is a better choice these days", a statement I totally disagree with. In fact, NetworkManager, is the worst network manager I've ever seen (and yet they picked that name for the application, as if it was the only choice for a network manager). Currently, wicd works on Slackel but I am not sure for how long.

[djemos]

Done. Gimp and other packages run now.
Also 3 other slackel packages as zuluCrypt run also without need recompile.

Do a slapt-get -u and new json-c will upgrade.
Since python2 and python2-module-collection packages exist wicd will continue to work. I think that python2 will continue to exist. I have done a back up of these packages just in case to not break packages need python2.
From a research i done, i show that wicd also removed from Gentoo.
I have NetworkManager installed also in my system and it is working fine.
you can test it without remove wicd.
sudo slapt-get -i network-manager-applet
sudo service stop wicd
sudo service start networkmanager

[djemos]

Well, last month wicd drop connection. Then trying to reconnect it fails a lot of times. When connect drop connection when click in a web link. Other times can work without problems for hours.
This happened again this morning. So i connect with network-manager and have no problems. I will use network-manager to see if wireless is stable.

Edit: network-manager is stable.
I used wicd again and has problems, reconnecting.
I will keep wicd and urwid on slackel repository since they have been removed from slackware.

[Papasot]

Do a slapt-get -u and new json-c will upgrade.

Last night I upgraded json-c manually (so gimp was working again) but trying to stapt-get -u pulled the old version of json-c again (which was expected since the problem wasn't fixed yet). Today slapt-get -u does not pull the old version anymore. So problem solved indeed.

Well, last month wicd drop connection. Then trying to reconnect it fails a lot of times. When connect drop connection when click in a web link. Other times can work without problems for hours.
This happened again this morning. So i connect with network-manager and have no problems. I will use network-manager to see if wireless is stable.
Edit: network-manager is stable.

I had the exact opposite experience. I use Wicd for years now, both on Slackel and Salix. Setting up my hidden wi-fi was a piece of cake and Wicd itself never dropped connection. Occasionally, Internet connection is dropped in my region (and that's Internet's provider's fault, not Wicd's); in such cases I might need to reconnect manually (sometimes Wicd does not do it automatically when Internet connection is back). That's the single "problem" I ever had with Wicd - a single mouse button click in rare cases to reconnect.

It is true that the extremely annoying problems NetworkManager had in the past were solved, but last time I tried, it still had issues with USB wireless adapters, especially the ones using Realtek chipsets (unstable connection or no connection at all). I tried three diferent wifi adapters and none worked with NetworkManager while they all worked flawlessly with Wicd. I didn't try NetworkManager lately because I had no reason to deal with it. And even if Wicd becomes obsolete, I have no intention to deal with NetworkManager again. I am already looking for a replacement, in case Wicd wouldn't be an option anymore. connman seems to be the most popular choice, and there is a nice GUI/applet for it named connman-gtk, which fits with Slackel Openbox and MATE (there is also a Qt applet which fits to KDE version). connman is the default network (and bluetooth) manager on AntiX and it works fine. It seems to me a good candidate to replace WIcd.

[djemos]

I know connman. The version 1.32 is working fine while the latest 1.38 has problems with dbus.
So i made 32 and 64bit packages for connman, cmst, connman-gtk and are on repos. It is a good choice and very stable. cmst has more details but i prefer connman-gtk.
I will use connman+connman-gtk for a couple of days to test it.
So wireless has been solved and there are wicd, networkmanager and connman with front ends for users to choose.

[Papasot]

I did the big mistake to give NetworkManager another try. And it immediately reminded me what a crappy piece of software is. It actually did connect to my wifi, but "Edit Connections" in its menu didn't work, so I could not set my wifi as the default. Even worse, literally anything that needed sudo didn't work either in X (including Gslapt, Gparted, etc). wm-logout didn't work as well. At first, I thought "it can't be because of NetworkManager, that's too much". But I uninstalled it, reinstalled Wicd, and everything worked as usual again. I'm sure there is a way to make that crap called "NetworkManager" work properly. But I will not bother with it again.

I know connman. The version 1.32 is working fine while the latest 1.38 has problems with dbus.
So i made 32 and 64bit packages for connman, cmst, connman-gtk and are on repos. It is a good choice and very stable. cmst has more details but i prefer connman-gtk.
I will use connman+connman-gtk for a couple of days to test it.

Indeed, connman is in repositories and it works! I am using it now for testing as well. And yes, conman-gtk is a bit simplistic compared to cmst but better that than using Qt libraries in Openbox just because an applet needs them.
However, If the latest version of connman has issues with Dbus, I'm not sure it can be a permanent solution as a network manager.

[djemos]

connman -1.38 problem with dbus solved. The connman packages after 1.32 version, have a problem which affects dbus and slackware. They copy files in /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/ and not in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/. I fixed this in SLKBUILD

Code: Select all

mv ${PKG}/usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/connman-vpn-dbus.conf ${PKG}/etc/dbus-1/system.d/connman-vpn-dbus.conf
mv ${PKG}/usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/connman.conf ${PKG}/etc/dbus-1/system.d/connman.conf
mv ${PKG}/usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/connman-nmcompat.conf ${PKG}/etc/dbus-1/system.d/connman-nmcompat.conf

connman-1.38 is on repos.

[Papasot]

connman -1.38 problem with dbus solved. The connman packages after 1.32 version, have a problem which affects dbus and slackware. They copy files in /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/ and not in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/. I fixed this in SLKBUILD

I just did the normal system update today and saw connman was upgraded to version 1.38. because of that "dj" at the end of the package name and the fact Slackware-Current changelog doesn't mention connman, I suspected the problem with Dbus was resolved by djemos. Indeed, I didn't encounter any issue (since I use connman already in one of my Slackel machines for testing). I was about to ask about it, but found the answer already here. Thank you Dimitri!
By the way, there is a service called just wireless which is set to start by default at system boot. Being curious, I changed that, reboot without it started, and wifi connection still works. Is there any particular reason that service is cron'ed?

[djemos]

I have wireless service stopped here. I don't remember to set it up to run at boot. (From Slackware: The script 'rc.wireless' must be executed by 'rc.inet1)
This service is used to set up wireless the Slackware way, using the script /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1
Also latest cmst version uploaded on repos.