[CentOS] NetworkManager under CentOS 4 *without* GNome...

Sun May 24 14:57:57 UTC 2009
Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>

I have been *manually* dealing with my wired and wireless network
interfaces on my laptop.  I have a pair of config files (in
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/: ifcfg-eth0 (wired: Intel Corporation
82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile)) and ifcfg-eth1 (wireless:
Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter), both with
USERCTL=true (and ifcfg-eth0 also has ONBOOT=true).  I have manually
fiddled with the ESSID, etc. in ifcfg-eth1 when needed, but this is
tiresome.  I would like to use NetworkManager, since this sounds like
it might be easier.  I don't use the GNome desktop, so I probably won't
be able to use the stock GNome applet (this would not be a problem
normally since I would just write my own GUI thingy, but there seems to
be a complete lack of documentation for the GNome applet! But I have
the source code and will figure it out eventually.). I use FVWM as a
window manager and don't use a "desktop manager" at all. I run CentOS
4.8 on my laptop (and no, I am in no hurry to upgrade to CentOS 5).

I've started NetworkManager (as root) and started NetworkManagerInfo
(both as myself and a 'dummy' user with a vanila GNome desktop), but
NetworkManagerInfo complains that there are no network interfaces
available.  Where does NetworkManager/NetworkManagerInfo get information
about available network interfaces?  I know that *both* interfaces work
just fine using the manual startup (eg ifup eth0 and ifup eth1).  Is
there a config file I need to mess with?  If so, where is it?

I tried googling and could not find any difinitively usefull information
(http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/nm.shtml has some information for FC5,
but it is not totally helpful).

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller at deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/