I have a system that does *not* have a graphical desktop installed, nor do I ever plan to. I have its wired ethernet working just peachy. Now I want to configure a USB wireless ethernet and scratching my head. Particularly since I don't use NetworkManager, everything is manually configured. That said, if I enable NM, I see this in /var/log/messages: NetworkManager[26900]: <info> rfkill0: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-2/1-2:1.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill0) (driver rt2800usb) NetworkManager[26900]: <info> WiFi hardware radio set enabled NetworkManager[26900]: <info> WiFi enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file NetworkManager[26900]: <info> WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file NetworkManager[26900]: <info> WiMAX enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file NetworkManager[26900]: <info> Networking is enabled by state file NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01). NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): new 802.11 WiFi device (driver: 'rt2800usb' ifindex: 4) NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1 NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): now managed NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 1 -> 2 (reason 2) NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): bringing up device. NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): preparing device. NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 2). kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready NetworkManager[26900]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 2 -> 3 (reason 42) Looking at 'lsmod | grep rt' I see: rt2800usb 18780 0 rt2800lib 71865 1 rt2800usb crc_ccitt 1717 1 rt2800lib rt2x00usb 12696 1 rt2800usb rt2x00lib 48438 3 rt2800usb,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb mac80211 552581 3 rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib cfg80211 619515 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211 And lastly ifconfig shows the interface present: lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:1401 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1401 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:177957 (173.7 KiB) TX bytes:177957 (173.7 KiB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:87:35:1C:07:BF UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) Great ... now how do I configure this sucker? When I turn NM off, that interface disappears. I'm assuming I can create an 'ifcfg-wlan0' configuration but what do I need to put in there so it knows to connect to my home wireless (with password) and all of that fun and exciting stuff, and continue to do that over a reboot.