Wifi Config GUI for the Zipit
Sat, 02/27/2010 - 09:45 | 
mozzwald
I started working on a gui interface to configure wireless on the Zipit and got something that works, but is still very rough. I decided to post it and see if anyone else could lend a few keystrokes. :) The script can be downloaded from HERE and the connection template from HERE.
I tried to put as many comments throughout to make it a bit easier to understand what's going on. Here's a brief rundown of how it works. There's some variables at the beginning that set some options and tell the script where to save/read files (connection templates).
When run (as root), the script checks if it's supposed to auto-connect. If so, it runs the startup function which scans and connects to a network that already has a save file or lists the available networks for you to choose. If auto connect is disabled, the script displays a tray icon (using Zenity) that when clicked will display a dialog with options (connect, disconnect, etc). Currently, the options in the dialog do nothing. I'm mostly using this as an auto-connect script on startup.
My future plan is to use Xdialog instead of zenity. I think Xdialog will run a little faster than Zenity, although Xdialog does not have a tray icon feature so Zenity will still be required for that. Only WEP works for now, but I have put in some preparations/ideas for WPA in the comments. The connection template contains a line that syncs your zipit time with time.nist.gov. This works, but you will need to setup your local timezone for it to be correct.
Please post any changes/suggestions/ideas/code in the comments.
Tags: 
Using Nexus's image.. no
Using Nexus's image.. no matter what I do i cannot get the local time zone to show up... im always UTC as my local time zone no matter what.
tzdata setup
Sounds like you need to setup your timezone. Try this: dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Iv'e tried that... also I
Iv'e tried that... also I have tried editing /etc/timezone by hand, and even tzselect with no luck... i have notices there is no /etc/sysconfig/clock file ot even an /etc/sysconfig directory. I was wondering if that had anything to do with it?
zoneinfo
The timezone under Linux is set by a symbolic link from /etc/localtime to a file in the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory that corresponds with what timezone you are in. For example, if you're in South Australia, /etc/localtime is a symlink to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/South. To set this link, type:
ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/your/zone /etc/localtime
Have a look in the directories under /usr/share/zoneinfo to see what timezones are available.
I probably should have
I probably should have included in my last post that I have tried setting my symbolic links too. This has me at a loss as I have even tried reinstalling and starting the root nexus image also and am still stuck displaying UTC for my local timezone no matter what I try. I guess for now I will just be subtracting 4 hours from my displayed time until I can figure something else out. I am going to try to update the kernel... seems like a bug
I'm not sure what else to
I'm not sure what else to suggest. It's always worked for me no matter what userland I've used. Which kernel are you using?
I take it that LXNM is still
I take it that LXNM is still not being friendly? I'll try your script out, I'm sure it will be handy, but the one thing I can't get working is to choose a wireless router from among multiple using the same name. The GUI managers always handle it, I assume they see which one has the higher strength and connect by MAC address. Any tips on that would be welcome, I'll be reading through your wireless script here shortly.