Using wicd on Fedora 12

wicd is available for Fedora 12. The software can be installed automagically using Yum and it configures itself, minus a little tweak.

Note: you shouldn't really restart your system until you have finished the instructions. If you do, you'll have the software installed by not configured, and the system will still work how it used to (probably with NetworkManager) so the process will be pointless!

(Pretty Easy) Installation

To install wicd using Yum, the Fedora software manager, there are a few simple steps. If you are used to installing software, they should be rather familliar.

su
yum install wicd-gtk -y

If you used the command line, the -y bit of the command tells Yum to answer 'Yes' to any questions it may have: this is pretty safe, as it will just ask if you want to download it (which, of course, you do) and if you trust the source (which you do, as it's official).

SELinux (You Love It Or You Hate It)

If you try and run wicd now, it will fail because of a system-wide protection mechanism included with Fedora called SELinux. This is basically checks running programs are doing things safely ad correctly but is pretty heavy handed when they aren't. While wicd doesn't do anything it shouldn't, the RPMs are not configured to allow SELinux's support automatically. Thankfully, the fix is quick:

Use a super-user command line (Root Terminal) to issue the following commands:

wicd

restorecon -v '/etc/wicd/manager-settings.conf'

restorecon -v '/etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf'

restorecon -v '/etc/wicd/wired-settings.conf'

These commands restore some incorrect settings. Don't ask me how or why, it just does what needs to be done!

# On Fedora-14, which now has wicd in the repos, these files are in /etc/dhcp; which can be confirmed with 'man wicd-manager-settings.conf', etc. ~NEB

System Start-Up

There is just one more thing that needs to be done. It might not even need doing, but it's worth making sure. We want wicd to start-up with when you power on the computer. If you don't start it as a service, you will need to type the 'root' (super-user) password everytime you want to connect to anything. This is a pain but - thankfully - has a very easy fix.

Use a super-user command line (Root Terminal) to type the following:

chkconfig | grep wicd

It should read like this:

wicd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

The above line may not exist at all.
If it says '5: off', the service won't run when you start the computer. To change that, just type the following command so set it up properly (if the above line did not exist, the following command will add wicd to chkconfig):

chkconfig --level 2345 wicd on

NetworkManager should also be disabled if you have that installed. One quick command should be fine:

chkconfig --level 2345 NetworkManager off

Now you can restart your computer and start using wicd!

Page written by product namer BenArnold. It worked for him, it may not for you. It probably will, though, it's pretty standard stuff.