Re: A couple of observations

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Sat, 2005-11-19 at 09:47 -0600, Brian Millett wrote:
> 1) The gkrellm wireless plugin always seems to show the correct signal
> strength, while the nm-applet does not.  For example, as I type, my
> access point shows (gkrellm) 98%.  nm-applet -> 82%.  Then
> [bpm]$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
> wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"RunAway"  Nickname:"Prism  I"
>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point:
> 00:02:2D:31:39:60
>           Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Sensitivity:1/3
>           Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
>           Encryption key:XXXXXXXXXXXXX   Security mode:open
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality=82/92  Signal level=-7 dBm  Noise level=-144 dBm
>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:71  Rx invalid frag:0
>           Tx excessive retries:2  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
> 
> and 
> [bpm]$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
> wlan0     Scan completed :
>           Cell 01 - Address: 00:02:2D:31:39:60
>                     ESSID:"RunAway"
>                     Mode:Master
>                     Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
>                     Signal level:55/153  Noise level:13/153
>                     Encryption key:on
>                     Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
>                     Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
>                     Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
>                     Bit Rate:11 Mb/s

Did you mean to say that gkrellm says _89%_ rather than 98%?

In any case, something is funny here with NM since it seems NM should be
reporting the 82/92 value as well.  There are a few updates to the Linux
WEXT spec for signal quality that NM could be updated to follow, though
they weren't that would change the fairly strict interpretation of WEXT
signal quality that NM uses.

> 2) At work the WAP does not broadcast the ESSID.  nm-applet always comes
> up with only the wireless in the nm-applet menu, no wireless device
> found.  If I quit X11 and restart X11, it shows the wireless
> capabilities.  At home, I broadcast the ESSID and nm-applet always has
> the wireless capabilities available.

Did you mean to say that it only shows _wired_ devices in the menu until
you quit X?  That's probably more a fault of HAL I think.  Next time you
log in, can you execute 'lshal' from a terminal and attach the results
to a reply message to this list?

Thanks!
Dan