talk about going around robinhood's barn...

[Mike Padlipsky <the map alum mit edu>]

... or maybe hunting heffalumps.  but apparenty the only way i can 
perhaps get what i take to be a simple question about networkmanager 
answered is to 'post a message to all the list members' and hope 
somebody either knows the answer or at least can aim me at whoever 
the unspecified-anywhere-i-could-spot purveyors of this program the 
apparent web site of which 
[http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/] seems to have been 
composed by an old-line ibm salesman, since all it does is tell you 
how great it's going to be.  [unless, of course, i'm supposed to 
plink the red hat inc. link since they're the copyright holders, even 
tho i always thought there were only copyleft's in this world.]

answer by direct netmail, as we called it when we were inventing it, 
please, since as should be obvious i'm not on the mailing list and 
have no desire to be on it.  [don't ask why; i might answer ... at 
far more length than you'll want to see.]

so, here's what i want to know:  how, if at all, can i get 
networkmanager to offer me a choice between both the built-in wifi 
widget in my new lenovo 3000 n100 [which i think of as "VistaSystem 
1" because, like playstations, if you work incredibly hard you can 
get at the computer you know is in there rather than just do the 
things it wants you to do -- as in play playstation games on 
playstations and use vista on vistastations -- provided you're 
willing to run the super grub disc to clean up after incredible 
obscenities that vista commits upon the mbr if you happen to need to 
use the now dual-booted vista that comes with the thing ... and which 
will wipe out your linux along with everything else on the hard drive 
if you have to reinstall the bloody vista], which isn't the ipw3945 
i'd been misled to believe it was going to be, but some broadcom 
thing that's apparently not going to be usable on linux yet [i speak 
after a week or more of trying to get it to work ... and, of course, 
failing], and the airlink usb thing i picked up for 12bux at fry's in 
case i could never get what i thought at the time was the ipw3945 to 
work, but it was supposed to on linux, especially ubuntu 6.10, which 
i happened to choose for reasons i've already forgotten but i think 
had something to do wit the ipw3945 was supposed to work with it.

ok, that's a rather involved sentence.  and it doesn't quite make the 
real point, which is that there's the built-in wifi on eth1 that 
doesn't work and this usb wifi on eth2 that should work, but all 
network manager seems to do is notice eth1, so how can i make it 
notice both [and then select the latter] -- or can't i make it notice 
both and i'll have to wait for ubuntu 7.04 which is supposed to 
support the built-in [i think]?

and PLEASE don't tell me to switch to your favorite 'distro' 
instead.  i just invested another several hours doing a clean 
reinstall of 6.10 in hopes of clearing away all the messes i'd made 
trying to get all three of the wifi widgets to work and then either 
get the usb one to work or wait until 'feisty' comes out officially 
because there's enough about the current ubuntu that i do like that i 
don't intend to abandon it ... this time; i've abandoned any number 
of 'distros' over the last few years, and i think i'm finally willing 
to stay with it.  so if i have to use bloody vista to get at the 'net 
from my living room when i want to get at the net from my living room 
for 6 weeks or so, so be it.

for that matter, don't ask me exactly which broadcom and zydas chips 
are involved either.  i know that neither might be workable [except 
for the fact that somehow i did get one of them -- i think the usb 
one -- to work, once, it's just that it wouldn't work the next time 
and i couldn't recreate what i'd done to accidentally make it work 
after that], but all i want to know is how i can i get netmanager to 
let me see/choose between eth1 and eth2.

and yes, i have wasted far too much time looking for anything 
remotely resembling documentation on networkmanager.  all i found was 
a probably outdated 'faq' which was no help and which didn't indicate 
how to communicate with whoever wrote it ... unless the plinkable 
last revised by item that led to a logically blank page was meant to 
be the way to communicate, in which case it's broken.

thanks, and

cheers, map

[whose shoulder problems caused him to break down some time ago and 
create a 'signature' file to apologize for the lack of his formerly 
customary e-volubility -- and who's been employing shiftless typing 
for a long time now to spare his wristsnfingers, in case you didn't 
know ... and who's further broken down and done 
http://www.lafn.org/~ba213/mapstuff.html , rather grudgingly]