Re: difference of nm to others

[Jirka Klimes <jklimes redhat com>]

On Monday 05 of December 2011 06:27:33 Harish Mandowara wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> what is the difference between network manager and wpa_supplicant.
> 
> Is network manager internally using wpa_supplicant.

NetworkManager is a software that manages network connections such as wired, 
WiFi, WiMax,3G, Bluetooth, etc. It uses other tools to be able to do that, 
such as dhclient for DHCP, ModemManager for 3G, wpa_supplicant for WiFi, etc.
* http://projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager
* http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetworkManager

wpa_supplicant is 802.11i and 802.11X supplicant software that can 
authenticate and connect to wireless networks, perform roaming, etc.
* http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wpa_supplicant

So, yes, NetworkManager calls wpa_supplicant to be able to connect to WiFi 
networks. D-Bus protocol is used  for communication with wpa_supplicant.
See also source:
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/tree/src/supplicant-
manager

Jirka