Internet Connection Wizard

This is what runs when you click the 'connect' icon on the desktop.

I am trying to add more useful functionality to it, without cluttering it up too much. Here is the latest:

(note, if you read this blog sometime in the future, this image may have got updated).

I still don't know if the new Pppoeconf package works. I uploaded a tarball, announced here:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/200807/pppoeconf-for-testing.html
...but nobody has.
Never mind, it will be in 4.1alpha5.
The thing is, even if it works, I don't know how it saves its settings and gets re-connected at future boots. Will have to sort that out. Perhaps in the above picture, there will need to be a radiobutton for PPPOE-Connect.

For the GPRS entries in the picture, they only appear if Puppy has found suitable hardware.

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Comments

Internet Connection


Simplify the Internet GUI
Username: linuxcbon
"Please simplify, you could write like this : Connect to internet by : - Wired or WLAN - PPOE - Dialup analog modem - GPRS modem And you could remove the desktop connect icon choice and make always start the wizard. It's easier for the users. Thanks in advance.

Internet connection
Username: dogone
"Perhaps this should open to a "simple" dialog offering just the connection options detected, sans jargon. One of Barry's excellent wizards could take the newbie from there. An alternative "expert" dialog could take the user to the nastier stuff.

Labels
Username: SouthPaws
"Hey Barry, I thought of a similar naming/labeling scheme to linuxcbon's...and also you could reduce redundancy... The Wizard already informs that it's for internet connections by its name...'Internet Connection Wizard', so there's no need to repeat that... The second label could be...'Connect via:' followed by your list.

GUI terminology
Username: dogone
"dogle, Hate to admit it, but I actually had to "wikipedia GPRS" 8-}

re GPRS
Username: lstandish
"Hi Barry, On the GPRS connection entry, I have a couple of suggestions. (I may not understand what you are doing, and you may be way ahead of me on this - if so please pardon.) GPRS Internet connection is *usually* going to be done using a GSM cell phone's built-in GPRS modem. Such a connection would of course not use the Multitech driver-firmware package I put together. GPRS connection via a cell telephone modem to Linux usually, I think, needs to use a bluetooth radio, due to the good Linux support using Bluez with rfcomm. I doubt there are Linux drivers for USB connection of most cell-phone-based GPRS modems, but I may be wrong. The Multitech GPRS modem I use is one of the very few GPRS modems that is not embedded in a GSM cell phone. The end result when any of these types of GPRS modems is connected is a serial device at one of these locations: /dev/ttyUSB0 (USB connected modem) /dev/ttyUB0 (bluetooth serial port one) /dev/ttyS0 (serial port connection) All of these behave exactly like a regular serial connection modem. However, since they are GPRS, they usually require that a cell phone unlocking PIN be sent (once) before connection is allowed. That is the step that makes it difficult to use wvdial-based dialers. I have always had to use special ppp connection scripts. I suggest you do not make your GPRS entry specific to the Multitech USB connection modem, but rather to ANY GPRS modem. Let it be called "GPRS Connect", then, and let there be a "Setup GPRS..." button in the "Tools" section of the dialog that calls my GPRS gtkdialog'd setup. That GPRS setup script needs to be altered to let it work with *any* type of GPRS modem. To do that it only needs to accept the name of the device file, and to write that name into /etc/ppp/peers/gprsmm (one of my ppp connection config files). I promise to modify the script and get it to you soon. (Can you increase the word limit on comments here?)

Re: GPRS
Username: BarryK
"Lloyd, I get the gist of what you mean. Ok, I'll make sure it is always there in the menu, and the setup script always available.

Re: GPRS setup
Username: BarryK
"Lloyd, Your setup script is called 'mt-gprs-setup' and that is what the button in the Internet Connection Wizard is calling. However, I presume that your more generic script will be something different, like 'gprs-setup'? Maybe I should change the button to launch /usr/bin/gprs-setup, in anticipation. Maybe I could create a dummy gprs-setup that launches mt-gprs-setup if it exists (if it was installed when suitable hardware detected), otherwise just puts up a message.

re: GPRS
Username: lstandish
"Hello Barry, Yes, that's what I meant: have your Internet Connection Wizard button call gprs-setup (instead of MT-GPRS-setup). GPRS-setup will be a generic GPRS setup script. Likewise, 'MT-GPRS-connect' should become 'GPRS-connect'. If these are in Puppy they would not need to be provided by the Multitech driver firmware tarball, or any other future GPRS driver package. So we could get rid of MT-GPRS-connect entirely. I'll provide you with the generic versions of these very soon; the changes are trivial. Puppy will be the only Linux OS with built-in generic support (with GUI wizard and setup) for GPRS Internet connection! One important thing to do will be to put together a pet to make bluetooth connection to the GPRS modem easy. I think Puppy must already have the "bluez" and "rfcomm" drivers, but I'm not sure, and I'm not running Puppy now to check. (I primarily run Debian Etch. That may change when I work out the problems with compiling gnucash for Puppy. It's not due to a Puppy problem, but rather I think to buggy gnucash dependencies.)

Tags: puppy