Broken network initialization (Was: Re: Wanted...)

[Sean Crago]

On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 11:17 PM, Sean Crago <cragos at gmail.com> wrote:
> There is one major drawback that isn't specific to any one adapter,
> though. iwconfig et al are a huge PITA, complicated further by
> Debian/Ubuntu's underperforming networking initialization scripts.
> Though I finally do have /etc/network/interfaces defined well enough
> that it is finally reliably connecting to my WAP upon request, I find
> myself having to run ifdown/ifup on every boot - Might be able to fix
> this problem by moving the network initialization script further into
> the boot process, but I really haven't the slightest idea why.
>
> Unlike competently designed systems such as Maemo (where seemless
> 802.11 functionality matters a wee bit more than Ubuntu powered
> laptops with wireless), Ubuntu causes far more problems running over a
> wireless connection (regardless of the card) than it does over a
> physical connection. The myriad poorly designed frontends to iwspy are
> similarly inadequate and, if you'll forgive the repetition, incredibly
> poorly designed. Don't even get me started on Xandros, and the Eee's
> half-assed attempt to find a better solution to the aforementioned
> problem.

You know, I should probably just ask the list about this:

I've got a well defined interfaces file (follows in the PS), but
neither my Ubuntu laptop nor my Ubuntu desktop manages to create a
wireless link on boot. It brings up the interface, but it doesn't
actually establish comms with my Tomato-powered AP. However, when I
just run a simple "ifdown wlan0;ifup wlan0" on either PC, it
establishes a good, reliable link and hits the DHCP server with nary a
hiccup.

Anyone got an easy fix? I'll gripe and moan until the universe dies
its heat death about the age and maturity of Linux not being reflected
at all in luser-friendly GUI wifi configuration out of the box (or
until it's fixed), but this should be what those apps are doing under
the hood, and even it's not working right.

Thanks,
Sean Crago
Kathmandu

PS: Here's my interfaces file. Pretty much the same on both boxes:
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto wlan0 eth0 lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-proto WPA
wpa-ssid 001601842AEE
wpa-psk MD5_hash_of_my_WPA2-AES_key

iface eth0 inet dhcp