Network profiles

By creating network profiles, you can easily select different network configurations at boot or at run time from the console.

Setting up the profiles

As root: Duplicate the sample profile at /etc/network-profiles/, and save it as a describing name:

cd /etc/network-profiles
cp ./template home

Now edit this new profile (e.g. home) in your favorite editor (i.e. emacs) to fit your needs. Below is a very simple profile example to connect to a wireless network. Using the profile below is equal to using:

iwconfig eth1 essid home_wlan key F4DE214AA8
dhcpcd -s 192.168.1.105 eth1

And here the profile script:

DESCRIPTION="Wireless profile at home"

# Network Settings
INTERFACE=eth1
HOSTNAME=myhost

# Interface Settings (use IFOPTS="dhcp" for DHCP)
IFOPTS="dhcp"

# Wireless Settings (optional)
ESSID=home_wlan
KEY=F4DE214AA8
IWOPTS="essid $ESSID key $KEY"
DHCPCD_ARGS="-s 192.168.1.105"

Create as many different profiles as you need.

Last, be sure to comment out any entry in your rc.conf related to network interfaces other than "lo": the lines with eth0="", gateway="" and ROUTES=() should be commented, while:

INTERFACES=(lo)

Select profile at boot time using GRUB

Selecting a certain profile at boot time is handy, and is easily accomplished using GRUB. Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst, duplicate your standard boot section and add NET=<profile name> to the kernel line e.g:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux (Standard) [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=794
initrd /kernel26.img 

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux (Wireless at home) [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=794 NET=home
initrd /kernel26.img

Select profile at boot time using dialog

You can select network profile using the dialog package. Simply edit /etc/rc.conf file and comment out the line:

NET_PROFILES=(menu)

Change profile at run time

If you want to change the profile after boot, simply type

netcfg home