Wicd

Related articles

• Network configuration
• Wireless network configuration
• Category:Network configuration

Wicd is a network connection manager that can manage wireless and wired interfaces, similar and an alternative to NetworkManager. Wicd is written in Python and GTK+. Wicd can also run from the terminal in a curses interface, requiring no X server session or task panel (see #Running Wicd in Text Mode).

Installation

Install the wicd package, or wicd-git^AUR for the development version. It includes everything needed to run the wicd daemon and the wicd-cli and wicd-curses interfaces.

There is also an official GTK+ front-end, available as wicd-gtk.

Notifications

To enable visual notifications about network status, you need to install the packages notification-daemon and python2-notify.

If you are not using GNOME, you may want to install xfce4-notifyd instead of the notification-daemon, because it pulls a lot of unnecessary GNOME packages.

Getting started

Initial setup

Wicd provides a daemon that must be started.

Warning: Running multiple network managers will cause problems, so it is important to disable all other network management daemons.

First, stop all previously running network daemons (like netctl, netcfg, dhcpcd, NetworkManager).

Disable any existing network management services, including netctl, netcfg, dhcpcd, and networkmanager. Refer to Systemd#Using units.

Note: You might need to stop and disable the network daemon instead of netctl, which is a current replacement for network service. If unsure, try disabling both.

Start/enable the wicd.service systemd unit.

Add your account to users group:

# gpasswd -a USERNAME users

Note: The Unix group that D-Bus allows to access wicd is subject to change, and it may be different than users. Check which policy group is specified in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/wicd.conf, and add your user to that group.

If you added your user to a new group, log out and then log in.

Running Wicd in Desktop Environment

If you have installed the wicd-gtk and entered the desktop environment. Open a virtual terminal to run one of the following commands.

• To start Wicd as system service, start the wicd.service systemd unit.

• To load Wicd, run:

$ wicd-client

• To force it to start minimized in the notification area, run:

$ wicd-client --tray

• If your desktop environment does not have a notification area, or if you don't want wicd to show tray icon, run:

$ wicd-client -n

Running Wicd in Text Mode

If you did not install wicd-gtk then use wicd-cli or wicd-curses:

$ wicd-curses

Note: Wicd does not prompt you for a passkey. To use encrypted connections (WPA/WEP), expand the network you want to connect to, click Advanced and enter the needed info.

Note: wicd-curses is less stable than wicd-gtk, and is known to crash regularly. If a crash occurs when attempting to configure a wireless network, try wicd-patched^AUR

Switching WPA supplicant driver

Wicd still suggests to "almost always" use Wext as WPA supplicant driver and defaults to it. This is outdated behavior. One should use nl80211 instead, except with old drivers that do not support it. The relevant option is located in Preferences > Advanced Settings.

Autostart

The wicd-gtk package puts a file in /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop, which will autostart wicd-client upon login to your DE/WM. If so, enable the wicd systemd unit.

If /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop does not exist, you can add wicd-client to your DE/WM startup to have the application start when you log in.

Note: If wicd-client is added to DE/WM startup when /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop exists, you will have an issue of two wicd-client instances running.

Scripts

Wicd has the ability to run scripts during all stages of the connection process (post/pre connect/disconnect). Simply place a script inside the relevant stage folder within /etc/wicd/scripts/ and make it executable.

The scripts are able to receive three parameters, these being:

$1 - the connection type (wireless/wired).
$2 - the ESSID (network name).
$3 - the BSSID (gateway MAC).

Stop ARP spoofing attacks

The script below can be used to set a static ARP, to stop ARP spoofing attacks. Simply change the values within the case statement to match those of the networks you want to set static ARP entries for. Launch it as root:

#!/bin/bash
#Set the parameters passed to this script to meaningful variable names.
connection_type="$1"
essid="$2"
bssid="$3"

if [ "${connection_type}" == "wireless" ]; then

        #Change below to match your networks.
        case "$essid" in
        YOUR-NETWORK-NAME-ESSID)
                arp -s 192.168.0.1 00:11:22:33:44:55
         ;;
         Netgear01923)
                arp -s 192.168.0.1 10:11:20:33:40:50
         ;;
         ANOTHER-ESSID)
                arp -s 192.168.0.1 11:33:55:77:99:00
         ;;
         *)
                echo "Static ARP not set. No network defined."
         ;;
       esac
fi

Change MAC using macchanger

See MAC address spoofing#systemd + macchanger + dhcpcd (no NetworkManager)^{[broken link: invalid section]}.

The script below can be used to change the MAC address of your network interfaces.

To change the MAC whenever you connect to a network, place this script under /etc/wicd/scripts/preconnect/.

Take a look at macchanger --help to adjust the macchanger command to your liking.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

connection_type="$1"

if [[ "${connection_type}" == "wireless" ]]; then
        ip link set wlp2s0 down
        macchanger -A wlp2s0
        ip link set wlp2s0 up
elif [[ "${connection_type}" == "wired" ]]; then
        ip link set enp1s0 down
        macchanger -A enp1s0
        ip link set enp1s0 up
fi

Start/stop openvpn client

Put the following script in /etc/wicd/scripts/postconnect/, to be able to restart openvpn client when wireless connected to specific ESSID, and replace the YOUR_WIFI_ESSID with your ESSID.

#!/bin/sh

ESSID="YOUR_WIFI_ESSID"

if [ $1 == "wireless" ]; then
	if [ $2 == "$ESSID" ]; then
		systemctl restart openvpn-client@client
	fi
fi

Put the following script in /etc/wicd/scripts/predisconnect/, to stop openvpn client when wireless disconnected from specific ESSID and replace the YOUR_WIFI_ESSID with your ESSID.

#!/bin/sh

ESSID="YOUR_WIFI_ESSID"

if [ $1 == "wireless" ]; then
	if [ $2 == "$ESSID" ]; then
		systemctl stop openvpn-client@client
	fi
fi

Troubleshooting

See Network configuration#Troubleshooting for troubleshooting wired connections and Wireless network configuration#Troubleshooting for troubleshooting wireless connections. This section covers only problems specific to wicd.

Autoconnect on resume from hibernation/suspension

If for some reasons autoconnect on resume from hibernation or suspension does not work automatically, you can manually restart Wicd by enabling the following service file for your user; see systemd/User#Basic setup.

~/.config/systemd/user/wicd@resume.service

[Unit]
Description=Restart Wicd autoconnect service on resume
After=suspend.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
User=%i
RemainAfterExit=no
ExecStart=/usr/share/wicd/daemon/autoconnect.py

[Install]
WantedBy=suspend.target

Importing pynotify failed, notifications disabled

In case the python2-notify package did not get installed automatically. You can install it from official repositories.

D-Bus connection error message

If wicd suddenly stopped working and it complains about D-Bus, it is quite likely that you just need to remove wicd fully, including and all its configuration files, and re-install it from scratch by first removing wicd. Then remove its configuration files:

# rm -rf /etc/wicd /var/log/wicd /etc/dbus-1/system.d/wicd*

Then reinstall the package. Check this link for more details: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=577141#p577141

Wicd-client also throws a D-Bus connection error message ("Could not connect to wicd's D-Bus interface.") when wicd is not running due to a problem with a config file. It seems that sometimes an empty account gets added to /etc/wicd/wired-settings.conf in which case you simply have to remove the

[] 

and restart wicd.

If the above does not work, you could try https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1268721

Problems after package update

Sometimes the wicd client fails to load after a package update due to D-Bus errors. A solution is to stop wicd.service, remove the configuration files in the /etc/wicd/ directory, and start wicd.service.

Note about graphical sudo programs

If you are receiving an error about wicd failing to find a graphical sudo program, install kdesu or ktsuss^AUR, then use the relative command:

$ kdesu wicd-client -n

$ ktsuss wicd-client -n

Eduroam

See WPA2 Enterprise#Wicd^{[broken link: invalid section]}.

Two instances of wicd-client (and possibly two icons in tray)

See the note in #Running Wicd^{[broken link: invalid section]} about the autostart file in /etc/xdg/autostart and the forum post and bug report provided in #External Links^{[broken link: invalid section]}. Essentially, if /etc/xdg/autostart/wicd-tray.desktop exists, remove it. You only need the wicd service enabled in systemd.

Bad password using PEAP with TKIP/MS-CHAPv2

The connection template PEAP with TKIP/MS-CHAPv2 requires the user to enter the path to a CA certificate besides entering username and password. However this can cause troubles resulting in an error message of a bad password [1]. A possible solution is the usage of PEAP with GTC instead of TKIP/MS-CHAPv2 which does not require one to enter the path of the CA cert.

Wicd skips obtaining IP address on wlp

This can be caused by dhcpcd running alongside wicd as systemd service. A solution would be to stop/disable dhcpcd.

dhcpcd not running

Normally it should not be required, nor recommended to run the dhcpcd service next to wicd. However, if you encounter the error message that dhcpcd is not running, then you can try starting the dhcpcd systemd unit and see if you encounter any incompatibilities when using both services at the same time.

Alternatively, as a workaround you might consider switching to dhclient in the Wicd settings.

Note: If you get send_packet: Network is unreachable errors, then try increasing the timeout in /usr/share/dhclient/dhclient.conf.

See also

• Forum post about two instances of wicd-client and /etc/xdg/autostart
• Bug report mentioning /etc/xdg/autostart and wicd-client behavior