# Network Manager for Xfce?

## CoderMan

Hi. I'm very new to Gentoo. In my last distro (Debian) I had a nice setup with Xfce4 plus the KDE network manager which I used to manage my wireless connections. I was hoping to setup something similar in Gentoo.

I've got Xfce4 installed, but when I try to emerge knetworkmanager I get:

```
!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy "kde-misc/knetworkmanager" have been masked.

!!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your request:

- kde-misc/knetworkmanager-0.2.2_p20080528 (masked by: ~x86 keyword)

- kde-misc/knetworkmanager-0.2.1_p20071228 (masked by: ~x86 keyword)

- kde-misc/knetworkmanager-0.2.1_pre20071119 (masked by: ~x86 keyword)

```

So, I thought I'd try the nm-applet (Gnome network manager, I guess). So I emerged networkmanager first, then nm-applet, then xfce4-xfapplet. But nm-applet does not appear in the xfapplet dialog box. If I try to start nm-applet from the command-line, I get:

```
** (nm-applet:11192): WARNING **: <WARN>  nma_dbus_init(): org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.FileNotFound raised:

 Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
```

I tried starting NetworkManager first from the command-line (wild guess) but doesn't seem to make any difference.

I don't know anything about dbus, but it seems to be installed:

```
*  sys-apps/dbus

      Latest version available: 1.2.3-r1

      Latest version installed: 1.2.3-r1

      Size of files: 1,527 kB

      Homepage:      http://dbus.freedesktop.org/

      Description:   A message bus system, a simple way for applications to talk to each other

      License:       || ( GPL-2 AFL-2.1 )

```

Does anyone have any insight that might help me?

Here is my make.conf:

```
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"

# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.                                   

# Please consult http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml before changing.                                

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

USE="3dnow -accessibility -gnome -gnome-keyring -ipv6 -kde mmx -mono -smp png gif jpeg svg jpeg2k tiff X emacs\

 latex hal opengl tk dbus alsa xscreensaver battery cpufreq lm_sensors tcl threads java -startup-notification \

gtk pdf kerberos bash-completion"

```

I recompiled dbus with

```
USE="gnome" emerge -va sys-apps/dbus
```

because I saw it had a gnome flag, but that didn't seem to make a difference.

----------

## cach0rr0

I don't have any ideas for your specific issue, other than to say i used networkmanager for a while, and ended up opting for wicd && wpa_supplicant as superior solutions. 

just set your wpa_supplicant.conf as needed, add wicd to default runlevel, launch wicd from xfce and tell it to autoconnect to whichever network you use at home

youll likely need to go into advanced settings and do the encryption stuff

----------

## cach0rr0

actually...did you ever:

```
rc-update add dbus boot
```

 ?

I have  both this and hal added to boot, and things seemed to work

----------

## CoderMan

I just wanted to tell everyone that I have a working setup now. Here's what I did (for the benefit of future post readers):

 - installed Network Manager

 - set dbus to init during boot, using instructions from previous post

 - unmasked the knetworkmanager package, and merged it

 - set xfce4 to startup knetworkmanager upon login (using Settings >> Session and Startup in menu)

I also set Xfce to startup KDE services using the Settings >> Session and Startup >> Advanced menu, but I'm not sure if that was necessary. (Too busy to perform the scientific test...)

So now KDE Network Manager icon pops up in the notification tray when I log in. And I just right-click on the icon and it displays a list of available wireless networks. This is the same setup I was using in Debian.

----------

