Re: [Ndiswrapper-general] Trouble with Netgear MA111, please help!

[Adrian Irving-B. <wis...@wi...>]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2005 at 12:29:51PM -0600, James Shatto wrote:

> > Also, is there supposed to be something in
> > /etc/network/interfaces?
>
> /etc/network/interfaces is to setup your wireless configuration at
> boot.  If you don't need it automatically setup at boot you probably
> don't need to touch it.  But it's there and there's several howto's
> and examples of it out on the web.

Forgot to mention -- it only does it at boot if you say 'auto wlan0'
in the file.

It's actually handy to store static configuration data about your
devices.  Then when you actually want them, you just load the
ndiswrapper drivers, run 'ifup wlan0', and it's ready to go.

You can even store multiple configs for the same device.  For example,
you can have interface definitions for 'wlan0-home' and
'wlan0-office', and when you want to pick your home config, run 'ifup
wlan0=wlan0-home'.  This is what I do.

There are other things you can do with this, too, such as running
scripts on activation or deactivation (before or after).  And you can
also define a script that decides for you which config to use; once
upon a time, I had a script that did a scan, picked out any APs it
knew, and used the corresponding config.

That being said, /etc/network/interfaces is not required to get the
device working manually, and is only for when you've got it working
and want to commit your settings to a more convenient form.