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THEORY OF OPERATION:
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Wicd is designed to give the user as much control over behavior of network
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connections as possible. Every network, both wired and wireless, has its
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own profile with its own configuration options and connection behavior.
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Wicd will try to automatically connect only to networks the user specifies
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it should try, with a preference first to a wired network, then to wireless.
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For wired connections, users have many options for determining what network
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settings to use. Wicd allows creation of an unlimited number of wired
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profiles, each of which has its own unique settings. The user can choose to
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automatically connect to a selected default profile, choose a profile from a
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pop-up window every time wicd connects, or have wicd automatically choose the
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last profile used to manually connect.
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For wireless connections, users can select any number of wireless networks
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to automatically connect; wicd will choose the one with the highest signal
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strength to try to connect.
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If the user chooses, wicd will try to automatically reconnect when it detects
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that a connection is lost. If the last known connection state is wired, wicd
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will first try to reconnect to the wired network, and if it is not available,
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wicd will try any available wireless networks which have automatic connection
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enabled. If the last known connection state is wireless, wicd will first try
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to reconnect to the previously connected network (even if that network does
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not have automatic connection enabled), and should that fail, it will try both
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a wired connection and any available wireless networks which have automatic
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connection enabled.
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Wicd uses built-in linux wireless-tools, such as ifconfig and iwconfig, to
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get and configure network info. There is some flexibility in its use of DHCP,
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providing support for dhclient, dhcpcd, and pump. Wicd uses wpa_supplicant
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to handle all wireless encryption settings, and uses a template-based system
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to create the configuration files used by wpa_supplicant. These templates
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can be edited, and new templates can be created by the user and imported into
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wicd, allowing connection to networks with uncommon encryption settings.
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STRUCTURE:
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Wicd has two major parts: the daemon, which runs with root privileges; and the
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user interface, which runs with normal user privileges. The two parts run as
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separate processes and make use of D-Bus to communicate.
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The daemon is responsible for making and configuring connections, reading and
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writing configuration files and logs, and monitoring the connection status.
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The daemon's job is split between two processes: daemon.py and monitor.py.
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All the connection status monitoring, as well as the auto-reconnection logic,
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takes place in monitor.py. Everthing else is done by wicd-daemon.py.
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The user interface (stored in wicd-client.py), which is made up of a tray
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icon, a main GUI window, and its child dialogs, gets configuration and network
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info from the daemon either by querying it using the methods in the daemon's
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dbus interface or by receiving signals emitted from the daemon over D-Bus.
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Any configuration changes made in the user interface are passed back to the
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daemon, which actually applies the changes and writes them to configuration
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files.
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Since the user interface just queries for connection and configuration info
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from the daemon, it is possible to run wicd without the GUI at all. Also,
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the daemon is started by wicd's init script during system startup (before any
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user logs in), making it possible to use wicd with "headless" machines.
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