Installation of Wicd should be done using your distribution package if one exists. If not, the installation is relatively straightforward, but there are a few dependencies: 1. python (>=2.4, <3.0) 2. pygtk (>=2.10) 2. dbus and its glib and python bindings 3. a dhcp client (dhclient, dhcpcd, and pump are supported) 4. wireless-tools (iwlist, iwconfig, etcetera) 5. net-tools (ip, route, etcetera) 6. a graphical sudo application (gksu, kdesu, and ktsuss are supported), while optional, is strongly recommended 7. urwid (if you want to use the curses client - needs version >=0.9.8.3) 8. pm-utils (optional for suspend/resume integration) Wicd supports using versions >=1.2.4 -- earlier versions may work just fine, but they are completely unsupported here. 9. pybabel 10. rfkill 11. python-appindicator if you want the Unity-compatible appindicator notifications Next, configure Wicd for installation. Wicd will, by default, follow the FHS guidelines (or distribution standards where applicable if we know about them and it's feasible to implement them). You can specify exactly where every non-Python file (and some Python files) in Wicd will be placed. Pass "--help" as an option to the following command for more information, otherwise run it as is to configure Wicd for installation. python setup.py configure Note that setup.py will try to determine if and where to install the autostart desktop file for kde (either kde3 or kde4, but not both) and where to install the sleep hook for pm-utils. If you want native language translations, please remember to run: python setup.py compile_translations before the next step. Finally, do the actual installation. This step will need to be done as root or with sudo in most cases: python setup.py install If you are packaging Wicd, you will almost surely want to use the "--root" option; for example: python setup.py install --root=/package-dir To uninstall, you can use (using root or sudo): python setup.py uninstall You *MUST* run "python setup.py configure" before "python setup.py install" - the "configure" step generates wpath.py from wpath.py.in using the paths specified from the arguments to "python setup.py configure". As noted above in the configure step, "python setup.py configure" will use acceptable defaults, so it is usually not necessary to specify any arguments at all. After installation, especially if Wicd has not been installed before, you will probably need to restart the system message bus (dbus) or reload its configuration. You will also need to make sure the Wicd init script is started at boot. How to do those things is distribution-dependent, so if you're not sure, ask in your distribution's support area(s).