awesome-network-manager

This widget provides an interface to NetworkManager by sending commands to nmcli. Right now it only lists managed interfaces and scans for networks in the area.

To-Do:

This is about to undergo a number of major, obvious revisions to make it easier to use and more versatile. Pardon the dust.
- The old version is the old file, at the old location network/pech.lua
- Updates will be made in network/netmgr.lua
Show all interfaces as menu items(Done)
Show wifi interfaces as submenu items(Done)
Optionally notify the user of new networks periodically(Done)
Trigger a scan of the nearby networks when the widget is clicked(Done, I think?)
Connect to wifi networks when the user clicks the submenu member(Works for unsecured networks, experimental support for secured networks)
Enable and Disable interfaces by clicking the interface menu item(Done)

Usage

This widget is designed to mimic be similar to the pop-up/drop-down mouse driven Wi-Fi management interfaces that are popular in heavier desktop environments like Gnome and KDE.

Interface Menu

The first click on the menu brings up a list of interfaces that can be used with nmcli. Clicking on an element in this menu will bring the interface down or up.

Wi-Fi Menu

Highlighting the Wi-Fi device in the interface list will bring up a list of wireless AP's nearby. Clicking on an item in the list will attempt to connect to the interface. Currently only works for Open AP's.

Installation

I'm trying to keep my Awesome plugins as simple as possible. First, copy the awesome/network/ folder into your awesome config folder. If you were in the root of this repository, you could manually copy the file like this:

    cd etc/xdg/awesome/ && cp -Rv network ~/.config/awesome/

and the wrapper scripts like this:

    cd usr/bin/ && sudo cp -v *-wrapper /usr/bin/ && sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/*-wrapper

Once it's copied, just require the library at the top of your rc.lua, like so:

    require("network.netmgr")

instantiate the menu:

    -- create a network menu widget
    function mynetworkmenu()
        networkmenu = awful.menu({	items = generate_network_menu()	  })
        return networkmenu
    end
    mynetworklauncher = awful.widget.launcher({ image = beautiful.network_icon, menu = awful.menu({ items = { { "s" , "s" }, { "s" , "s" }, } }) })
    function updatenetworkmenu()
        mynetworklauncher = awful.widget.launcher({ image = beautiful.network_icon,
                                                    menu = mynetworkmenu()})
        return mynetworklauncher
    end
    --updatenetworkmenu()
    vicious.register(mynetworklauncher, awful.widget.launcher, updatenetworkmenu(), 30 )

and add your widget to your wibox:

    right_layout:add(mynetworklauncher)

if you want to periodically scan for new access points, you can add these lines to your rc.lua to create a timer:

    nettimer = timer({ timeout = 360 })
    nettimer:connect_signal("timeout", function()
        mynetworklauncher = awful.widget.launcher({ image = beautiful.awesome_icon,
                                            menu = mynetworkmenu()})
        end)
    nettimer:start()

Encrypting your Wi-Fi keys on disk

Optionally, you can configure your wireless keys to be encrypted with GPG when you aren't trying to connect to a network. If you also disable automatic connections to AP's and any other caching facilities related to Wi-Fi passwords, you might be able to protect them in some scenarios. Instructions for doing this will be added here soon(When it's fully supported. You need to create a couple config files and put them to somewhere the script will look for it.)

eyedeekay / awesome-network-manager