[PLUG] Chroot and wifi

[Jason R. Martin]

On 1/21/06, John Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> wrote:
> > Actually I'm not sure either, since you're in a chroot environment. An
> > easy test though would be to run "ls <chroot prefix>/proc" and see if
> > there is anything in there.  It should be very similar to what is in
> > /proc in your 64-bit environment.
>
> OK, there is a /chroot/breezy/32bits/proc folder and it has lots of
> stuff in it. There are folders with names like acpi, asound, bus,
> driver, fs, ide, irq, net, scsi, self, sys, syvipc, tty -- and there are a
> ton of folders with numbers, most of which have close to the same
> contents.

Right.  There's very interesting stuff in there, if you want to learn
more about low-level things.  For example, if you've ever used top, or
a graphical equivalent, it gets all of its information from /proc.

> > Okay, time to insult your intelligence, by asking if you can access
> > the internet from your wireless *outside* the chroot, i.e. with a
> > normal 64-bit app.
>
> Insulting my intelligence is not a possibility. There is no
> intelligence to insult. :(

Nonsense.  You're using Linux after all, which means you have a
required combination of intelligence and insanity.

> As to the question, I already did some of that at the university
> yesterday. I can't do more right now because there is no wifi here
> at home -- I'm all ethernet in the house. But I'm going to go to a
> class at Freegeek at 1:00 this afternoon, so I can try stuff there.
>
> Normally I am in 64-bits. The only programs installed in chroot
> (other than what chroot installed) are Firefox32 and its Flash
> plugin, RealPlayer and Adobe Reader 7.0. So unless I specifically
> run one of those apps, everything else is running in 64 bits. Each of
> those programs has a special launch menu item that I added to the
> Gnome Applications menu, using dchroot -d <application> as its
> launch command. Thus, there are two launch items for Firefox, one
> I labeled (old) and the other (32bits). That way I can tell which one I
> am running.
>
> Yesterday, while connected to pub.net at the university, I found
> that programs installed in the normal 64-bit environment, including
> Firefox, could get out just fine as they always did before. I could
> look at mail with Evolution or Thunderbird, browse with Firefox chat
> with XChat, etc. It was only when I launched 32-bit Firefox from
> chroot that I was unable to get out.
>
> What you asked already occurred to me yesterday, except I didn't
> think of pinging something. But I wanted to find out if the problem
> was 32-bit Firefox or if it was the entire chroot environment that
> was blocking me. So I launched Synaptic32 thinking I would install
> some other internet app in chroot and see if it could get out. Well, I
> got the answer when Synaptic32 was unable to get to the
> repositories. I tried everything, even the extra repositories that I
> have listed. Synaptic32 couldn't go anywhere. But remember that I
> installed 32-bit Firefox, RealPlayer and Adobe Reader 7.0 in chroot
> while at home, where my net connection is via ethernet to the hub,
> router and cable modem. Thus, I pretty well proved that it is the
> entire chroot environment that can't find the wireless.

What I am expecting (and I could be wrong of course) is that you would
find your *wired* networking would not work outside of home either. 
Once your wireless has associated with an access point, there's no
difference between it and a wired connection from the application
standpoint.  I expect you're running into issues with your chroot
environment not being able to adapt outside your home network.

> > If so, then try to eliminate DNS issues, perhaps with just ping
> > (again, inside the chroot).  Try accessing an IP address.  If that
> > works but a hostname doesn't, check /etc/resolv.conf inside the
> > chroot.  There's more you could check after that if it still doesn't
> > work, but I'm getting too tired.
>
> As to DNS, I wish I had thought to try pinging something by its IP
> address when I was at PSU yesterday, but I did not, so that
> remains a question to be answered. I can do that later today at
> Freegeek.
>
> > Personally, I still think you're playing with fire and life would be
> > much simpler if you just installed a 32-bit distribution.  But that's
> > your choice ;-)
>
> You are totally correct. But it was the right decision for me. I
> bought this 64-bit laptop because 1) I needed a laptop for school
> and 2) I really wanted to learn Linux. I had tried Corel Linux several
> years ago when it was all the rage but never did more than fiddle
> with it. All the experience did for me was let me know that learning
> Linux was not going to be a snap, and make me a lot of money on
> the Corel stock that I forturnately sold before it tanked. :)
>
> >From past experience with computers and software, trial by fire is
> the way to learn if you really want to learn something. Putting 64-
> bit Linux on a laptop as its only OS should do the trick. So far I
> think I made the right decision. The pain was expected. Each time
> I face a challenge I move forward. In the meantime, the computer is
> functional for my school needs. So don't worry -- I will not abandon
> Linux even if it turns out I can't get chroot to see the wifi. I am
> confident it can be done, however. That is, as long as PLUG
> members don't get too annoyed at my constant stupid questions. :(

Of course, trial by fire is what all of us do all the time with
computers.  It's fun!  My point was more that you picked a
particularily gruesome and uncommon thing to choose as your learning
by doing activity.  There are *plenty* of things to learn about Linux
besides how to install a complete second system inside a chroot
environment.

As for constant stupid questions, my experience so far with PLUG is
that they are asked often, and are supplemented by constant stupid
answers, constant stupid arguments, and constant stupid off-topic
garbage.  That's why I like it :-)

Jason