[PLUG] Removing Network Manager Wifi Connections

[Keith Lofstrom]

I still use Network Manager on some ancient (5 years old!)
laptop distros, but have not found useful documentation.

I learned how to delete unwanted wifi connections, in
particular xfinity.  They are stored in:

.gconf/system/networking/connections

... which is lots of numbered directories, not so useful.
However, going to that directory and doing this:

grep -r Auto * > names

Gave me a list of the network names (I've accumulated 340)
embedded in xml fluff. 

After making a backup copy of the "connections" directory,
I used vi to edit the list down to number/name pairs with
a tab in between.

Then I removed the lines of access points that I wanted
to keep.

Then I removed everything after the tab, and put an 
"rm -r " in front of the spaces.

Then I ran the file as a script with "sh names"

Perhaps there is a GUI command to do similar editing,
but I make too many mistakes with GUIs.  Making backup
directories, then making scripts that I can review
obsessively, is a much safer way to do a cleanup.

One surprise was that there was nothing like "Jack's
Porn Shop" in the hundreds of names.  I would have
guessed I was more curious about such things.

Keith
-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com