Re: WvDial - quick observations
On Wed, Mar 04, 1998 at 11:27:28PM -0800, David Welton wrote:
> 1. The config program doesnt seem to ask for username, phone number
> and password. If this is targeted at newbies, it should say , if it
> does not do it itself, "please edit -configfile- now".
Well, I did get a bit lazy, now that you mention it. The Debian package
postinst asks all the right questions, but that isn't available after the
package has been installed.
I should split this out somehow.
> 2. This config file should be 600. This is extremely important.
> Maybe wvdialconfig should take care of this?
I suppose so. Oops. Like I mentioned in a previous message, I have rather
relaxed permissions on my box but I can see how we don't want normal users
reading the dialin password :)
> 3. Should it be overwriting pon and poff like that?
Well, it uses the alternatives and redirect mechanisms to get ppp's pon/poff
scripts moved to /usr/bin/pon.ppp and poff.ppp. Whether this is allowed or
not by policy, I have no idea. I've asked several times but no one has
answered :(
> I kind of like how pppd goes into the background instead of sticking
> around, taking up a window.
WvDial's replacement for pon goes into the background like pppd does.
Basically, it runs
wvdial >/var/log/ppp.log 2>&1 &
If someone sees a problem with this, let me know.
What I'd really like is for wvdial to background itself _after_ pppd has
made a successful connection. I don't know how to do this other than with
some kind of weird combination of sockets and ip-up scripts. I can
compromise by backgrounding just before starting pppd, but it's less nice.
Also, the full-foreground mode needs to stay around at least until someone
writes a nice graphical interface, because I like to start wvdial in a small
window by itself. That reminds me when I'm online :)
> Some mention of disableing the 'connect' option in ppp/options might
> be good. I have no idea what the defaults are anymore, though...
The Debian defaults don't put connect (or modem or baud rate) in
/etc/ppp/options. Unfortunately, many people do and these options confuse
wvdial. Something should probably be done about it. I hesitate to do the
obvious thing, though, and start automatically commenting lines out of
people's /etc/ppp/options files. Yecch. (I think that's disallowed by
policy, too, though some people have argued that it's not against policy if
the _program_ does it, only if the _package_ does it. Yeah, sure.)
Have fun,
Avery
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