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TroN-0074

Hi FreeBSD users, I just started using FreeBSD on an IBM Thinkpad T41, Pentium M. I chose KDE as desktop manager and I have some questions, hopefully somebody can advice on what to do.

The first issue is with the wireless, at home my router is set up WPA-PSK, so I have edited my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and added the info for SSID and PSK, I have also edited my /etc/rc.conf file with the lines
Code: 
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

I get online just fine but down the block my favorite coffee shop offers free Wi-Fi without passphrase so I connect to their router by editing the /etc/rc.conf file with the lines
Code: 
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="DHCP"

So I think editing this file to connect at home then to connect to a public hot spot is a lot of work, so my question is: is there a setting that will work without having to be modifying the /etc/rc/conf file?

Thank you I will appreciate all your advice.
 
TroN-0074 said:
So I think editing this file to connect at home then to connect to a public hot spot is a lot of work, so my question is: is there a setting that will work without having to be modifying the /etc/rc/conf file?
Click to expand...

Sure, from CLI, like that:

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# ifconfig wlan0 ssid NETWORK
# dhclient wlan0

Also, to see list of available networks:
% ifconfig wlan0 list scan

... and to force scan again:
# ifconfig wlan0 scan

You can also use GUI wpa_gui app from here: http://blog.zx2c4.com/248

Type pkg_add -r wpa_gui to try it ;)

TroN-0074 said:
My other question will be what codecs do I need to have sound in my laptop and play MP3s files and DVD movies or avi or mkv files.
Click to expand...
Use pkg_add -r mplayer or pkg_add -r vlc, You will have all needed codecs and a nice player. You may also want to use gnome-mplayer frontend for the rather 'raw' mplayer default inferface.
 
Thank you for editing my original post and moved it here. Also @vermaden thank you for the tip on wpa_gui I am using it right now and is working fine, in adition I also download vnc but I havent tested it yet. I'll keep posting on that later.
 
phoenix said:
I believe vermaden meant to say vlc, the media player. And not vnc, the remote desktop software.
Click to expand...

I thought about that. I install it anyway, but I will install VLC as well. However I havent been able to play videos from the web such as youtube or hulu, Neither I have been able to play online radio.

Thank you.
 
That's what I'm using as well on 8.2-STABLE/i386. I just tried again. When I started a video things were fine, but the voice and video quickly became out of sync. If I paused and started again the frames wouldn't update properly (long pauses on a single frame and then very choppy).
 
In "VLC" if you goto "Media" ---> "Open Network Stream" ---> and then you can paste in a YouTube link which will play just fine.
 
% pciconf -lv | grep -i ati
tells me
Code: 
ATI Radeon HD 3450 (RV620 LE).

I see in /etc/X11/xorg.conf that I'm using the radeon driver.

% cat /dev/sndstat
Code: 
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 32bit 2009061500/i386)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <HDA ATI R6xx HDMI PCM #0 HDMI> (play)
pcm1: <HDA Realtek ALC662 PCM #0 Analog> (play/rec) default
pcm2: <HDA Realtek ALC662 PCM #1 Digital> (play)
 
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