wicd attempts to connect to wireless network no longer in range

[jessesmith]

If wicd is connected to one wireless network and then the machine moves out of range of that network, wicd will still try to connect to the original network when the user tries to connect to second wireless network.

Usage example:
User connects to wireless network Home.
User puts laptop into sleep mode and moves to new location.
User wakes up laptop and tries to connect to network Work.
wicd will bring up the wireless interface and try to connect to network Home, which is no longer in range.

I have tried the following steps:
1. Disconnect All, followed by clicking connect on network Work.
2. Logging out and logging in again
3. Disabling the network interface and bringing it back up and selecting network Work.

In each case wicd still tries to connect to the original network, Home, which is not within range and does not appear on the list of available networks. The only solution I've found is to reboot the machine.

Expected behaviour:
When a network is no longer in range, wicd should no longer try to connect to that network.

wicd version: 1.7.0
Ubuntu version: 10.04 LTS
Log file attached

[David Paleino (dpaleino)]

Hello Jesse,

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:40:27 -0000, jessesmith wrote:

> If wicd is connected to one wireless network and then the machine moves
> out of range of that network, wicd will still try to connect to the
> original network when the user tries to connect to second wireless
> network.
>
> Usage example:
> User connects to wireless network Home.
> User puts laptop into sleep mode and moves to new location.
> User wakes up laptop and tries to connect to network Work.
> wicd will bring up the wireless interface and try to connect to network Home,
> which is no longer in range.

Are you sure it is effectively trying to connect to "Home"?

There's a known bug in wicd: it still shows the latest connected-to ESSID (in
your case, "Home") when trying to connect to a new network ("Work"). But that's
only shown in status messages, tooltips, and so on. It effectively tries to
connect to "Work", and the right ESSID shows up when the connection is
established.

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[jessesmith (jessefrgsmith)]

Hi David,

At first I thought that might be the case too. However, usually when wicd is going to connect properly it happens almost instantly. When I'm switching networks it gets stuck at "Home: Obtaining IP address". wicd just sits there with the progress bar bouncing back and forth and doesn't successfully pick up an IP. This makes me think that it really is still trying to connect to the previous access point. Once I reboot it finds and connects to Work immediately.

Jesse