switching from Ubuntu 14.04 to Debian jessie (LXDE) on a ThinkPad T500Lan (eth0) is configured in /etc/network/interfacesand works fine. After setting up LXDE i wanted to switch to WLAN and it lasted hours to get it running. tried wicd and network-manager with different configurations and browsed many forums. I could CONNECT but not even ping the router. The solution with which i got WLAN up and running was /etc/init.d/networking stopwhich I didn't find in any forum or elsewhere. I was stunning when I realized, who sent me the could not reach host from the ping command... it was the IP of my eth0!!!Back to my question:Why is that so hard in Debian? In Ubuntu it works out of the box!Ubuntu is Debian-based, but gets the job done. Why isn't (kind of) this simplicity integrated backwards into Debian?EDIT:I removed my configuration from/etc/network/interfacesso the Wired Connection is handled by network-manager and it still works. PS:I know its a long and weird post (and question) but I wanted to at least document the success anywhere on the web...
Why is setting up WLAN in Debian so hard? (compared to Ubuntu)
debian;ubuntu;networking;wlan
There are three reasons, history, purpose and philosophy. Debian is much older than Ubuntu, and is hesitant to break things that work, particularly when the replacements require user intervention. Ubuntu is newer and had no install base when they developed their solution. Ubuntu is designed to be easy to use, Debian is designed to be powerful. My favorite example of this is there was some talk of having debian adopt Ubuntu's installer because it was prettier. The response was why would we want to do that when what we have a something that is so much more powerful, we'll just make ours better looking. The networking setup has similar elements, but is more complicated. Ubuntu is designed so that 90% of the people using it can just get on the network and not have any difficulties. Debian has at least three fully functional, completely incompatible ways to configure the network so you can use the one you want. You discovered one of the disadvantages, in that using two methods at the same time is tricky at best (and recommended only for those who know what they are doing or just into making life difficult). As far as I know all the network configuration systems work well for their designed function.wicd is designed for machines that move. It makes switching between networks easy. It can function fine for fixed wireless or fixed wired connections. It requires user intervention when moving between networks, but is easy to use.gnome has its own network configuration tool, I have never used it.The traditional debian networking tools are optimized for the complicated. If you are likely to use two or more network cards at the same time, it will do everything you want. as it does not have a gui it is prefered for servers, firewalls, and routers. it has support for ppp, pppoe, static interfaces, vlans and vpns in addition to the expected wlan and ethernet interfaces. It is however difficult to configure for machines that use different networks at different times.If memory serves I have read about other network configuration tools.Two things that will give you fits every time are to try to have two different systems configure the same interface or to set the default route.Personally I don't find either system difficult as long as you only use one.