Can't set up wireless network; missing secrets

English Network/Internet
#1

I’m trying to set up a wireless connection in Leap 15 and I’m not succeeding. I went in through Main Menu/Settings/Configure Desktop/Connections. On the page “Edit Your Network Connections”, I succeeded in creating a new 802-11 wireless connection. But when I tried to finish the setup, I get the message “Failed to get secrets for new 802-11…/No agents were available for this request.” I don’t want to use KWallet, and in fact I managed to set up a connection like this on another machine without having to do anything with KWallet.

How can I avoid having to deal with secrets? I’ve never had to deal with them in the past.

#2

Kwallet is effectively disabled from asking if you set a blank password

Also typically NetworkManger is used for Wireless config.

#3

You do know that your “secrets” is your Access Point password?

TSU

#4

I reinstalled the system from the beginning and the problem did not occur. No idea why.

#5

To be perfectly honest, I’m having extreme difficulty understanding why KWallet has a general reputation of mistrust – there seem to be powers somewhere who are attempting to undermine the mechanisms inherent in Password Wallet applications.

Back to the Massachusetts issue:

  1. Yes, the documentation for KWallet and especially the automatic start-up at login is difficult to find.
  2. Without KWallet, setting up the WiFi/WLAN Network Key needed to access any given SSID is not easy and, in the general Laptop case, not secure …
  3. The term “secret
    ” to describe the SSID Network Key and the associated encryption is, from my point of view, a misnomer …

Setting up KWallet to open at login, is described here: <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KDE_Wallet#Unlock_KDE_Wallet_automatically_on_login> – use Blowfish and your login password for the “kdewallet” Wallet …

The KWallet Handbook is here: <https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/kdeutils/kwallet5/index.html>.

A description of Blowfish by it’s designer – Bruce Schneier – is here: <https://www.schneier.com/academic/blowfish/>.

A list of products which use Blowfish is here: <https://www.schneier.com/academic/blowfish/products.html>.

  • KWallet isn’t in the list because, AFAIK, KWallet uses the Blowfish integrated into the Linux Kernel – which is listed – SLE is also listed …

[HR][/HR]A small list of fairly secure DEC products: RSX-11M; TOPS-10/20; ULTRIX; VAX/VMS …

#6

@everyone:

If you want to begin to understand how the KDE Plasma Network Manager Plasmoid handles KWallet and the WiFi/WLAN Network Key values (AKA secrets), take a look into the the following plasma-nm5 code: “kded: secretagent.cpp”.

My conclusion:

  1. The code handling KWallet is comprehensive.
  2. Yes, there is a C++ object which handles the “no key values in a Wallet” case: line 555: ‘SecretAgent::importSecretsFromPlainTextFiles()’ – documentation and comments in the code is however, missing …
  3. The C++ objects handling KWallet do output error messages is something misbehaves.
  4. If the Plasmoid is handling VPN Keys then, the values are expected to be system-stored.
  5. The first C++ object is ‘SecretAgent::SecretAgent(QObject* parent)’ which connects to the NetworkManager and then, imports secrets stored in plaintext files if needs be …

Bottom line – from my point of view:

  • Avoiding using a Password Wallet is a) not well documented and b) lacking comments in the code.