Every time at login I’m asked to enter the password for default keyring, in order to establish wireless connection.
Unlock Keyring
Enter password for default keyring to unlock
The application ‘NetworkManager Applet’ (/usr/bin/nm-applet) wants access to the default keyring, but it is locked.
I would like to remove the password from my WEP key. I tried resowing my WEP key password using seahorse application. Next time at log-on I had to reenter my WEP key and a had to set a new password. So it did not help, I’m back where I started.
I also tried creating new keyring using Control Center/Encryption and Keyrings utility. My new keyring gets the Name and Password, but I do not know what to do next. I’m totally stuck.
How to automatically unlock my WEP key at log-on.
Can someone help me? I just want my system to connect wireless without asking for password.
Unfortunately no reply yet :’(
Since I’m new to Linux, I would appreciate some help here.
Anyway I shall use this thread as log while I’m searching for the solution. Maybe it helps someone else in the future.
So far I have discovered following applications that can help with configuring and maintaining keyrings, passwords and encryption keys.
seahorse 2.22.1 (Encryption Key Manager) - to start type “seahorse” in the terminal window
GNU Privacy Assistant 0.7.6 (Keyring Editor) - to start type “gpa” in terminal window
Local Security (Configuring Local Security) - to start click “YaST/Local Security”
User and Group Management (User and Group Administration) - to start click “YaST/User and Group Manager”
Change Password (Changing Password for User) - to start click “Control Center/Change Password”
Encryption and Keyrings (Password and Encryption Settings) - to start click “Control Center/Encryption and Keyrings”
My goal is to start wireless connection at log-on without having to type any passwords.
First I have tried removing my WEP key. It can be easily done in ‘seahorse’ application. However, after reboot I’m asked by the system to enter my WEP key. Immediately after that I’m asked to unlock the keyring. Here I conclude that keyring is a place where my WEP key is stored, and the keyring self is locked by a password (not the WEP key).
Since my first idea didn’t help, I tried to change the keyring password to an empty string.
I was using same password for the keyring as for the log-on and I was not sure if they are linked. So I changed my log-on password using ‘Change Password’ utility. When I tried to log-out and log-in, I discovered that my new log-on password does not work (the old one didn’t work either). Big trouble! My password is not recognized any more.
Fortunately, I have automatic log-on so after reboot I was in again. Immediately I discovered that my keyring password was not affected at all by this change. Meaning the keyring password and log-on are indeed different entries.
After some searching I found that the keyring password can be changed using ‘Encryption and Keyrings’ utility. However, later I found that same utility can be opened from within ‘seahorse’ application (click “Edit/Preferences”).
Still my log-on password is messed up and I need to fix that too.
I tried ‘Change Password’ utility again, but it didn’t work since of course I don’t know my password any more. At least password that I remember is not the one that system expects. (I’m still not sure if I made a typo while changing the password or is this a bug. What is the likelihood of making the same typo twice?). In terminal window I tied to ‘su root’ discovering that it still works with the old password.
Thus, only my user password is messed up. Fortunately, I was able to fix that soon with ‘User and Group Management’ utility, which enables you to reset your user password.
So far, I have learned how to change some of my passwords, but my goal is not yet achieved. I still must unlock my keyring at log-on (it was not possible to define empty password for the keyring).
Recently I found gpa (GNU Privacy Assistant) application that supposedly can help configuring the keyrings. I have no clue how to use it yet.
By the way, when I first started gpa it forced me to create another key. I have no clue what is the purpose of this key. However, I can see this new key in the seahorse as “Private PGP Key” type.
I still do not understand the purpose of all these different keys. As soon as I learn more, I’ll post my findings.
Any input from the readers of this thread, that can help me solve this mystery is welcome.
I tried to use the keyring too, but found it to be far too intrusive to be of practical use. Its most useful feature proved to be the “Disable Keyring” option.
Hi, thanks for your comment. I didn’t try disabling keyrings yet.
Could you please describe how you did it?
And how you manage your WEP key and e-mail passwords without a keyring?
Control Center/Security and Privacy/KDE Keyring – then disable first checkbox titled Enable KDE Keyring. I apologize if those aren’t the exact names, but I’m translating from a Slovenian KDE. Anyway, I’m talking about KDE 3.5.9 here, so I don’t know how this is done in 4.x (or Gnome). Email passwords are generally not a problem, because you set them inside your e-mail accounts in your mail client. Now, I’m sorry I can’t help you about the WEP keys – I live in a relatively secluded area, so I don’t use any encryption on my router/wifi. IIRC, however, there is a WEP/WPA field to enter when you go to YAST2/Network Devices/Network Settings and edit your wireless connection (it’s called wlan0 or something like that). If you click on it and then on Edit, you just follow the prompts and there somewhere should be the fields to enter your ESSID, your encryption protocol etc. Anyway, you might have to reboot the machine in order to get it working.
Good luck!
Thank you for clear explanation.
I’m using GNOME so it is not possible to do the same here, but I have got an idea what I should do to disable the keyrings in GNOME.
However, I’m not going to that yet. First I would like to learn more about the keyrings and try to get more control there.