Switching between cable and wireless

You will most likely need non-free firmware to be available on a USB-stick to install on the operating system. Please refer to non-free firmware debs on a stick.

The easiest way to switch between a wired LAN connection and a wireless LAN connection is using the daemon ifplugd. It is installed by default.

Adjust your /etc/network/interfaces

First step to take is to make sure the eth0 is not configured:

ifdown eth0

Example for a working interfaces:

The configuration is easy: - the wired interface (here: eth0) should not be preceded by any configuration like "allow-hotplug" or others:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# governed by ifplugd ... do not use allow-hotplug or auto options
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Then reconfigure ifplugd:

dpkg-reconfigure ifplugd

Debconf settings of ifplugd

Leave static interfaces free:

Add your wired interface (here "eth0") to "hotplugged interfaces":

Help page for custom configurations:

Leave the default configurations, just hit OK:

Tell ifplugd to stop before suspend, it will be restarted after resume automatically:

The result is a configuration file /etc/default/ifplugd containing:

INTERFACES=""
HOTPLUG_INTERFACES="eth0"
ARGS="-q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I"
SUSPEND_ACTION="stop"

Your computer is now set up to move between various networks including wireless. To set up for wireless roaming refer to Setting up for WiFi Roaming with wpa.