Instead, I got a good deal on having a dummy replacement for Elogind (although the libraries are still present), with ConsoleKit2 and Seatd doing the actual seat management. This exact method also worked for me in Salix (a Slackware derivative), but on the condition that Elogind as a package remained installed for compatibility reasons only (i.e. it doesn't run at all, but it could if I enabled it). No issues there, either.

Got rid of Network Manager.  Configured everything in interfaces, interfaces.d, wpa_supplicant.conf, resolv.conf.   wpa_gui provides a simple gui for wpa_supplicant.   No more odd mystery due to NM doing its thing.

NM is a convenient tool for many typical scenarios, but apparently not for me.

Thanks all for chiming in.

Found out it's because when Network Manager is running, it manages wpa_supplicant and controls it via dbus, whereas wpa_gui expects socket(s) to communicate with wpa_supplicant, usually in the directory  /var/run/wpa_supplicant.

iface wlan0 inet manual
    wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

iface default inet dhcp

The first snippet is for declaring the conf file to be used, and the second is the one wpa_action will use when setting up an access point link. (using ifup wlan0=default)

In that way you can also define additional, different handlings of different setups with different identities.

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
             wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

then sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
p2p_disabled=1

Thanks all for the info and advices.

BTW:  I installed wpa_gui and it reports that it "could not get status from wpa_supplicant."   Are the operations of wpa_gui and network manager mutually exclusive?

Network Configuration Guide
https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … figuration

I have a desktop machine with wired connection to a router.  I am setting up a wifi network with another router not connected to the internet. 

When I use the Network Manager via the status tray icon to connect to the wifi network, it changes resolv.conf to point to the non-internet wifi router, and adds a default route pointing to this router.   So each time I connect to the non-internet wifi, I have to fix resolv.conf and route table manually.

So I am looking for an alternative(s) to Network Manager to manage wifi connection.   Can you all help me out with suggestions/recommendations?

Thanks.

What are the inconveniences if I remove/purge Network Manager?

Uhh, needing to configure networking yourself? Fairly obvious, no?
Aside from that, likely a lack of GUI network configuration / tray widgets / whatever... Unless you install something else that provides those, of which there are several. None of them have the extensive feature set creep networkmanager does though.

NM is useful for systems that use a variety of transient networks, e.g. wifi, cell modem, bridges, tunnels, vpns etc. where the user wants a unified GUI that can configure and switch between those on-the-fly. Essentially, It's designed for coffee-shop-warriors with laptops.

NM is downright aggravating if manual network configuration is common, or a single, fixed, reliable connection is required at boot. e.g. the system has NFS mounts or the user regularly does 'ip whatever' or 'ifconfig whatever' to connect with static addresses or manual routing.

NM is completely pointless for servers or workstations that have fixed wired networking or rarely change connections.

Vague question -> vague answers.

+1
For me it was a huge step forward.

Best,

A.