Bug#378739: gnome-netstatus-applet: odd signal strength for wireless network

[Maximilian Mehnert]

Package: gnome-netstatus-applet
Version: 2.12.0-5
Severity: normal


While iwconfig gives me something like

Link Quality=41/100  Signal level=-76 dBm  Noise level=-88 dBm

gnome-netstatus-applet tells me that the "signal strength" is around 82%

For me it looks as if that the percentage is being calculated from
the dBm values (?). However, my real world "signal strength" experience is way
better described by the link quality 41/100 that iwconfig gives me.

Maybe it would be a better idea to use these values to show the status in
the applet. 

IMHO dBm is also a scale that's not that linear. So computing a percentage
from -76 dBm and -88 dBm this way look pretty odd to me. Bu I may be
misunderstanding something completely :-)



-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-4gb
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=de_DE at euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)

Versions of packages gnome-netstatus-applet depends on:
ii  gconf2                     2.14.0-1      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gksu                       1.9.1-2       graphical frontend to su
ii  libart-2.0-2               2.3.17-1      Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0                1.11.4-2      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudiofile0              0.2.6-6       Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0               2.14.0-1      Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0             2.14.0-3      The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                      2.3.6-15      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2                  1.2.0-3       The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libesd-alsa0 [libesd0]     0.2.36-3      Enlightened Sound Daemon (ALSA) - 
ii  libfontconfig1             2.3.2-7       generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6               2.2.1-2       FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgconf2-4                2.14.0-1      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libgcrypt11                1.2.2-1       LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglade2-0                1:2.5.1-2     library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.10.3-3      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-keyring0          0.4.9-1       GNOME keyring services library
ii  libgnome2-0                2.14.1-2      The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0          2.14.0-2      A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0               2.14.1-2      The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0             2.14.2-1      GNOME virtual file-system (runtime
ii  libgnutls11                1.0.16-14+b1  GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii  libgpg-error0              1.2-1         library for common error values an
ii  libgtk2.0-0                2.8.18-1      The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                    1:1.0.0-3     X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libjpeg62                  6b-13         The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  liborbit2                  1:2.14.0-2    libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpanel-applet2-0         2.14.2-1      library for GNOME 2 panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0              1.12.3-1      Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpng12-0                 1.2.8rel-5.1  PNG library - runtime
ii  libpopt0                   1.10-2        lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                     1:1.0.0-4     X11 Session Management library
ii  libtasn1-2                 1:0.2.17-2    Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libx11-6                   2:1.0.0-7     X11 client-side library
ii  libxcursor1                1.1.5.2-5     X cursor management library
ii  libxext6                   1:1.0.0-4     X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxi6                     1:1.0.0-5     X11 Input extension library
ii  libxinerama1               1:1.0.1-4     X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxml2                    2.6.26.dfsg-2 GNOME XML library
ii  libxrandr2                 2:1.1.0.2-4   X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                1:0.9.0.2-4   X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  zlib1g                     1:1.2.3-11    compression library - runtime

gnome-netstatus-applet recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information