Wireless seems to take over from wired connection

[jpeg725]

Hi, I have a lenovo x200 with the following network interfaces as reported by inxi -N

Network: Card-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection driver: iwlwifi
Card-2: Intel 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e

They both work fine and dandy in linuxmint 13, except that, when both are available the following happens.

The network icon in the systray is the wired one. When I turn the wireless connection on the wireless led turns on and I get a message saying it connected. Then the wireless led flashes from time to time indicating activity on the wireless link.

route reports the following

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
default freebox-server. 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 1 0 0 eth0
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 2 0 0 wlan0

Wouldn't it be better just to ignore the wireless capability when the wired connection is running? Or to connect once only to see if it happens to be the same network and then remember that such an ssid is connected to such a wired connection?

[remoulder]

Only one network adapter can be active under normal circumstances. If the wired connection is active, why would you activate wireless unless you wanted to use that adapter? Your logic seems to be contrary to that of the network manager developers.

[xox101]

Same laptop as you and I have to say you are lucky if you managed to get an Intel card to work with Network Manager. I had to change to an Atheros card to get a wireless connection.

Anyway what you are seeing is perfectly normal. I think with the wireless turned on but the laptop connected wired the wireless connection first connects to a network it knows and then checks every so often to see if the wireless network is still there.