[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#416526: installation-report: semi-successful desktop install

Steve Langasek vorlon at debian.org
Thu Apr 5 03:13:21 UTC 2007


On Tue, Apr 03, 2007 at 03:53:09PM +0300, Eddy Petrișor wrote:
> > Well, at this point the problem you're describing is not reproducible for
> > me.

> > I've set up my ethernet interface as:

> >   # The primary network interface
> >   auto eth0
> >   allow-hotplug eth0
> >   iface eth0 inet dhcp

> The default install, in my case had no "auto eth0" line, only an
> "allow-hotplug eth0" line.

> I tested in a either / or kind of way wrt allow-hotplug/auto.

Ok, that's fine; I'm pretty sure the current etch install is supposed to set
them both based on previous bug reports, but that's not terribly relevant to
the bulk of your report here.

> So what I'm trying to say is that, by default, you don't have
> "auto", so you get the asymmetric behaviour. IMO, this violates the
> principle of least surprise.

Well, perhaps, though I would have never used /etc/init.d/networking to
reset a network interface in the first place, I would automatically use
'ifdown $int; ifup $int'.

> > I have manually disabled networking with NM.  I have then run

> Strange, you *had*to* disable it? Wasn't it disabled by default?

This isn't an empty test install, this is my laptop; I was already using
the networking before I ran this test.

> > This is all consistent with the ifupdown documentation.
> > /etc/init.d/networking uses "ifup -a" and "ifdown -a"; when "ifdown -a" is
> > called it affects *all* interfaces, when "ifup -a" is called it affects
> > *only* those interfaces that are marked 'auto'.  Yes, this is asymmetrical,
> > but it's asymmetrical for a reason.

> That reason being?

That startup and shutdown are also asymmetrical in nature.  On shutdown, you
want to disable all network interfaces that are started, no matter how
they're started; on startup ifupdown is only supposed to enable those
interfaces that are marked as 'auto', since any other interface that isn't
marked 'auto' is brought up by some other mechanism (by udev in the case of
'allow-hotplug', or manually by the user in many other cases).

> >> --------------------------------------------------
> >> NM installed, connection was activated the GNOME applet, the interface has
> >> "allow-hotplug"
> >> /etc/init.d/networking stop has no effect.
> >> This configuration would be the one after the default install, *after* the
> >> user realises that he has to start the interface via the applet.
> >> --------------------------------------------------

> > Ah, again, in this case the eth1 interface was not brought up by ifupdown,
> > but by network-manager; so there's no ifupdown state in
> > /etc/network/run/ifstate telling ifdown that it needs to act on this
> > interface.  I agree that this is surprising; perhaps network-manager could
> > be fixed to write to /etc/network/run/ifstate for better integration?

> Yes, this is part of the issue I am talking about.

And this is the part that I think is most important that be fixed in the
network-manager package.  Riccardo, Michael, can you comment on whether you
think this is feasible?

Thanks,
-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon at debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/




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