[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#550666: network-manager: Should fall back to other APs for an ESSID if one doesn't work

[Josh Triplett]

Package: network-manager
Version: 0.7.1-2
Severity: normal

I've used networks where one of the APs doesn't actually work - either
association doesn't work or DHCP doesn't get an address.  Other APs on
the same ESSID work just fine.  I worked around this by editing the
connection to use a particular working AP MAC address, but this means I
can't roam to other working APs.

I initially thought of suggesting that NetworkManager should let a
network definition have a list of APs *not* to use.  However, that means
that a network requires manual fixing.

For a better, more automatic solution, what if NetworkManager simply
tried another AP with the same ESSID if one didn't work?  Furthermore,
NetworkManager could remember the MAC addresses of APs that didn't work
before, and try them only as a last resort.

- Josh Triplett

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.31-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages network-manager depends on:
ii  adduser                3.111             add and remove users and groups
ii  dbus                   1.2.16-2          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  dhcp3-client           3.1.3-1           DHCP client
ii  hal                    0.5.13-3          Hardware Abstraction Layer
ii  ifupdown               0.6.9             high level tools to configure netw
ii  libc6                  2.9-27            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbus-1-3            1.2.16-2          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2       0.82-2            simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgcrypt11            1.4.4-4           LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglib2.0-0           2.22.2-2          The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnutls26            2.8.4-1           the GNU TLS library - runtime libr
ii  libgpg-error0          1.6-1             library for common error values an
ii  libhal1                0.5.13-3          Hardware Abstraction Layer - share
ii  libnl1                 1.1-5             library for dealing with netlink s
ii  libnm-glib0            0.7.1-2           network management framework (GLib
ii  libnm-util1            0.7.1-2           network management framework (shar
ii  libpolkit-dbus2        0.9-4             library for accessing PolicyKit vi
ii  libpolkit2             0.9-4             library for accessing PolicyKit
ii  libtasn1-3             2.3-1             Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libudev0               146-5             libudev shared library
ii  libuuid1               2.16.1-4          Universally Unique ID library
ii  lsb-base               3.2-23            Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  wpasupplicant          0.6.9-3           client support for WPA and WPA2 (I
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-15 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages network-manager recommends:
pn  dnsmasq-base                  <none>     (no description available)
ii  iptables                      1.4.4-2    administration tools for packet fi
ii  network-manager-gnome         0.7.1-1    network management framework (GNOM
ii  policykit                     0.9-4      framework for managing administrat
pn  ppp                           <none>     (no description available)

Versions of packages network-manager suggests:
pn  avahi-autoipd                 <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information