[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#606268: Bug#606268: Bug#606268: now ignores interfaces configured by d-i

[Michael Biebl]

On 13.01.2011 22:22, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> [Summary: NetworkManager doesn't properly transition away from
> /etc/network/interfaces-configured wireless interfaces to using it's own
> internal configuration database, causing them to not come up at all]
> 
> On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 08:30:40PM +0100, Michael Biebl wrote:
>> Imho, the cleanest solution here would be, if d-i simply wouldn't write out any
>> configuration (dhcp/wireless) if network-manager is installed (through the
>> desktop task).
>>
>> CCing the d-i team, to know if that would be feasible.
> 
> No, this is not feasible at this stage of the release.  The package that
> detects and configures the network (netcfg) runs long, *LONG* before any
> packages or tasks are chosen.  Now, in theory, we could defer writing out
> /e/n/interfaces until the end of the install (probably by extending
> finish-install), but that would be complicated and prone to bugs, which
> means isn't going to happen for squeeze anyway (d-i rc1 was just released;
> nothing but showstopper bugs *in* *d-i* are going to get fixed now).

Ok, then I guess we need to tag this bug as squeeze-ignore, unless someone comes
up with a better idea.

> At any rate, I don't think that not writing out network config is going to
> solve your problem.  What about when a user of a newly-installed system (ie
> post d-i) decides they want the desktop task installed?  Or decides to
> install NM individually?  In both of those cases, interfaces is going to be
> populated, and you (presumably) need to deal with that correctly, and it's
> no different to the install-time case anyway.  Even if we ignored those
> people, by not writing out a network config you're giving all desktop users
> a system with no network at all at first boot, which is pretty much

To be precise, this would only affect desktop installs using wireless/WEP during
installation, so not *all*.

> guaranteed to result in a large pile of failing d-i installation reports
> that we can do nothing about.

Afaics the proposed solution to simply comment out the wep configuration from
/e/n/i will basically have the same effect.

I mean, I could ride the easy path, as wicd does, and simply ignore what's
configured in /e/n/i and if people want to have devices not be managed by NM,
they have to configure that explicitly in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf.

Setting managed=true needs more work and integration, especially from ifupdown,
i.e. if NM is in charge of the device, you don't want ifupdown to bring it up
too, and e.g. spawn a second wpa_supplicant instance which then fight against
each other.

Michael


-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 900 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-utopia-maintainers/attachments/20110113/b5226a8a/attachment.pgp>