Bug#688772: gnome Depends network-manager-gnome

[Don Armstrong]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2012, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Don Armstrong writes ("Bug#688772: gnome Depends network-manager-gnome"):
> > 1) we decide that failures of NM to detect basic ifupdown
> > configurations and avoid overriding them are bugs, possibly of RC
> > severity
> > 
> > 2) given the gnome maintainer's desire to have NM installed by default
> > from the gnome metapackage
> > 
> > allowing gnome to Depends: nm | wicd; would deal with the most
> > concerning form of breakage for me.
> > 
> > Does this work for anyone else?
> 
> Why do you think the gnome metapackage depending on, rather than
> recommending, wicd, is a good idea?

The primary case of NM breaking things is when it's installed with
wicd, AFAICT. The other cases of NM breaking things are RC bugs in NM.

> For example, consider the position of someone who has deliberately
> removed n-m in squeeze, and is using ifupdown or running ifconfig by
> hand or whatever, and upgrades to wheezy. This still gives them n-m
> back. That's not respecting their previous choice to remove it.

Right, but if they get NM back, and nothing breaks because of it,[0]
it's just the same as any other package being installed by a meta
package. They've wasted some disk space, and they've got another
program running, but everything continues to work.

It's certainly not the way I would do it,[1] but it's one way to
mitigate the problems with unconditionally installing NM while
allowing a further insistence that NM be installed which the gnome
maintainers appear to strongly believe is necessary.


Don Armstrong

0: This requires some buy-in by the NM maintainer(s), though.
1: But then, I don't run gnome, nor do I care to help maintain it.
-- 
As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both
instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly
unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware
of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting
victims of the darkness.
 -- William O. Douglas

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