Re: Thoughts on network detection and configuration on Debian

[Brian May <bam@debian.org>]

>>>>> "David" == David Roundy <droundy@civet.berkeley.edu> writes:

    David> (1) Detect my network environment and configure networking
    David> properly.

    David> (2) Configure my computer based on location, as in
    David> everything else.

    David> (3) Determine when to redetect my environment and
    David> reconfigure.

I have tried a number of programs, but IMHO they all try to do too
much with various degrees of success.

I would like a system that is completely modular, and does 1, 2 and 3
as 3 distinct tasks.


So, for instance, some people might want (1) to be manual input
(netenv's strong point) while other people might want it to try and
automatic detect. There seem to be slightly different ways this
automatic detection could task place too.

Then (2) should be a distinct step (or maybe 2 distinct
steps). Network configuration should be brought up using "ifup". Most
packages I have tried seem to get this wrong, and want to configure
the network at the same time it is detected. This has a number of
implications I can't recall right now (using a dhcp assigned address
might be one).

(3) is made difficult because on my system, the Ethernet card is built
in to the computer, so being able to manually invoke the configuration
process is important.


Now if each step could be standardised, so users can plug their most
desired modules in each step, things could be really great!
-- 
Brian May <bam@debian.org>