Bug#1212: ppp configuration ugliness
Alvar Bray writes ("Bug#1210: lost bug? ppp configuration ugliness"):
> Maybe the solution would be to have a base ppp package that only
> contained the binaries, man pages etc. and then to have various ppp
> configurations; ppp-static for static lines; ppp-dynamic for my type of
> useage; ppp-dip for people who use dip etc.
No, I don't think that's a good idea.
It puts too much configuration decision-making into the package
selection stage. There is limited scope there for assisting the user
or for `non-standard' configurations, and this kind of thing makes
CDROM distribution very difficult.
I think a default configuration script is the way to do.
Bruce Perens writes ("Bug#1212: ppp configuration ugliness"):
> I bypassed the normal PPP configuration start it from inittab.
> The line is almost always connected if I'm awake - whether I'm at
> work or home, since there's no cost to the call. Pacific Bell must
> hate me.
>
> I think it would be nice to have a script to auto-configure PPP in
> response to user input. It would be difficult to make that general
> enough for most users.
However, if we are going to provide any auto-configuration at all this
is where it should go. Our configuration strategy is sophisticated
enough to allow users to do things much more sophisticated than any
script we could ever hope to write.
A script that does most of the work for most users is better than none
at all.
> The script should support dial-on-demand.
This is the job of a separate program - diald (which also supports
SLIP). This is not yet a Debian package. I use 0.4 (in /usr/local)
and find it very useful, but I don't have time to maintain it as a
Debian package. I saw 0.9 (I think) announced in cola - anyone want
to be the maintainer ?
Ian.
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