Bug#1039727: debian-installer configures ifupdown instead of NetworkManager even if a Desktop Environment is chosen

[Austin Moss <austin@themosses.org>]

Package: debian-installer
Version: stable 20230607 amd64
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: austin@themosses.org

Hello debian-installer maintainers,

   When installing Debian with the graphical installer from the DVD ISO, one of
the steps during the installer prompts users to connect to a network to
retrieve up to date packages. Later in the installer, the user is prompted to
choose additional packages such as the GNOME desktop environment. Once the
install is complete, the user will boot in to the newly installed system and
GNOME's network indicator will show no network connectivity even though they
configured such during the install and the network is likely up.
        This appears to be due to the installer configuring ifupdown and
placing the selected interface in /etc/network/interfaces. GNOME's graphical
settings application provides a front end for NetworkManager and as such, will
not display the interface used during the installer. To display the interface
in GNOME Settings, a user needs to remove the interface from
/etc/network/interfaces.
        Without knowing why the network is not displayed in the graphical
interface, users will be confused as to why they can browse the web or perform
other network tasks even though the GUI does not indicate a network connection.
This may also present a problem especially for wireless cards if a user needs
to connect to a new wireless network but cannot see their wireless card from
the GUI.
        One of the fixes may be to clean /etc/networks/interfaces after the
installation if a user has selected to install GNOME, KDE, or any desktop
environment which provides a graphical front end for NetworkManager.

Thank you for taking the time to read this bug report.
-Austin


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.0
  APT prefers stable-security
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-9-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled