Bug#774232: recommend using a wired connexion

[Antoine Beaupré <anarcat@debian.org>]

On 2019-03-18 21:03:14, Paul Gevers wrote:
> Hi Antoine,
>
> On 16-03-2019 15:46, Antoine Beaupré wrote:
>> On 2019-03-16 15:18:27, Paul Gevers wrote:
>>> On Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:59:51 -0500 Antoine =?utf-8?Q?Beaupr=C3=A9?=
>>> <anarcat@debian.org> wrote:
>>>> On 2015-01-05 15:52:23, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
>>>>> There might however be an issue with remote upgrades over wireless 
>>>>> connections handled by Network Manager as it still reinitializes the 
>>>>> connection on service restart, so doing a remote upgrade over wireless 
>>>>> could under specific circumstances lead to problems.
>>>>
>>>> That. Exactly. :) I would be terrified of doing a remote upgrade over
>>>> wifi, and that's probably because I know a little more what I am doing
>>>> than the average Debian user - so I think it makes sense to warn against
>>>> that particular foot-shooting device.
>>>
>>> I expect this is still an issue, but I wonder how hypothetical this is.
>>> Is there any evidence that this is a real issue? I would update remotely
>>> over WiFi myself, but ...
>>>
>>> So, if we want to share our worries, how to phrase this? Does the
>>> following make sense?
>>> """
>>> Upgrading systems remotely that are connected via WiFi managed by
>>> Network Manager isn't recommended. Network Manager re-initializes the
>>> connection on service restart which could lead to problems under certain
>>> circumstances.
>>> """
>> 
>> The thing is am I do not believe the Debian package restarts network
>> manager automatically. I have needrestart here for stuff like that, and
>> even *that* blocks that automated restart by default...
>
> So you changed you mind since you filed the bug? Or am I
> misunderstanding you now?

So I'm not sure anymore. It's been a *long* time now, and I am not sure
exactly why I filed that bug... I wish I had been more explicit on the
"why" back then and an actual failure mode I experienced. I'm pretty
sure there *was* something, but I can't trace it right now.

Now that we're working on bookworm, I think I agree that we should move
on.

I still think that people should use a wired connexion for upgrades, but
I am not feeling so strongly about this that it should be part of the
upgrade procedure. In fact, I believe I have myself done upgrades over
wifi without too much problems recently.

I don't actually buy the "wifi firmware goes away" theory anymore, and
if network manager restarts, who cares? You already have the packages
downloaded at this point and the worse that could happen there is that
you lose your network, which is something a reboot (which you need to do
anyways) would do as well.

So yeah, let's move on, and thanks for nursing all those bugs all those
years. :)

a.
-- 
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                        - Alphonse Karr