Re: Can we get rid of network-manager?

[Klaus Knopper <skolelinux@knopper.net>]

Hi all,

On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 10:40:38PM +0100, Andreas Tille wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 09:09:33PM +0100, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> > The issue is that apt in Squeeze install recommends by default,
> > and NetworkManager is recommended by packages we do want to install.
> > We will need to rewrite the entire tasksel framework we use to install
> > packages to do something about that.
> 
> I have not tested but wouldn't it be sufficient to let a relevant
> metapackage simply conflict with network-manager?  From my understanding
> the conflict should be "stronger" than recommends (if not I'd consider
> it a bug) and so apt-get / aptitude should leave out the conflicting
> package.
>  
> > I am open for suggestions.  I believe our best option is to disable
> > NetworkManager, both in d-i and after installation, and leave it at
> > that.
> 
> This would not solve the "other packages we do not want and come with
> network-manager" issue.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
>     Andreas. 

Removing NetworkManager takes away the possibility of easy network
configuration, VPN access and automatic roaming from client users. This
may of course be a deliberate decision if you want to avoid users
messing with the client network configuration at all.

However, I found that another way of avoiding conflicts between
NetworkManager and ifup/ifdown is possible by just making NetworkManager
aware of everything preconfigured in /etc/network/interfaces, and
actually using this file for NetworkManagers configuration handling, by
setting:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true

in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf. This way, NetworkManager
will just do whatever is written in /etc/network/interface, i.e.
configure the clients like it's set forth there, independent of the
graphical (nm-applet) client running on the users desktop. To avoid
duplicate activation, you may want to disable "ifup -a" (the "network"
init script) elsewhere.

This may be a way of keeping NetworkManager intact in Skolelinux,
instead of removing it completely. But it also means that you need
another config file change, since "managed=false" is NetworkManagers
default in Debian.

Regards
-Klaus