godo wrote: > does anybody notice that /etc/network/interfaces has changed? > I notice that on my Sid and Squeeze box when I boot to single user > mode for update and there wasn't networking. > > /etc/network/interfaces had > # The primary network interface > allow-hotplug eth0 > #NetworkManager#iface eth0 inet dhcp > > Ok it's not a big deal but can frighten you :-) This is a consequence of network-manager. You can follow most of the discussion here in this bug. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=530024 Network Manager only manages interfaces that are *NOT* listed in the system /etc/network/interfaces file. This means that other programs such as Evolution that ask NM (through the D-bus interface) if the host has networking will think that no networking is available when in fact networking is actually available. If Evolution thinks that no networking is available then it will force offline mode breaking it severely. When Debian is installed almost invariably the default installation will leave eth0 configured for DHCP. That has been great in the past. But now it is in conflict with the way network-manager wants things. Meaning that a default installation and then upgrade isn't correct. As a workaround network-manager now comments out the specification for the wired interface. That removes it from the file and then network-manager will manage it and report correctly on whether the host has networking or not to other tools such as evolution that ask about it. To me that seems like a nasty hack. Bob
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