Re: Make n-m not touch WWAN
On 9/5/2014 2:10 PM, Michael Biebl wrote:
Am 05.09.2014 21:14, schrieb Matt Ventura:
I don't recall this happening until recent updates, but on my laptop
with testing installed, any time network-manager starts/restarts, it
will rfkill my WWAN card. I use the card exclusively as a GPS, so I
want n-m to pretend it doesn't exist. Is there something like
unmanaged-devices but for WWAN cards?
You could try something like
[keyfile]
unmanaged-devices=mac:00:11:22:33:44:55
in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
But the problem is that the card doesn't actually expose any network interface
until I tell n-m to actually connect to a cellular network with the card (I don't
have a plan for the card so it obviously fails). Even then, it's just a ppp interface
with no MAC address, so I don't know what I would put in the config.
This bug seems to be deeper though. When I rfkill unblock the card, after some time
the option in n-m applet's context menu to enable mobile broadband will appear.
However, if I enable this option and disable it, it will rfkill the card and I will
lose that option to toggle it in the menu. It looks like this is a bug with how
n-m handles the card. The card (Sierra Wireless MC5725) will drop off the USB
entirely, so I guess n-m thinks the card is gone and doesn't give me the option to
re-enable it.
As for why it disables it to begin with, it appears that if you have the
"Mobile Broadband" option disabled in the menu, it will rfkill the card for you.
Except in this case, it becomes a chicken-and-egg problem because it ends up hiding
the card from itself and thinking it doesn't exist, thus not giving me the option to
enable it to begin with.
I'll probably file a bug report somewhere about this, but in the meantime, is there
a way to just get it to ignore the card? Or does enabling mobile broadband in the
menu activate the card without really doing anything? I don't want it using any
unnecessary cpu/mem/power compared to before the update that broke this.
Matt Ventura
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