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Thanks for your wonderful reply, Rahul. |
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I should have written down what a system plugin for NM can do. |
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I am using NM for wireless and vpn connection in Gentoo, it runs well as in |
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Ubuntu Live-CD. |
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NM has a Client/Server architecture, a server daemon runs in the background, |
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and a client such as the nm-applet for GNOME keeping and providing |
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connection information. it is easy to write a client for specified wm, |
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knetworkmanager for KDE and cnetworkmanager for console are already in the |
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Portage. A client needs to store settings for the connection, for example, |
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nm-applet stores the settings using gconf. A sytem integrated plugin indeed |
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is another client integrated into NM's daemon and keeping the connection, it |
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read and write from the system's network configuration files, converting |
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them to settings information for NM. Thus, without settings from end user, |
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the computer is able to connect the internet using system's default |
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settings. Also, the user can easily change the system settings via an UI |
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editor, if gained the privilege. |
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|
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So NM is already provide end users with a straight forward way of |
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managing their network connections, the aim of the integration project is to |
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make NM more closed with Gentoo, so that we can start the network connection |
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configured in /etc/conf.d/net at system boot time running |
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"/etc/init.d/NetworkManager start" instead of "/etc/init.d/net.<interface> |
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start". |
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|
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My opinion is that the modular networking configuration mechanism(modules |
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implemented in /lib/rc/net/<module>.sh) and week security wireless |
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configuration(mainly rely on wpa_supplicant's configuration) in |
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/etc/conf.d/net, stop third party to implement another daemon for system |
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network, including plugin for NM. |
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|
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Actually, there is a new network script in openrc, /etc/init.d/network, but |
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the configuration is also more for network scripts then connection settings. |
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On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 6:01 PM, Rahul Jain <rahul@×××××××.net> wrote: |
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> On Tuesday 06 April 2010 11:33:25 Zhitong He wrote: |
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> > Hi, I have been trying to get involved with NetworkManager's integration |
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> > with Gentoo, but encounter some problems. |
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> > |
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> > 1. What network configuration in Gentoo does are not what NM can do. |
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> > Modular Networking in Gentoo is popular, however, they are not all |
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> > supported by NM. For example, bonding, bridging and vlan. In addition, |
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> > advanced configuration such as interface dependency, fall back operation, |
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> > are not supported by NM, too. |
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> > |
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> |
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> The major advantage of NM (as is often cited) is the fact that it provides |
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> a |
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> unified UI for managing wired(Ethernet, DSL, PPP), wireless and vpn |
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> connections. It allows automatic reconnection on network loss, allows you |
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> to |
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> automatically connect to a preferred wireless network (if found) and allows |
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> hotplugging of the ethernet cable. Conventionally speaking, these tasks |
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> would |
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> take care of the networking needs of a vast majority of end users. Bonding, |
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> bridging and others are advanced networking tasks that one does not expect |
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> a |
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> "normal" user to perform on a day to day basis. |
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> So, the only advantage of NM is that gives you a sane UI to perform your |
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> day |
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> to day networking tasks. |
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|
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|
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> |
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> 2. Configuration about Wireless Networking is not powerful enough. |
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> > Security wireless connection is a strong point of NM, however, not |
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> the |
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> > network configuration of Gentoo. Though we can choose wpa_supplicant |
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> > module for security connection, the configuration depends on |
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> > wpa_supplicant's configuration files which has its own syntax and not |
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> > worth translation back to NM using plugin, since NM is already working |
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> > with wpa_supplicant via dbus communication. |
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> > |
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> |
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> I have not used NM for quite a long time (I use WICD for managing my |
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> internet |
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> connections) but as far as I know (and understand your question) the end |
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> user |
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> does not need to write config files by hand for managing wireless networks |
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> in |
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> NM. I recently did try the Ubuntu Live CD (the Ubuntu folks do a great job |
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> of |
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> integrating NM) and NM was able to connect to the encrypted Uni network |
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> after |
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> I provided it with the username and password. For WICD, I had to create a |
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> template using the provided wpa_supplicant file. I think it might be |
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> helpful |
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> for you to look into what Ubuntu does in this regard. |
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> |
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> > So, what's the benefit for Gentoo and what I can do if choosing the |
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> > project? |
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> > Working with syntax in network configuration file like config_<interface> |
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> > and config_<essid> is pleasure, but is that enough? they are only |
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> little |
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> > part of Gentoo's network configuration file. The work should focus on |
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> > settings for NM, but settings in Gentoo's network configuration rely on |
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> > various tools according to different modules and the syntax is not |
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> unified. |
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> > Will mentor let me pass the final evaluation if only part of the |
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> > configuration is support? :-) |
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> > |
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> |
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> As far as I know, there are already two methods of managing networks in |
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> gentoo. Those using openrc already do things a little differently than |
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> those |
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> who are not. (Please correct me if I am mistaken). The main advantage for |
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> gentoo would be to provide end users with a straight forward way of |
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> managing |
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> their network connections. |
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> |
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> > My conclusion is that we should do more work on improving the way to |
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> > configure network in Gentoo instead of NM integration, if we need to make |
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> > it easily supported by various network control daemon. For example, focus |
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> > on settings for variable control like /etc/make.conf instead of syntax as |
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> > wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dwext", put it from a single file(/etc/conf.d/net) |
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> > to a specified directory, where we can also place the vpn keys, pem |
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> > files.. |
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> > |
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> |
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> This is indeed a good idea. I am not qualified to comment on what needs to |
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> be |
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> achieved as part of GSoc project but I think any major steps to improve |
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> network management in gentoo would be welcome by all. I am no fan of NM so |
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> my |
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> views might be a little bit coloured in this regard, but even then I still |
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> think that due to the popularity of NM it would be a good idea to have it |
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> integrated into Gentoo. Maybe you could also look into making it gnome- |
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> independent (or kde-independent in the case of knetworkmanager) so that it |
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> can |
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> be used as a networking tool by people using other WMs/DMs as well. |
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> |
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> > Sorry for my poor English, I would explain further if you could not |
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> > understand my opinion. Feedback and comments are welcome. |
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> |
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> I hope I might be able to answer some of your questions, I am no expert |
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> myself. :) |
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> |
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> Cheers |
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> Rahul |
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> -- |
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> M.Sc. Computer Science |
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> ETH Zürich |
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> Switzerland |
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> |
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|
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-- |
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Zhitong He |
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Sun Yat-sen University |