[gentoo-soc] [soc idea] Improve NetworkManager integration with Gentoo

[Nirbheek Chauhan]

Improve NetworkManager integration with Gentoo:

People who use NetworkManager in Gentoo have found that it lives in an
ecosystem of it's own, completely detached from the network
configuration in Gentoo (/etc/conf.d/net, hostname, dns, etc). Due to
these reasons, the init script has not even been made to "provide net"
yet, which makes it quite useless out of the box. However, NM is an
excellent tool, and the aim of this project would be to make it work
properly in Gentoo.

This mostly involves writing a NetworkManager plugin to read and write
to Gentoo configuration files, and various other improvements to
enhance integration. Creating a full list is left as an exercise for
the applicant.

Skills:
*C
*GObject C
*Basic understanding of networking
*Familiarity with network configurations and services in Gentoo

That's essentially what I've put up on the wiki. Anyone who has used
NetworkManager semi-seriously will agree with me that NM integration
is quite shoddy in Gentoo because no one wrote a gentoo-specific
plugin (like RH and Ubuntu did). Writing the plugin itself and making
it work properly should not take more than a month (and a half?), and
properly integrating NM with network services (reconfiguration/hup
when new interfaces go up/down, etc) should take a few more weeks
(mainly b/c we need to test against almost everything).

I need help in adding a few more things to this project so that the
student can be kept occupied for the entire duration of summer. Or is
the amount of work sufficient?

Also, please note that I will most likely not be able to mentor for
this project, so if anyone is interested in mentoring, feel free to
take over this ;)

-- 
~Nirbheek Chauhan

Gentoo GNOME+Mozilla Team