NetworkManager system-wide use

[Philip Prindeville]

David Nielsen wrote:
> fre, 26 05 2006 kl. 11:48 -0600, skrev Philip Prindeville:
>   
>> David Hollis wrote:
>>     
>>> On Fri, 2006-05-26 at 11:14 -0600, Philip Prindeville wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Sorry for the slight digression, but can someone explain to me why
>>>> NetworkManager has a dependency on wpa_supplicant?  Not all
>>>> wireless networks use WEP/WPA (some are wide open).  Further,
>>>> not all networked machines (like my desktop) have Wireless NIC's.
>>>>
>>>> It would seem to be an unnecessary (and unfounded) dependency.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Uh, unless I really don't understand your question, the dependency is
>>> there because SOME/MOST networks do use WEP/WPA.  
>>>   
>>>       
>> Not true.  A lot of hotspots (Starbuck's, Boise airport, certain municipal
>> networks like Portland, OR, etc. are all open access, with no WEP/WPA).
>>
>> It is sometimes or even *mostly* the case, but not always.  Therefore, in
>> the cases where it doesn't apply, no dependency should exist.
>>
>> The RPM should have some way of detecting if wireless cards are present
>> (perhaps using the contents of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*) and
>> then inferring a dependence of wpa_supplicant (which as I said, only
>> applies IFF you have wireless hardware and the networks you use
>> require authentication and/or privacy).
>>     
>
> I read that correctly you want to install the rpm in runtime.
>   

What?  No.  You can have conditional requirements in the RPM...  such
as "*iff* the hardware I'm running on has a wireless NIC, then require
wpa_supplicant."  So the RPM can detect a wireless adapter and
conditionally define a Requires: wpa_supplicant line in the NetworkManager
RPM.


> "Oh it looks like you have wifi and you want to connect using WEP/WPA..
> please give me the root password." 
>
> That sounds like an utterly scary scenerio. You are forgetting the the
> system is dynamic, so the user can insert a wifi capable device at any
> time and to connect to a protected network you would then for first time
> require the root password to install the rpm.
>   

The user is also completely capable of manually installing wpa_supplicant
if he knows he will be using a plug-in wireless card (though more and
more wireless cards are mini-PCI, and hence don't get unplugged much).

This would be better than having an unconditional requirement for wireless
support in wired-only (desktop) environments.


> This should just magically work, which means the package must be
> installed. The natural thing to do this would be make networkmanager
> depend on it. What is the tradeoff here, a dependency on 241kb package
> vs. having to install something in runtime (the logic to do this would
> probably be comparable in size to be honest).
>   

It's not the size of the package.  It's the dependencies that that 
package in turn
has (like pcsc-libs-lite, etc), the vulnerabilities and exploits that 
that package
has plug all of its dependencies, etc.

> Please tell me I read your proposal wrong.
>   

I never said anything about run-time.  It was purely install-time.  You
can detect most of the hardware at install-time.  What you can't (i.e.
a plug-in PCMCIA card) you can anticipate for and install the
wpa_supplicant package for anyway.

-Philip


> - David
>