network manager command-line control?

[Dan Williams]

On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 10:43 -0500, Matthew Miller wrote:
> I want to make sure I'm not missing something before I file an RFE. I'd like
> to be able to enable/disable wireless (or wired, for that matter) networking
> from scripts. The nm-tool program seems like the logical place for this
> functionality, but it doesn't appear to actually have it at this point.

All the functionality is currently available with dbus-send.  However,
since that's the case, it would be nice to have a CLI tool that
interfaces in a nicer manner than dbus-send.  I'd like to have something
like that too, but haven't had time to look into it.  It would be a
great opportunity for somebody to jump in.

> Specifically, my laptop generates a custom Sony ACPI button event when the
> wireless antenna is switched on or off -- I'd like to automatically enable
> or disable wireless networking correspondingly. Is there an easy way to do
> this that I'm just not seeing? Thanks.

Jeremy has an excellent answer to this question :)  There's already an
rfkill framework in the kernel, your upstream Sony ACPI kernel module
needs to hook into that.  In the short term, if you _really_ don't want
to make the world a better place by pressuring upstream Sony ACPI module
authors to do the right thing, look at dbus-send, use the D-Bus property
interface on the base NetworkManager object, and set the WirelessEnabled
property to true/false depending on what the custom events say.  By
doing this and not making upstream better, you agree to sacrifice 3
small, adorable, mewing kittens each time you flip the rfkill switch.

> (Also, is there a way to supress the pop-up messages about changes in
> connections status? I find them more obtrusive and distracting than
> helpful.)

We could add an option to the applet to disable them, yes.

Dan