Network Manager, Firefox and more on FC10

[Timothy Murphy]

Jeff Spaleta wrote:

> Lets be very clear. Where did you put in your static network info?
> Somehow I doubt you put it into NM's per-user connection information
> store.  If you don't understand how NM works and you are putting the
> information into the legacy systems configuration locations or
> tools..then should you expect NM to see your settings?

Where is "NM's per-user connection information store"?
Personally, I've no idea how NM works because I have never seen
any documentation that explains how it works.
It actually works perfectly for me 95% of the time,
but I haven't the slightest idea why.
And on the rare occasions when it does not work
I haven't the slightest idea what to do, except pray and re-boot
(in that order).

And what is the "legacy systems configuration locations"?
Assuming you mean /etc/sysconfig/network-scritps/ifcfg-* ,
are you saying that NM does not look there?

> The problem here is that we have a large contingent of users who found
> the script based approach as acceptable for years and NM represents a
> substantial change. That script based approach is still there, but its
> not the default. Because its not the default additional steps must be
> taken to get the expected behavior they are looking for.  That
> confuses people because it creates a new interaction point between a
> system they understood well enough to use and a system they don't
> understand yet.

The reason people are confused by NM is because
it is almost completely undocumented.
If something does not work it is doubly annoying
to be told that "it just works".

> And yes NM doesn't let you establish pre-login connections...yet. But
> its on the roadmap.

Well, someone said earlier in this thread that you could do this
by "choosing 'enable on boot' in system-config-network".
I followed similar (but more complicated) instructions
some time ago which were said to get NM working before login
but they didn't appear to have any effect.

> Until then you are free to disable NM and use the legacy network
> service, which uses the legacy sysconfig scripts, which can be editted
> using the legacy system-config-network ui.

Has the classic network service improved recently?
I thought NM was introduced precisely because the old service
did not work properly.
I certainly found it infuriating.
I'm very grateful for NM, but don't really like to rely on magic.