NM: the usual rant

[Aaron Konstam]

On Sun, 2009-03-01 at 17:05 -0500, Robert L Cochran wrote:
> >> Part of the problem here is understanding the difference between the
> >> network service and the NetworkManager service. The network service
> >> will connect before you log in, while the NetworkManager service
> >> connects after you log in. You normally want to run only one of
> >> these services. I like the network service for servers and desktops,
> >> and the NetworkManager service for laptops. (I need to be able to
> >> connect to my desktop even if nobody is logged in.) You can have
> >> both services running at the same time, but you have to make sure
> >> you have the interfaces that you do not want NetworkManager to
> >> control marked as such.
> >>
> >>     
> > To add to the discussion, NM doesn't connect to the network without a
> > gui. That seems a rather shortsighted design. I found this the hard
> > way today when my gui got screwed after an update and some ill
> > considered tinkering.
> >   
> What you and Mikkel say make me realize I'm the one who is the dummy
> here. I was assuming that NetWorkManager will automatically connect to
> my hidden wireless network after I did the setup work after choosing
> System --> Administration --> Network, and supplying my network details.
> Maybe that GUI has nothing to do with NetworkManager. But I didn't think
> of this at the time. I saved the settings in that GUI, got a message
> indicating I may want to restart my network, and without thinking that
> the 'network' service is turned off in chkconfig for all runlevels
> anyhow, I merrily typed away 'service network restart'. Ouch.
> 
> It looks like I have to click the gui icon on the top right of my
> desktop showing two computer monitors and then select either a visible
> network name, or 'Connect to hidden network...' for the first time one
> does a wireless connection. I'll reboot soon to see if it connects
> automatically from here on.
> 
> Apparently there is a settings file in
> /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf that one can work with, but
> mine only has the text
> 
> [main]
> plugins=ifcfg-fedora
> 
> and there seems very little NetworkManager documentation to start with.
> Maybe it is all in the wiki.
The additional plugin should be called: keyfile
--
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Shannon's Observation: Nothing is so frustrating as a bad situation that
is beginning to improve.
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Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net