Re: Static and dynamic wired interface

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2008-09-10 at 13:41 -0400, Kevin Hunter wrote:
> At 9:23am -0400 on Wed, 10 Sep 2008, Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Wed, 2008-09-10 at 12:01 +0300, Kristian Slavov wrote:
> >> Is NM capable of handling the following scenario?
> >> A laptop, when located at office, has a static address. Once outside, 
> >> DHCP is used to get an address.
> > 
> > NM 0.7 is, but since you're mixing the two there will be some manual
> > operation on your side since there's not a good generic way to
> > autodetect what network you're on when you plug in the cable.
> 
> Hmm, not to be Ubuntu-centric, but I see this brainstorm idea:
> 
> "Intelligent integration of Network Manager with applications"
> http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/12934/

We've pretty much wanted this from day 1 way back in 2004...  There had
always been vague plans to get things like Thunderbird and Evolution to
tie a mail account to specific connections, such that when those
connections are active (be it "Work" or "Work VPN") then and only then
would Evolution or Thunderbird try to check your work mail account.

There are a few levels of awareness, the first being basic "can my
packets get somewhere beyond me" and the next level being "where am I
connected at, work or home or elsewhere?"

> I thought I saw another one about selecting one's location as well, but
> now I can't find it.  In any event, the idea is to basically mimic what
> OS X currently does with locations.  You can select where you are (Via
> Apple->Location), and it will set the current profile of the computer
> (Internet sharing enabled/disabled, airport on/off, etc.)

I've maintained that this is a sub-optimal experience almost from day
#1, because for most people you can detect location without any user
interaction at all.  The OS X Location Manager (it's existed since Mac
OS 7 really) is a carry-over from the times you had to dial up or hook
up or use AppleTalk, not from 2008 when you have WiFi, Bluetooth, and
broadband.

Think about Robert's scenario: work and home.  He already has to choose
a "profile" on startup with scpm.  That's what, at least one click?  If
he were to use the static/dynamic setup that I recommended for NM
(selecting the static "work" connection when he was at work, which is
also just one click) instead of using scpm, he could achieve the exact
same results with less software and complexity.  You can already modify
NFS mounts, proxies, printers, etc from dispatcher scripts.

> Any thoughts about tying some functionality like this together with some
> D-Bus stuffs?

NM emits signals when the connection changes, and thus apps can
certainly figure out where they are connected at any given point in
time.  If you want to treat connections like "profiles", you could key
off the connection UUID for "Work" and set up your NFS mounts
accordingly when the "Work" connection was successfully activated.
Something could certainly poke "disable wireless" when the "Work"
connection gets activated.  That sort of thing.

Dan