Re: Feature proposal: combined system status menu

[Frederic Crozat <fred crozat net>]

2013/4/22 Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>:
> On Mon, 2013-04-22 at 15:50 +0200, Frederic Crozat wrote:
> > 2013/4/22 Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>:
> <snip>
> > > However, while switching wi-fi networks will require an extra step, I
> > > actually think that the the experience will be better with the new
> > > design. The current network menu contains a lot of information that
> > > isn't related to wi-fi, and isn't exactly straightforward to use - in
> > > many respects, the new design will be more straightforward to use,
> > > even if there is an extra click involved. Also, we are planning a new
> > > wi-fi selection dialog, which should be a big improvement in those
> > > situations where you are not already connected to a network.
> >
> > My main concern is the detection of "application needs network" and
> > how it will properly integrate without
> > modifying all applications so they interact with NetworkManager to
> > request "I need network access".
>
> That can be implemented as a kernel feature with a user-space helper,
> very much in the same way that "fieryfilter", a desktop-ish firewall
> akin to what exists on Windows, used to do it:
> http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/fieryfilter/screenshots/fieryfilter-0.2-connection.png
>
> We might even get help from the original author ;)
> (The code there is likely not the way it would be finally implemented,
> the kernel infrastructure has changed quite a bit since 2008)

Indeed (another solution could be to use a dnsmasq redirector to
detect DNS query but it would start to be really ugly).

> I also think that we'll need to have more applications, and "desktop
> daemons" making use of GNetworkMonitor to check whether they have access
> to the Internet before trying to access resources.

Yes, but as always, we can't control everything users are running on
their desktop.

--
Frederic Crozat