Re: Debian integration

[j bootlab org]

debian's network infrastructure might be modular, but afaik there is,
besides gnome-system-tools, no gui for it. gnome-system-tools shows that
it is not trivial to integrate well with the debian subsystem, my laptop
setup never worked, i.e. detection of active interfaces resulting in a
not responding gnome-system-tools dialog for more than 30 seconds.

NetworkManager solves many of the shortcomings
of /etc/network/interfaces and ifupdown in terms of flexibility for
mobile use. in the long term network configuration in gnome should be
dealt with by NetworkManager + a subset of the network dialog
gnome-system-tools provides.

NetworkManager right now, i.e. with the integration of a dhcp client,
is taking care of many of the modules that can be set in e/n/i / that
are triggered by ifupdown.
NetworkManager moves network configuration to the desktop and while
doing so its done in a cross distribution way.

so whats left to the distribution specific backends?
right now that is a switch dhcp/static + setting up static ip addresses.
dhcp configuration moved out of the distribution backends with the 
integration of the dhcp client.

i my opinion the distribution backends should be as small as possible
and do only what can not be done cross distribution. ifupdown would 
do more than needed, thats why i think it should not be used in 
NetworkManager.

j

On Fri, 2004-11-26 at 17:39 +0000, Thom May wrote:
> Hi all,
> I started a Debian wiki page on my thoughts on how NM should integrate with
> Debian - this is a very brief start, but if people would like to comment,
> and work on this it'd be great.
> http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?NetworkManagerIntegration
> Cheers,
> -Thom