Re: integration of nonphysical interfaces in NM

[David Zeuthen <davidz redhat com>]

On Wed, 2005-01-19 at 21:31 +0200, Paul Ionescu wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I saw a discussion some time ago about NM and VPNs.
> When NM will support VPNs, will it also support other nonphysical
> interfaces like bnep, ppp, irda ?
> All these interfaces are not physical, but logical interfaces, and
> therefore they will not appear in HAL.
> If they are not in HAL, how do we manage them ?
> 

Last time I checked, a PPP interface is something you can decide
to create if you have a tty. Most of the time this is only interesting
if that tty represents a serial device such as a modem or a legacy
serial port. You may also use ppp for other crackful things that I
don't think are of particular interest for the desktop.

So, some day HAL will be able to say "here's a modem and it's serial
port is /dev/ttyUSB0" or "there are two legacy serial ports on this
system (but I don't know what is on them cause it's not Plug and
Play)".

In both cases NM will be the entity saying "OK, I want to use this
serial device, let's create a ppp connection" and as a result ppp0
or whatever will be brought up. So, in my view, NM is going to be
the one managing such interfaces. 

Btw, for the latter case, legacy serial ports, NM will probably
need a "Detect Modem" button but such is life for legacy ports.

I believe the story is somewhat similar for Bluetooth.

David