Re: [patch] Support Debian's resolvconf

[Olivier Blin <oblin mandriva com>]

Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com> writes:

> Yes.  That is, more or less, the point.  What we do _not_ want is some random 
> front-end to ifup/ifdown like Red Hat's system-config-network currently is.  You 
> simply do not get the kind of error reporting, user interaction, and feedback 
> that is required for the networking experience that we want to have.

Ok, but you could have enhanced the current system to have this kind
of status reporting. Currently, I guess you have lost the ability to
manage ppp connections, dsl connections and isdn connections in
NetworkManager.

> The current network scripts are not dynamic.  They do not 
> allow for multiple wireless networks with advanced configuration
> details easily.  For example, if you are using WPA right now, you
> need to have your config  information in at least two places

Right, the network scripts can't handle that currently, but it's quite
easy to add this feature. In Mandriva, I plan to use wpa_supplicant as
default roaming daemon for wireless interfaces. So the wireless
settings would be configured in wpa_supplicant.conf. Then, the network
level parameters (IP settings, DHCP) could be configured in
per-wireless-network configuration files. We could use files named by
the ESSID or BSSID to store this settings, in for example
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/wireless

To have a dynamic behaviour, the network scripts only miss ifplugd and
wpa_supplicant support. We already have both in Mandriva, we just have
to allow to use the two daemons for the same interface.
They give enough mobility power to manage wireless roaming, as well as
hot-switch between wireless and wired networks.

> and you can't really use a GUI client to do it.
> We're supposed to be making this easy and consolidating this
> configuration information.  

I don't agree, that's not because you have information in two places
(well, maybe three in my proposal) that you have to make it
complicated for the users.
This still allows to have a nice and simple GUI. It doesn't have to be
tied to the internal configuration structure.

> Furthermore, the user shouldn't have to even enter half of this 
> stuff, and they shouldn't have to touch a config file to do it either.  That's 
> what GUIs are for (in our mobil-user scenario).

Definitely, I think no one can object to this point :-)

> I recognise the necessity of server-type configuration, but you have
> to start somewhere.

To me, current network scripts are a good starting point, and I don't
find it really difficult to make them mobility-aware.

> Well, at this point we're not aiming at servers.  In the future, yes, but not 
> right now.  The current "mandate" of NM is essentially mobile laptop users.  
> Moving forward, we hope to generalize the structure of NetworkManager to take 
> advantage of more of these things, and to work with more network devices.

Fair enough.
So, you're currently using network scripts for corporate servers and
NetworkManager for desktop. Do you have some migration scripts to
handle the transition in the future?

Thanks for your reply

-- 
Olivier Blin
Mandriva
Mandrakesoft becomes Mandriva