Re: Does anyone understand NetworkManager?

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 13:15 -0400, Darren Albers wrote:
> David Abrahams wrote:
> > Oh, here's some additional data:
> > Each time I have rebooted with an ethernet cable attached and then
> > disconnected the cable, it asked me for my keyring password almost
> > immediately and connects to the network in a few seconds.  I think raw
> > wpa_supplicant is faster, but it was close.
> >
> > On the first reboot:
> >
> >   I reconnected the cable and it connected back to the wired network
> >
> >   I disconected the cable and it tried to connect to the wireless
> >   network, but failed.  I couldn't get it to connect wirelessly
> >   thereafter, even by explicitly choosing the network
> >
> > On the second reboot:
> >
> >   I reconnected the cable and it connected back to the wired network
> >
> >   I disconected the cable (possibly slightly more quickly this time)
> >   and it apparently failed to notice.  The icon in the notification
> >   area still showed me connected to the wired network.  I couldn't get
> >   it to connect wirelessly thereafter, even by explicitly choosing the
> >   network, *AND* I couldn't get it to notice the wire being removed
> >   either.
> >
> > On the third reboot, I started with no network cable connected, but
> > the experience was the same as with the first reboot, starting where I
> > disconnected the cable.
> >
> > So this _is_ different from the old version of NetworkManager in that
> > it's more consistent.  The old version would often connect repeatedly
> > if you were willing to wait long enough.  In this version, the
> > timeouts seem to be shorter.  
> >
> >   
> This is actually good since it is something you can repeat, can you run 
> Network Manager in debug mode again and post the outputs when you go 
> through the steps you went through above?
> 
> 
> > Also, there's a new checkbox in the wireless network config, "fallback
> > on this network."  What does that mean?
> >
> >   
> I don't know but I will try and grab the version in CVS tonight and find 
> out unless Dan or Robert can answer this.

Fallback networks as implemented by Robert are tried in succession if NM
can't find a network to connect to by scanning.  So it may work well for
the non-broadcasting case.

Dan