Re: Bugs in network manager

[Maxim Levitsky <maximlevitsky gmail com>]

On Sat, 2008-11-29 at 16:22 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-11-29 at 17:57 +0100, Alexander Sack wrote:
> > On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 05:03:08PM +0200, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> > > Recently I installed ubuntu 8.10.
> > > 
> > > I found few bugs in new network manager, and I like to report them here.
> > > I will also fill them at bugzilla.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 1. any wireless connection marked as "system setting" doesn't work, nm
> > > attempts to connect but fails.
> > > Such connections confuse the nm to the point that it might even forget
> > > about a connection and create a new one, I not sure about this, but I
> > > avoid them now, as they really are unstable, nm even crashed few times
> > > when system wide connections were there. On top of that to switch
> > > between local and system connection it in not enought to toggle the
> > > checkbox, but you must change any setting with the checkbox.
> > 
> > I think there have been improvements in trunk after we released
> > intrepid. Though I dont know about crashes. Can you get backtraces for
> > those cases?
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > 2. Auto enabled wired connections "Auto eth0" appear on each boot.
> > > This means that even if I set up a manual connection and make it
> > > autoconnect, on next boot "Auto eth0" will reappear and be used instead
> > > of manual connection. Editing "auto eth0" doesn't help, it is reset
> > > after boot.
> > > 
> > 
> > Same here. I have to spot the right changes and then have to backport
> > that.
> 
> The correct change here was the 'read-only' connection patches, and the
> fix in the system settings service to make the "Auto ethX" connection
> read-only, since it cannot actually be changed yet.  In the future we
> should actually try to save that connection with the modifications if
> there is a plugin enabled that supports saving.
You meant that that dreadfull 'auto eth0' will still be there, and read
only?

> 
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 3. Even if I tell nm not to remember VPN password it still uses same
> > > password if VPN connection failed (I talk about pptp) 
> > > The problem is that I connect to network that uses one time password
> > > generator combined with pin.
> > > This means that if I mistype the pin or password, or time runs out, 
> > > I can't reconnect since nm uses now surly invalid password.
> > > 
> > 
> > Haven't heard of this bug ... which network-manager-pptp package are
> > you using?
> 
> A recent fix to src/nm-vpn-connection.c ensured that VPN connection
> secrets are cleared when the connection goes down, so that the secrets
> will be requested again on the next connection activation.
Good to hear, thanks

> 
> > > 
> > > 4. Link-local is broken, this is not your failt, the problem is that
> > > avahi-autopid uses dbus to connect to some service, but it is forbidden
> > > by dbus even for root, I fixed this, and I post details later.
> > 
> > you need to install dnsmasq-base package. We will add this to a
> > Recommends, so it gets auto installed in future.
> 
> Hmm, the Link-local stuff has nothing to do with dnsmasq, it's
> avahi-autoipd.
I confirm that latest nm from proposed updates fixes that issue.

> 
> > > 
> > > 5. If nat modules aren't compiled in kernel there is no warning about
> > > that, but connection sharing just fails, I din't yet test this with nat
> > > modules, would be fine to add description stating that this is NAT.
> > > 
> > 
> > Error condition reporting probably could be improved in general.
> 
> Yep, it could, but there's also no good way to get information out of
> 'iptables' other than screenscraping stderr, even that isn't (a)
> translated or (b) guaranteed.  Ideally we use netlink or something, but
> I don't think we're there yet with libnl.
> 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 6. There is no way to tell with connection should control default
> > > gateway.
> > > I connect to my university via vpn to watch lectures, but I don't want
> > > it to be the gateway, I only want vpn for their netmask.
> > 
> > You can edit the routes in the vpn settings. If I am not mistaken,
> > there is a pending fix for making those settings be honoured in
> > -proposed (so in a few days you will get the update).
> 
> Is that one upstream or have I already applied it?  I think you did send
> something for that.
They seems to be already honored.
As I understand ppp connections have no netmask, but it
still be nice to have a option to ignore default gateway but use
everything else from dhcp for other connections.
What do you think?

Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsky