Re: Issue with Auto eth0

[Tambet Ingo <tambet gmail com>]

2009/4/3 Hooker, Jonathan <Jonathan Hooker garmin com>:
> Hi,
>
> I am a system administrator for a large (300+) fedora desktop environment
> and am in the process of creating a new image to deploy to all of my
> developers. I have been having issues with setting up NM to connect properly
> to our dhcp servers so that we can configure forward dns lookups. Basically
> what I have done is create an Auto Ethernet connection which has the
> following gconf settings:
>
>  /system/networking/connections/1/ipv4:
>   routes = []
>   addresses = []
>   method = auto
>   dhcp-hostname = testd63fed
>   dhcp-client-id = nixdns-testd63fed
>   dns-search = [garmin.com,ad.garmin.com,nix.garmin.com]
>   name = ipv4
>   dns = []
>  /system/networking/connections/1/802-3-ethernet:
>   name = 802-3-ethernet
>   duplex = full
>  /system/networking/connections/1/connection:
>   id = Auto Ethernet
>   timestamp = 1238728735
>   type = 802-3-ethernet
>   uuid = 2d204a05-4c70-4080-ad23-34b53d5a95fe
>   name = connection
> The problem is that this does not by default start when the system does. I
> have also tried putting these settings in the root user's gconf. Is there
> any way I can tell Network Manager to by default select Auto Ethernet as
> opposed to the standard System eth0? I know that System eth0 pulls from my
> ifcfg-eth0 scripts but there is no way I can tell of sending the
> dhcp-hostname and dhcp-client-id back to the dhcp server without using this
> or dhclient. I would really like for all of my network device settings to be
> managed from the same program. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

NetworkManager has two types of setting providers: User settings (from
gconf, available only while the user is logged in) and System settings
(always available). System settings have different sources (plugins)
that allow taking configuration data from multiple sources (distro
specific shell script setups, NM's own store, ...). The problem with
supporting these different sources is that they never match one to one
with NM - Missing variables, extra variables, variables with slightly
different meanings, ...

So you'll want a "System setting" with NM's own store. Here's how you can do it:

* Modify /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf file's [main]
section, 'plugins' keyword so it only has "keyfile" (NM's native
settings storage):
plugins=keyfile

That'll make sure you have a writable plugin and the distro one (which
doesn't provide all the options you require) doesn't interfere. Put
that changed configuration to your deployment image.

* Restart nm-system-settings by issuing 'sudo killall
nm-system-settings'. NetworkManager will restart it automatically.
This step is needed to make the system settings provider use the new
configuration from step 1.

* As any logged in user, open the connection editor (nm-applet's
right-click menu, Edit Connections...), create the configuration you'd
like to use, and check "Available to all users". The last step is
important, that's the switch between User connections and System
connections. You want system connection, aka available to all users.

This last step will create a configuration file in
/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ directory that contains all
the connection information. Put that to your deployment image.

With these settings, NetworkManager will activate the connection on
system boot, before any user is logged in, using all the settings
known to NM.

Tambet