Re: Handling multiple (or no) users?

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Tue, 2009-07-14 at 17:15 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> When both my wife and I log in at the same time, the first one gets to
> have the network-manager applet working, but the second doesn't.
> Similarly, when nobody is logged in (or only via console), the machine
> doesn't connect to any network.
> 
> Is that normal?

NM separates connections as "user" and "system".  At one time, only one
user can provide "user" network connections to NM, but the "system"
connections are always available.  Any user should be able to control
"system" connections.

"system" connections are provided by nm-system-settings, and are
available before login and at boot time.  You can move a connection from
a user to a system connection by checking the box "Available to all
users" in nm-connection-editor for that connection.

Also check what your /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf has in
it.  If you've got 'keyfile' or 'ifcfg-rh' in the plugins= line, then
you can add system connections.  Some of the plugins (ifcfg-suse,
ifupdown) don't support writing new connections yet.

Let me know if you have any issues.  The applet isn't yet multi-user
aware though, which is something that's being fixed already.  Once it
is, you should be able to at least *see* the network status as the other
user, and maybe choose system connections too.

Dan