Re: The logic behind user/system settings

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Sat, 2010-03-13 at 08:17 +0300, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> On Friday 12 of March 2010 02:51:33 Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Wed, 2010-03-10 at 07:04 +0300, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:
> > > On Wednesday 10 of March 2010 04:12:19 Dan Williams wrote:
> > > > As you've discovered, there are user-specific settings (which are
> > > > only available when that user is logged in) and system-wide
> > > > settings (which are available to all users *and* before any user
> > > > has logged in).  The problem you're hitting is when there aren't
> > > > any settings at all, like right after an install.
> > > > 
> > > > So NetworkManager creates an internal "Auto XXXX" connection that
> > > > at least allows your system to get online if there are any
> > > > DHCP-configured ethernet devices on the system.  This is a
> > > > "system-wide" connection and should be available at boot and
> > > > before login.
> > > 
> > > Are they created by NM service or nm-connection-editor/nm-applet?
> > > Should they be present even if other, explicitly defined
> > > connections exist?
> > 
> > It is created by NM itself.  It's present only if no other /system/
> > connections are defined that apply to that device.
> 
> 
> How NM decides that /system/ connection applies to device? I always see 
> two auto connections for wlan interface - "Auto Wireless" and "Auto 
> $CURRENT_SSID" even though there are system connections with 
> $CURRENT_SSID defined.

A connection can be applied to a device if it's compatible with that
device; that means that the connection isn't MAC-locked to a different
device, or the connection doesn't require encryption capabilities that
the device doesn't support (ie a WPA2/AES connection cannot be used with
an old Prism card that only does TKIP), etc.

Is the "Auto Wireless" a system connection?  If so, what system settings
plugins do you have enabled?

Dan