Re: personalize network manager

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Fri, 2011-11-04 at 13:39 +0100, Diana de Lara del Rey wrote:
> I've trying to personalize my network manager. In the code of network
> manager applet, I want to have a configuration that anyone can't
> modify, otherwise I like that when any of my users try to connect to
> mi wireless, the network interface shows all the fields with a
> configuration that they can't change, similar to the attached image.

In NetworkManager this is handled by PolicyKit permissions.  You
basically don't give users the permission to modify the connection at
all, and you make the connection a "system connection".  In NM 0.9, you
can also make this connection visible only to the user in question.  An
overview of how all this works is here:

http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager/ApiSimplify

So for NM 0.9 you'd either require the user to authenticate themselves
with the root password, or you'd just deny them the ability to edit
system connections at all by changing the
org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.system and
org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.own permissions to "no"
or "auth_admin_keep".

But the screenshot you've attached shows that you're using
NetworkManager 0.8.x, where the permissions model isn't quite as
flexible.  There, you'd need to create a "system wide" connection (check
"Available to all users" in nm-connection-editor) and change the
org.freedesktop.network-manager-settings.system.modify permission to
"no" or "auth_admin_keep".  This does mean that this connection will be
available to all users, of course, including the password.  NM 0.9 fixes
this and allows it to be available only to one or more users which you
as the sysadmin specify.

Dan