Re: Alternative way to set static ip for Ubuntu

[Pavel Simerda <psimerda redhat com>]

> > Is this a NetworkManager question?
> 
> I guess it is. Ubuntu uses NetworkManager and at least I would not
> try
> to fiddle with a interface managed by NetworkManager with some basic
> commands, because you never know what NetworkManager will override
> (well "you" as in average user, not "you" as those on this list
> who really know all NM internals)
> 
> Unfortunately the original poster did not write to what (working?)
> approach he was looking for an alternative, why he wanted to use the
> command line, does he want the static IP on eth0 or some other
> interface, and does he want the assignment to survive a reboot.

Exactly. It wasn't obvious how we could help him.

> Earlier this week I had the issue that I wanted to assign a permanent
> static IP to my eth0 on a Kubuntu Lucid system. Intuitively I would
> have done that by setting a static address on the "auto eth0"
> connection in the KDE connections control module. However, that does
> not work because at least in Kubuntu Lucid "auto eth0" is somehow
> automagically hidden from the UI. I have the feeling that I might
> have
> seen it in Ubuntu systems (using gnome connection manager), but I
> cannot check at the moment. Yes, I also tried to create a new
> connection, but that connected only manually on the first attempt and
> caused a crash (in knetworkmanager I believe) in the second one, so I
> did not pursue that approach any further.
> 
> On the net I found the same question many times, but no really good
> answers, which seems to support the impression that people are
> struggling with the issue. I found e.g. these instructions
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Knetworkmanager_static_ip_auto_eth0 too
> complicated for my purpose.
> 
> So I just edited /etc/network/interfaces instead and defined eth0 as
> auto and static. That leads to desired functionality. NetworkManager
> regards the interface as unmanaged. However the knetworkmanager user
> experience is non-intuitive in this case. It shows me a disconnected
> Ethernet cable. Somewhat irritating at least the first week, but I
> can
> live with it.
> 
> Still from the "naive" end user standpoint it is a bit weird that
> NetworkManager cannot handle such simple use case. (Yes, technically
> the limit might not be in NetworkManager proper but in KDE connection
> editor. And static addresses is not the main reason why
> NetworkManager
> exists.) But regardless of the reason, there is still a bit to go
> until Linux Networking is made really easy... Or have things changed
> completely since then? Lucid is of course 2.5 years old.

We still have a long way to go until the CLI is fully usable. Various
GUIs show various levels of usefulness. And networkmanager provides a
(sometimes insufficient) API for them. These issues are best covered in
the bugzilla of the respective projects (NetworkManager,
nm-applet/nm-connection-editor, KDE, Gnome 3) so that they are not
forgotten deep in the mailing list.

As for overall user experience, yes, we are working on it, as well as
on new features. Bug reports, ideas and patches welcome.

Cheers,

Pavel

> Regards,
> 
> Uwe
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