Hi, I have several questions regarding NetworkManager.
I'm using net-misc/networkmanager-0.9.4.0-r6 USE="avahi bluetooth
dhcpcd gnutls introspection modemmanager ppp wext -connection-sharing
-dhclient -doc -nss -resolvconf -wimax" (Gentoo-3.5.3, without
'~amd64', on a 64-bit Dell XPS Laptop)
The wireless card is (from 'lshw' command)
product: Centrino Wireless-N 1030 [Rainbow Peak]
vendor: Intel Corporation
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.5.3-gentoo
firmware=17.168.5.2 build 35905 ip=160.124.48.9 latency=0 link=yes
multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
Everything more or less works fine, much better than when I was just
running wpa_supplicant with its own Gnome-2 GTK gui-interface.
There are some Gotcha's though.
1 - WPA-Supplicant would show all access points, giving SSID, Channel
(1-14), strength (just not BSSID). I found this behaviour *very* useful.
One had the opportunity to either have the same settings (PassPrase,
etc) for all AP's with the same SSID, or a setting per BSSID. I have
three different AP's at home, same SSID & PassPhrase. I still like to
choose which one I connect to, or if one is missing, clue as to which
one it i.
$ nmcli dev wifi - will give me the info (except Frequency rather than
channel No.) but I'd like to see that in the GUI.
The ability to immediately 'see' was very useful at the last IGF meeting
in Baku, I could see that the conference SSID was on the same channel at
about the same strength - so I could see there was going to be an
interference problem. (The 2.4 Wifi issues in Baku is another story!)
2a - I was using a Hook in dhcpcd to send back a secured nsupdate of my
current IPv4 address. I've moved this code into
'/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d'. Ethernet connections work fine but
wireless connections often do not have all the IPv4 variables set. I
think its because DHCPCD has not yet got an IP address. How do I get a
trigger sent to me after DHCP has finished?
IPv6: I use RA's. No dhcpv6 server yet. My Kernel also creates a random
IPv6 address for my laptop. I'd love for all IPv6 addresses to be
available as Variables so I can do some DHCP Hook magic.
2b - I have a 'dispatcher' script to re-write my resolv.conf:
cat /etc/resolv.conf{.head,,.tail} 2>/dev/null > /etc/resolv.conf.tmp
mv -f /etc/resolv.conf.tmp /etc/resolv.conf
This also doesn't work as expected. It seems NetworkManager re-writes
'resolv.conf' once again after dhcpcd has done its work, after
dispatcher has run.
3 - Network Device priorities: in my 'NetBook', I have a GSM/3G sim
card. I'd like it that if I'm out of Access point coverage, the 3G
works, but once in 'known' AP range, 3G is switched off and WiFi runs,
and if I plug into a wired Ethernet, that takes over. I've been caught
more than once that when plugged in to Ethernet, data (a large, multi
Gig file for entertainment purposes) was being copied over the Wifi over
IPv6, where as I had my (dhcp-assigned) IPv4 (& IPv6) address on my
Ethernet.
The old WPA-Supplicant worked 'fine', ie switch off the Wifi when
plugged into the Ethernet.
--
. . ___. .__ Posix Systems - (South) Africa
/| /| / /__ mje posix co za - Mark J Elkins, Cisco CCIE
/ |/ |ARK \_/ /__ LKINS Tel: +27 12 807 0590 Cell: +27 82 601 0496
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