on manual configuration / respecting user made changes

[Xen <list xenhideout nl>]

Question:

Currently when NM manages a link/device (say eth0) any attempt to
manually configure it (using e.g. ifconfig) will quickly result in this
action being undone by NM.

Should there be any sense of not interfering with manual configuration?

I mean in a general sense what you see happening is this:

1. If some device is configured over DHCP in NM, but DHCP might be
failing and there is nothing configured
2. Manual configuration of the interface to a certain IP will work for
about 20 seconds, after which NM will deconfigure the device.

Should there not be a model where:

- NM recognises manual configuration
- NM turns itself off until called for (via GUI, nmcli)
- NM reads new configuration data from the manual configuration when
required, e.g. displaying this information in its GUI

Or in a different light:

- simply being able to read config from /etc/network/interfaces as well
and use this as its source of configuration (I recognise OpenSUSE does
not use this file).

Regards,

Bart.