On September 10, 2008 12:03:19 pm Dan Williams wrote: > On Wed, 2008-09-10 at 08:44 -0700, Robert Smits wrote: > > On September 10, 2008 06:23:12 am Dan Williams wrote: > > > On Wed, 2008-09-10 at 12:01 +0300, Kristian Slavov wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > Is NM capable of handling the following scenario? > > > > A laptop, when located at office, has a static address. Once outside, > > > > DHCP is used to get an address. > > > > > > NM 0.7 is, but since you're mixing the two there will be some manual > > > operation on your side since there's not a good generic way to > > > autodetect what network you're on when you plug in the cable. > > > > > > You'll create two wired connections in the connection editor. One is a > > > DHCP connection with 'autoconnect=true', and the second is the static > > > connection with 'autoconnect=false'. Manual intervention will be > > > required when you want to use the static connection at the office. > > > > > > What should happen is this: > > > > > > 1) When you're outside the office, the DHCP connection will > > > automatically be used because it's 'autoconnect=true'. If there isn't > > > a DHCP server present, NM will fail the connection and wait for you to > > > do something, or for a link change event. > > > > > > 2) At the office, NM would try DHCP first and then fail the connection > > > after the DHCP timeout because of course there's no DHCP server. At > > > any point here you then choose the static connection from the applet > > > menu, and NM will activate the static connection at your command. > > > > > > People have tossed around ideas like ARPing a known gateway's IP > > > address and matching the ARP response to a known MAC address and then > > > activating that connection, but that's pretty fragile and trivial to > > > maliciously spoof. > > > > This way of doing things seems like a kluge. Why can't network-manager > > just work with scpm which already does all of this, including nfs > > networks? > > First, because scpm doesn't seem to be widely used. You're actually the > first person I've ever heard mention it, and when you did mention it, I > had to go off and look it up. Network profile mechanisms aren't new, > but not that many people use them any more because for the most part > stuff just works. That's not to say that they aren't useful for some > situations, like yours.
SCPM has been around for eons. Unlike network manager it actually does look after switching my nfs network settings between home, job, and an internet cafe. I wish it did just work. > Second, profiles make for a pretty sucky experience, and are only really > necessary for connections which you can't autodetect, like wired ones. > I'd seriously hate to have to select a profile every time I moved to a > new location, but of course most of those locations don't require the > use of a wired network. Again, profiles as such limit usability for > anyone who doesn't use wired networks. Connections like wireless, > mobile broadband, bluetooth, etc can all be autodetected quite well and > thus don't need profiles as such. Sucky? What's sucks is not automatically switching my nfs network when I change connections. SCPM is actually VERY easy to use and not sucky at all. All I need to do is hit F3 during the boot process and select which profile I want. After that it selects all my settings, including the nfs network and it all just runs. I'd be perfectly happy to use it with knetwork manager. > Third, you could certainly create some scpm scripts to flip the > 'autoconnect' property of the two connections you'd care about. Thus, > in conjunction with your current usage of scpm, NM would certainly give > you a click-free (aside from choosing your profile with scpm which > you're already doing) method of selecting your location. > > In short, I think you could make this work with scpm just fine, as long > as you can use it to either modify ifcfg files in /etc (for system > connections) or after you log in (for user connections). Should be > pretty trivial to set up. > > If the right connection is chosen, NM can already facilitate most of the > profile stuff you're probably using, like NFS, proxies, etc, through > dispatcher scripts with no additional choice of "profile" required like > AIUI scpm would require. So again, there could be no additional effort > required on your part besides choosing the right scpm setup. > > Dan I'm not comfortable writing scripts or modifying config files. I'm gradually doing a lot more of that than I want to, and I'm learning, but I'm more interested in having it working than learning how to write scripts. I appreciate your directions, but my days are already far too long to have any time left over to write scripts. That's not your fault, I know, and I don't suggest it is, but I do wish scpm and network manager worked together without more configuration on my part. -- Robert Smits CEP525G Nanaimo, Duncan & District Labour Council Box 822 Nanaimo, V9R 5N2 Ph 250-753-0201 Fax 250-753-2954 Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ NetworkManager-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list
