Bug#694068: (solved) Re: wireless fail after stretch installation

2018-03-06 Thread Brian
On Tue 06 Mar 2018 at 18:34:27 +, Ian Jackson wrote:

> bw writes ("Re: (solved) Re: wireless fail after stretch installation"):
> > I think the idea needs to be talked over a little better, because using 
> > e/n/i for wireless by default after first boot has implications if the 
> > user (who is clueless) later installs a desktop environment.
> 
> If installing a desktop environment, after putting the wireless in
> /e/n/i, does not work, then that is a bug in the desktop environment,
> surely ?

Most probably. But desktop environments were not the subject of this
thread. (Sorry for trying to keep on-topic).

> In practice I would expect the config in /e/n/i to keep working
> because nowadays network-manager will ignore things in /e/n/i.  The
> difficulty would only come if you
>   - used the installer to install a bare system over wifi

That difficulty is  exactly the subject of this thread. The rest of this
post is snipped because it side-steps addressing the issue. What is put
in /e/n/i ceases to work because it is obliterated by the installer for
reasons unknown.

One user calls it a "sick joke". After five years and with no attempt
to rectify the situation, I'm beginning to have sympathy with that view.

(Yes, I know we are all volunteers).

-- 
Brian.




>   - later install network-manager or wicd
>   - then expect the system to give you a gui prompt for new wifi
> networks, rather than expect to have to edit /e/n/i
> 
> It would be possible for the n-m and wicd packages to spot when this
> is happening and offer to take over the interface.  And I do think
> that in the absence of code to do that, it would be more important to
> make the barebones system work in the first place, than to improve the
> behaviour you later install n-m.
> 
> (I'm not sure if what I say about wicd is right.  I use n-m on
> machines I have where the user needs to switch between various network
> connections, wifi networks, etc.)
> 
> > I'd hate to see the bug tracker turned into a discussion forum though.  
> 
> The bug tyracker is precisely the right place to discuss how to solve
> a particular bug.  So I have CC'd it.
> 
> Ian.
> 
> -- 
> Ian Jackson    These opinions are my own.
> 
> If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
> a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.
> 



Bug#694068: (solved) Re: wireless fail after stretch installation

2018-03-06 Thread Ian Jackson
bw writes ("Re: (solved) Re: wireless fail after stretch installation"):
> I think the idea needs to be talked over a little better, because using 
> e/n/i for wireless by default after first boot has implications if the 
> user (who is clueless) later installs a desktop environment.

If installing a desktop environment, after putting the wireless in
/e/n/i, does not work, then that is a bug in the desktop environment,
surely ?

In practice I would expect the config in /e/n/i to keep working
because nowadays network-manager will ignore things in /e/n/i.  The
difficulty would only come if you
  - used the installer to install a bare system over wifi
  - later install network-manager or wicd
  - then expect the system to give you a gui prompt for new wifi
networks, rather than expect to have to edit /e/n/i

It would be possible for the n-m and wicd packages to spot when this
is happening and offer to take over the interface.  And I do think
that in the absence of code to do that, it would be more important to
make the barebones system work in the first place, than to improve the
behaviour you later install n-m.

(I'm not sure if what I say about wicd is right.  I use n-m on
machines I have where the user needs to switch between various network
connections, wifi networks, etc.)

> I'd hate to see the bug tracker turned into a discussion forum though.  

The bug tyracker is precisely the right place to discuss how to solve
a particular bug.  So I have CC'd it.

Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson    These opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.