Bug#688772: gnome Depends network-manager-gnome

[Raphael Hertzog]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2012, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Don Armstrong writes ("Bug#688772: gnome Depends network-manager-gnome"):
> > 1) we decide that failures of NM to detect basic ifupdown
> > configurations and avoid overriding them are bugs, possibly of RC
> > severity
> > 
> > 2) given the gnome maintainer's desire to have NM installed by default
> > from the gnome metapackage
> > 
> > allowing gnome to Depends: nm | wicd; would deal with the most
> > concerning form of breakage for me.
> > 
> > Does this work for anyone else?
> 
> Why do you think the gnome metapackage depending on, rather than
> recommending, wicd, is a good idea ?  I don't really see the logical
> connection between any of the goals (whether the TC's or the GNOME
> maintainers') and your proposal.
> 
> For example, consider the position of someone who has deliberately
> removed n-m in squeeze, and is using ifupdown or running ifconfig by
> hand or whatever, and upgrades to wheezy.  This still gives them n-m
> back.  That's not respecting their previous choice to remove it.

The logic behind Don's proposition is that, if you're not using NM, then
you're likely either using wicd or simple ifupdown config. That leaves
two cases:

1/ Having wicd and nm active at the same time creates problems, so Don
ensures that you can install either one of them and still have the
gnome-core package installed (and still have nm by default if you don't
make any specific choice).

2/ If you're an ifupdown user, then you can have nm installed even if it
was not installed before hand, it won't hurt because NM ignores any
interface listed in /etc/network/interfaces. Failing to comply with this
rule are bugs that we could consider RC.


In this situation, it seems that all parties would be satisfied (provided
that the majority of persons who are not using NM are in fact using wicd
or ifupdown).

It looks like an acceptable outcome to me. Thank you Don for trying to find
a third way out of this situation.

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer

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