[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#609072: Trials with Squeeze RC2: It does look like a Network Manager Package Issue

[Paul Bryan Roberts]

Hello again,

I have trialled Squeeze RC2 using both wired and wireless installation.

After wired installation /etc/network/interfaces reads:

    # This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
    # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

    # The loopback network interface
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

    # The primary network interface
    allow-hotplug eth0
    #NetworkManager#iface eth0 inet dhcp

After wireless installation /etc/network/interfaces reads:

    # This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
    # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

    # The loopback network interface
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

    # The primary network interface
    allow-hotplug wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet dhcp
             # wireless-* options are implemented by the wireless-tools 
package
             wireless-mode managed
             wireless-essid Custards
             wireless-key1 a7d02f1dad

So it seems something comments out the eth0 but not the wlan0 iface 
definition.
Trials also confirm that this is why the Network Manager can manage the 
wired
interface but not the wireless interface.

There is a script /usr/lib/NetworkManager/ifblacklist_migrate.sh that I 
believe
is run by /var/lib/dpkg/info/network-manager.postinst.  So I do now 
believe the
issue is a Network Manager issue.

I have studied happier scripts.  I can see no discrimination on the basis of
interface name.  This suggests that it was not the original author's 
intent to
exclude wireless interfaces.  So I guess the script just does not work 
properly.

The script makes a number of simplifying assumptions about the contents of
/etc/network/interfaces and clearly cannot cope with stanzas [as per
interfaces(5)] as complex as the wlan0 stanza.

It seems to want to disable only interfaces with an auto or allow- 
stanza but
has to act on the corresponding iface stanza.

An easier script to write is one that changes the iface name (e.g. wlan0 
to no_wlan0).
This has the advantage of not leaving the file syntactically incorrect.  
I can provide such
a script if wanted.

It might be more sensible to simply back up and replace 
/etc/network/interfaces with a
copy that declares just the loopback interface on the grounds that 
anyone requiring
network interfaces that are not managed by the Network Manager will be 
visiting the
file anyway.

Paul

/"Spreken/ is zilver, zwijgen is goud"