[pkg-wicd-maint] Bug#685146: wicd-daemon packages dependencies

[Jörg-Volker Peetz]

Hi,

Axel Beckert wrote on 01/22/17 04:36:
> Hi,
> 
> Jörg-Volker Peetz wrote:
>> the dependency on an dhcp client in the packages should be formulated with the
>> help of the virtual packet "dhcp-client" as something like
>>
>>   dhcpcd | pump | udhcpc | dhcp-client
>>
>> (Compare bug #680976.)

This means wicd does not cooperate with dhcpcd5?

> 
> I disagree here. Wicd has a list of supported DHCP clients and handles
> each one differently depending on its features. AFAIK wicd is not
> capable of talking to arbitrary DHCP clients. Hence the way #680976
> has been fixed was correct.
> 
>> Furthermore, I would like to suggest to change the dependency on
>> "wireless-tools" to a recommendation,
> 
> Indeed, wicd theoretically could be used to handle wired
> configurations only. I'm though not sure if wicd works properly
> without iwconfig, iwlist and friends installed, so I'm reluctant here.
> Additionally, I consider such cases being very rare.

The intention was not to dispense with wired networking, but that the package iw
"will become the canonical command line tool for wireless configuration" as it
says in its description.

> 
> Less rare, but a similar case is the question if wpa-supplicant needs
> to be a hard dependency. E.g. there might be users just connecting to
> open or WEP-"secured" wifi networks. (But at least the latter case
> should be very rare nowadays, too.)
> 
> I'd avoid these kind of changes before the Stretch release as they
> need quite some testing. But I might reconsider them after the Stretch
> release.
> 
>> since with newer kernels this package isn't mandatory any more.
> 
> I don't see why this would be relevant here. The sole reason for
> downgrading these dependencies is because there might be use cases
> where wireless at all is not needed. (AFAIK wicd can't yet use "iw"
> instead of iwconfig and friends.)
> 
I didn't know that.

> 		Regards, Axel
> 
By the way, I recommended this because I intended to use wicd. I'm not a heavy
user of wireless networking. Maybe, the priority of this bug should then be set
to wishlist?

Regards,
Jörg-Volker.