how bad is network manager?

**Dimitriid** · October 29th, 2007

Originally Posted by Polygon

i would highly suggest you either report these as bugs or post in existing bugs as a 'me to' to maybe let them know they are still there..as i said earlier.. nm-applet and network manager work perfectly for me....

I think I have but im not sure. Still doesn't solves my laptop issues and im about to give up and just put XP on it....

**init1** · October 29th, 2007

Originally Posted by Polygon

works perfectly for me

auto detected my wifi network and all i had to do to set it up is click the icon, and it asked me for my wep password, after i entered that it connected.

and when i had a lan party a while ago, i plugged in a ethernet cable and it switched to that, and when i unplugged my ethernet cable it disconnected and tried to connect to my wifi network, which it did and i still had internet

so here comes the case of "it works for me"

Originally Posted by Polygon

i would highly suggest you either report these as bugs or post in existing bugs as a 'me to' to maybe let them know they are still there..as i said earlier.. nm-applet and network manager work perfectly for me....

Yeah, but I assume that you are using the default DHCP and not static IP.

**vexorian** · October 29th, 2007

I can't help but think this is actually my fault since I didn't beta test gutsy even though I can take a bunch of bugs and not die in despair, not to mention I got the time, but I posponded the gutsy download until it was too late.

I got an static IP thus it would have been easy to catch the bugs.

I think I have but im not sure. Still doesn't solves my laptop issues and im about to give up and just put XP on it....

Try to learn how to deal with the command line, it isn't as hard as it looks initially. Also look for your wireless brand and specs and verify it is correctly supported. Mint may not change things heavily considering it is not too different from ubuntu in that kind of areas, unless you need a propietary driver to improve your compatibility that is.

From what it looks like gutsy network manager should have issues with static IP (definitely ) and not well supported wireless cards. Although initial gutsy feedback was stating it improved in the wireless part of it, so I am rather clueless.

If you are having issues with both managers this sounds like it is a hardware/driver issue. Using another network manager won't fix a driver issue.

**50words** · October 29th, 2007

I love it on my ThinkPad T43. Actually, I often boot in Ubuntu rather than Windows XP to get wireless access, since it picks up more networks, and more easily, than Windows does.

**fuscia** · October 29th, 2007

works fine for me, but i haven't tried to mess with it much. i just boot up and pick the wireless connection i want and go.

**23meg** · October 29th, 2007

Originally Posted by garba

..... I click on it and choose manual configuration.

...and thus you abandon Network Manager, and work with GNOME's network-admin from there on. Network Manager is configured to evoke network-admin when you choose "Manual configuration" in Ubuntu. So perhaps your rant has nothing to do with Network Manager, other the fact that you couldn't even use it since it can't do static IP configuration (coming up in 0.7), unless I'm missing something in the details.

**Depressed Man** · October 29th, 2007

Doesn't seem to realize that my router's WPA password is stored in the keyring (keeps asking me for it). But I suppose this is better then in the tribe versions when I had to switch to WICD just to get it to work with my router.

Not sure if it's network manager's problem though..

**macogw** · October 29th, 2007

On Feisty, it worked perfectly. There's been a BIG regression :-/ If I'm wireless and plug in a wire, it doesn't recognize that. Disabling networking doesn't disable wireless (wtf?) anymore, either. Sometimes the vpnc plugin doesn't work right, too (it'll say it couldn't connect to the VPN, but if i do "sudo vpnc" it's fine). It also doesn't realize the VPN passwords are in the GNOME keyring (just like Depressed Man's WPA password), which is yet another regression.

**garba** · October 29th, 2007

Originally Posted by 23meg

...and thus you abandon Network Manager, and work with GNOME's network-admin from there on. Network Manager is configured to evoke network-admin when you choose "Manual configuration" in Ubuntu. So perhaps your rant has nothing to do with Network Manager, other the fact that you couldn't even use it since it can't do static IP configuration (coming up in 0.7), unless I'm missing something in the details.

hence I seem to understand we have two apps with overlapping functionalities (sorry i never use those tools), wonderful, and i guess that all network-admin does is parsing the /etc/network/interfaces file and amend it... no event based notification, no active monitoring, nothing... now please tell me, is this is the proper way to deal with networking on a desktop system? I don't think so

**23meg** · October 30th, 2007

Originally Posted by garba

hence I seem to understand we have two apps with overlapping functionalities

One of the apps does static IP configuration, whereas the other can't, which is where they don't overlap, and which is the main reason we have both. The "Manual configuration" + Roaming mode" UI twist makes them live together pretty well.

Originally Posted by garba

now please tell me, is this is the proper way to deal with networking on a desktop system? I don't think so

In a perfect world, no. In a non-perfect world where what we can and can't do depends on upstream features, it's a pretty good compromise. With the upcoming NM 0.7, we'll probably not need it any longer.