Intel, Nokia Further Push ConnMan Software

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel, Nokia Further Push ConnMan Software

For managing network and Internet connections from the Linux desktop, used by most distribution vendors is NetworkManager, which is a well rounded network connection manager from Red Hat for controlling wired, wireless, and mobile broadband devices. The ModemManager project was even spun off recently for furthering the mobile broadband support on Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzM0Mg

[thefirstm]

How can you talk about Linux network management without even mentioning WiCD?

[Ant P.]

Probably because it's not The Ubuntu Default. *cough*

[Yfrwlf]

Originally Posted by thefirstm

How can you talk about Linux network management without even mentioning WiCD?

Because it smells like wi. j/k no I'd never heard of it til now, thanks for sharing. Now there will possibly be three or more network managers out there? Yay! I wish they'd just focus on one or two good ones though and just keep it separated from the GUI so that it can be very adaptable. Perhaps Intel wouldn't have tried to make another one then? I just think redundant work is silly and could maybe be avoided had they made the program more flexible to begin with.

[krazy]

Originally Posted by Yfrwlf

... keep it separated from the GUI so that it can be very adaptable.

This is possible already. For example, KDE has had the ability to use wicd or networkmanager as the backend for networking for a couple of months now. This should be part of the 4.3 release AFAIK.

http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=952638

I hope this new system is also abstracted enough to be useful.

[thefirstm]

Originally Posted by Yfrwlf

just keep it separated from the GUI so that it can be very adaptable.

WiCD is. When you use the GUI (or the curses-based program) to connect to a wireless network, your settings and any necessary security data are stored by the backend, not the frontend (like NM). This enables wireless connections to be made as soon as the daemon starts, before logon. I know this is possible with NM, but it takes alot of configuration. WiCD supports it by default.

[Kano]

I am testing wicd 1.5.9 since several month. The way to enter the needed keys for a wlan is a bit complicated for some ppl - also the restriction to 1 lan and 1 wlan is a bit stupid. But basically it just works fine with the 1 lan + 1 wlan config.

[hydrian]

In my experience, NetworkManager still immature. One of my biggest issues is that very prone to breaking/crashing or one of it's dependencies making network connectivity impossible. This is because all of the data is kept in the front-end. I like wpa_supplicant's idea of splitting the back-end and the front-end, but that only works for wireless connections. One of good things about NetworkManager is that it supports all types of connection such as ethernet, wifi, cell modem, and VPN connections.

I haven't used WiCD, but the 2 interface limitations seems sort of silly. But it sounds like it has the right idea, though.