NetworkManager Now Supports Bridging, AP-Mode Hotspot

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NetworkManager Now Supports Bridging, AP-Mode Hotspot

NetworkManager 0.9.8 was released today and while being called a "new stable bugfix release" it does introduce several new features for users of this Linux networking component...

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

[elanthis]

Pretty major features for a minor version number bump...

[xpressrazor]

AP-Mode Hotspot

Does this mean, I will be actually able to broadcast internet using wifi (like hostapd)? My only problem with current solution is, I keep losing the connection. It is almost unusable.

[Ericg]

Pretty major features for a minor version number bump...

Because NM is still pre-1.0. 1.0 will hit when you basically do anything and everything you SHOULD be able to do with a Linux (keyword, as in compared to Windows or OS X) Network management system. One of the big missing features until today was Bridging, which was a biiiiiiiiiiig deal for Virtualization.

[DeepDayze]

Because NM is still pre-1.0. 1.0 will hit when you basically do anything and everything you SHOULD be able to do with a Linux (keyword, as in compared to Windows or OS X) Network management system. One of the big missing features until today was Bridging, which was a biiiiiiiiiiig deal for Virtualization.

So that means network manager now will work with guests?

[Ericg]

So that means network manager now will work with guests?

Assuming its not broken at a code level =P Yes* lol. Thats the point of bridging.


*Core NetworkManager supports these features. The GTK and Qt systrays for NetworkManager may not expose them quite yet. GUI options for these features will have to be designed, implemented and released. (the KDE applet is developed seperately from main NetworkManager, not sure if the GTK applet is "in-house" or done by the Gnome guys seperately. If its in-house, then the GTK client should expose these options for bridging right off the bat since the GUI options would've been done at the same time as the features they were frontends for.)

[vk512]

Only request new WiFi secrets during the initial association or when the secrets are known to be wrong, not every time the connection randomly fails

At long last!
This was an important reason why I would install Mint (wicd) instead of Ubuntu when people asked to revive an old bloated windows machine.

[funkSTAR]

*Core NetworkManager supports these features. The GTK and Qt systrays for NetworkManager may not expose them quite yet. GUI options for these features will have to be designed, implemented and released. (the KDE applet is developed seperately from main NetworkManager, not sure if the GTK applet is "in-house" or done by the Gnome guys seperately.

Gnome 3.8 is depending on this NM release.

http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-control-center/commit/?h=gnome-3-8&id=c065a6581514942b8c7335a705357fa07912f7ba

So at least for the control center some new features might be possible. Regarding UI-exposed stuff it might come from an applet in shell.

[ua=42]

When I was using linux on my laptop. I used wicd because it would connect to the strongest signal, not alphabetically. Can you have network manager default to connecting to the strongest signal now or is it still alphabetical?

[Ericg]

When I was using linux on my laptop. I used wicd because it would connect to the strongest signal, not alphabetically. Can you have network manager default to connecting to the strongest signal now or is it still alphabetical?

I think it goes strongest now because I have 2 networks here at the house, one is 2.4Ghz and the one is 5ghz (2.4 starts with W, 5.0ghz starts with O) and it always jumps at the 2.4ghz