Re: NetworkManager instead of Wicd in ‘%desktop-services’?

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Shouldn’t we replace Wicd with NetworkManager in ‘%desktop-services’?
>
> I’ve given it a try on a GuixSD GNOME installation and it appears to
> work well, and it’s obviously well-integrated with GNOME, whereas Wicd
> is a bit hidden (one has to know what to look for) and “foreign.”
>
> Thoughts?

I've been using Network Manager with GNOME for several months at least,
and generally I find it works very well, and reconnects much more
quickly than wicd.

However, there is one annoying bug: every time I reboot the system, the
first 1-3 times it connects to the network, name lookups do not work.  I
always have to manually ask Network Manager to disconnect, and then
reconnect.  Sometimes I have to do this two or three times before name
lookups work.  After I've done this, it works perfectly until the next
reboot.

I looked into this a bit, but haven't yet found the cause.  When name
lookups are failing, /etc/resolv.conf exists and is correctly
configured.  I've tried restarting 'nscd', but it doesn't help.

One caveat: for some time now I've only tested Network Manager with
wired networks.  I've recently been unable to use wireless, because I
had to replace the motherboard in my Thinkpad X200, and haven't yet
gotten around to getting the clip I need to reflash Libreboot.  The
proprietary BIOS refuses to boot with the Atheros wireless card
installed, so I had to remove the card for now.

> Now, as someone who doesn’t use GNOME, I wonder if NM would work well
> for me.  Last time I tried it’s CLI was too low-level to be usable, and
> I don’t remember seeing a curses interface.  Suggestions?

There is a curses interface included with Network Manager.  It's called
'nmtui'.  It's not getting built because it depends on 'newt', which is
not an input to our Network Manager package.

      Mark