From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Pierre Neidhardt Subject: On network management and documenting nmcli Date: Fri, 11 May 2018 12:02:49 +0200 Message-ID: <87in7u33xy.fsf@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:43918) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fH4t4-0003om-G9 for help-guix@gnu.org; Fri, 11 May 2018 06:02:55 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fH4t3-0007Ls-IN for help-guix@gnu.org; Fri, 11 May 2018 06:02:54 -0400 Received: from mail-wm0-x229.google.com ([2a00:1450:400c:c09::229]:54822) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fH4t3-0007L5-BY for help-guix@gnu.org; Fri, 11 May 2018 06:02:53 -0400 Received: by mail-wm0-x229.google.com with SMTP id f6-v6so1833887wmc.4 for ; Fri, 11 May 2018 03:02:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mimimi (2a01cb040a37a0005adf9a0845f647b3.ipv6.abo.wanadoo.fr. [2a01:cb04:a37:a000:5adf:9a08:45f6:47b3]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id v111-v6sm3237963wrb.30.2018.05.11.03.02.50 for (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 bits=256/256); Fri, 11 May 2018 03:02:50 -0700 (PDT) List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-guix-bounces+gcggh-help-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Help-Guix" To: "help-guix@gnu.org" --=-=-= Content-Type: text/plain During my first encounter with GuixSD, I could not connect to the Internet for reasons that puzzled me, and I could not find any mention of it in the manual either. At first I assumed I had done something wrong with the setup. I had tried to run wpa_supplicant manually, like I often do on other distributions. It's only later that I understood why wpa_supplicant failed: it was because it was already running! (It's stupid but wpa_supplicant's error messages are extremely misleading.) The manual is extremely scarse about network configuration. Sure enough, if nm-applet is running it's rather straightforward. But for a desktop-environment-less setup and during the install, the default tool is nmcli only (unless another manager is used, but then the user probably knows what they are doing). I don't think any of this is mentioned at all in the manual: I believe something so essential should be very explicitly documented. I suggest we add some examples to the Installation info page, for instance: > nmcli device wifi > sudo nmcli d w connect "foo SSID" password "foo password" Mention that tab-completion can be use to complete SSIDs, which is useful in the event they contain special or invisible characters (trailing spaces are common). We should also hint at the (7)nmcli-examples man page. Unrelated question: why do I need to "sudo" to add a connection? If I recall correctly, nm-applet does not ask for extra privileges (could be wrong though). Comments? -- Pierre Neidhardt --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQEzBAEBCAAdFiEEUPM+LlsMPZAEJKvom9z0l6S7zH8FAlr1akkACgkQm9z0l6S7 zH/+FwgAgv6LLN9nTNthAyZ2M4PToze4iVhHk6pj7wEZfRRU5jdrItldByla0dCH tPfph75epYQMTAElNX6rlfyFOdTwZgd0isygCc5HFFnB7XaaMuUElZ5XI1c2vnTu 3VJWHS1deWUK9MbnB964nwr7DPeGrJ9wIzk5rF/LkmmdPnJyxoQKawd+/l6PCHiL uUt8RuzOW6GYT1G4xErAIF65nQG0Ryp0FOhjCDaeR58A5duii/KPJJrUlAd6SqIG TGdruabM9sHZCVIQOLb06kIvB/2aIPbjxaokkFqVZ0m/kaO9pem0K6G7B4JdK0ZZ Q/J49pNEQv5AP7gxscIwBEIOTm2fUw== =umh2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--