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

[Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> writes:

> 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.

Another reason to let go of wicd is that it doesn't support IPv6. I
tried extending our dhcp-client-service some time ago but got stuck with
some peculiarities of dhclient.

> 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.

I've noticed the same (lack of DNS resolution) following a reboot for
some minutes and was also wondering what was causing this. I'm using
wicd as part of the %desktop-services, so that specific problem is
probably not related to NetworkManager.