Ubuntu 12.10 Call for Topics

[Kevin Hunter]

At 9:55pm -0400 Tue, 17 Apr 2012, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 6:48 AM, Jason Warner wrote:
>> Even so, we need those topics for 12.10 so when everyone gets a
>> chance, write them up and send them to the list so 1. we can get
>> UDS organized 2. wecan discuss the topic in the ML and 3. we can
>> start to shape 12.10and see where we'll be going with it.

> Still networking-related for the desktop, I think we should discuss
> firewalls and proxy again. Is there more work to be done for a better
> integration of this? How can we get it to work properly? etc.

Please pardon me as a silly (power) end-user/poor 
administrator/non-programmer who is lurking on this list: I can mention 
some things that would be helpful to my experience, skill, and use-case:

1. Wireless Stability: In the laptop realm, I still regularly get 
reports from my end-users of (and occasionally experience myself) either 
temporary network loss, or a network condition "requiring a reboot". 
I'm hoping it's Launchpad bug 548992, which claims to be fixed as of 
March, but it has been plaguing our network and users for the last 3 
years.  In any event, it's beginning to rise on our priority list of issues.

2. When you say firewall, is this in relation to G/UFW?  If so, then a 
couple of suggestions:

   - G/UFW: make certain actions usable by non-root users.  Like the
     status command.  I have a few interested users on my network who
     would just like to know the rules of their machines, and not have
     to ascertain them via nmap <localhost|self_ip> or an email to me.

   - GUI: immediate update when something changes via an external
     measure, á là my command line tinkerings.  The GUI is nice to have
     for viewing the current status, but since it doesn't update, it's
     minorly more cumbersome to type ufw status, or Alt+Tab, F5.  This
     would be handy if I need to iterate on the command line, as for
     example when I'm debugging a random network issue.  (i.e. It would
     be handy to have an open window that automatically updates when a
     change is made.)

   - GUI: Add an (optional?) column for rule number, since the rule
     numbers are referenced in a couple of places in the GUI.

   - The ability to block or allow incoming and outgoing commication /per
     program/.  I gather from various conversations that this is not
     possible b/c of lack of support from the kernel.  However analogous
     to what SELinux does in terms of "as much ability as warranted for
     the job", it would be nice to only whitelist certain types of
     conversation to certain programs.  This is alluded to via the "ufw
     allow CUPS" (for example), but as far as I'm aware, that's a mere
     proxy for "allow port 631" rather than specifically 'cupsd'.  I
     wonder if some tie-in or communication with the init daemon would
     be the ticket here?

   - In a similar vein, it would be helpful if the log could be parsed
     to a per-protocol and per-port information (as I believe it already
     is), but with a filter for such.  Major bonus points if it had a
     PCRE (perhaps optional) interface, so that I could define the exact
     match definition as sometimes multiple protocols are in the mix.
     As it is, this is clearly low priority as I /can/ do this already,
     just in the roundabout terminal method of pipes, greps, and such.

3. When connected to a network

   - including the IP address in the mouseover text of the NM-applet
     icon would be of use to me.  I don't know how this will work given
     the lack of mouseover capability in Unity ... but I digress.  The
     point is to have "quick, at-a-glance" access to basic informations,
     (e.g. the IP address) without having to open yet another window.

   - In concert with the above, the ability somehow copy to clipboard
     then entire text of the connection information (as for getting
     basic user info when they call in); perhaps a "copy-to-clipboard"
     button, or allowing all fields to be simultaneously selected for
     copy-and-paste.

   - Another real-handy thing to have would be a "per-session" or
     "until cable disconnects" feature, perhaps through NetworkManager
     and nm-applet.  There've been a number of situations where I'd've
     liked to have set the (for example) DNS lookup only for "this"
     session while I work on a client computer, and have it revert to
     another setting at some event (e.g. logout/login, unplug the cable).

4. While IPv4 still reigns

   - Having some indication -- either in the nm-applet icon or in the
     connection information -- of if the network is in a non-routable
     network, or is "fake" connected (i.e. has an IP address, but can't
     actually talk to the world-wide internet, or perhaps some
     configurable address).  However, short of a ping test, the
     immediate implementation to me is non-obvious.  Regardless this
     would be a "nice-to-have".

All-in-all, please take my above, err, ramblings as a sign of respect 
for the work done so far.  I'm admittedly not a programmer, and _maybe_ 
a weak administrator, but offer these as my mere 2c of what *I* would 
find as helpful modifications to the various networking utilities of the 
desktop.

Cheers,

Kevin