network-manager, MAC randomization and incompatible hardware

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

On 15 August 2017 at 14:32, Will Cooke <will.cooke at canonical.com> wrote:
>
> On 12 August 2017 at 14:37, Robie Basak <robie.basak at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'd like to draw attention to this bug:
>>
>> https://launchpad.net/bugs/1681513 "Ubuntu 17.04/17.10: New feature in
>> NetworkManager stops several WiFi adapters from working (MAC Address
>> Randomization issue)"
>
>
>
> Thanks for raising this Robie.
>
> It's our opinion that if this feature breaks things for /some/ users then
> it's worth turning off for everyone. While this is a step backwards in
> privacy, it's such a tricky problem for users to understand and get support
> on that we think we should make it "off by default".
>
> This can still be overridden on a per device basis by the user if desired.
>

Please note that for all ubuntu cloud images we disable MAC Address
Randomization, because privacy is of less of a concern (most clouds
masquarade internet access, thus MAC does not leak publically, and
internally each tenant have their own network, and there is thus value
in having stable MAC Addresses for persistent VMs).

Therefore, if desktop decides to have MAC Address Randomization off by
default, it makes sense to change this as a distro-wide / kernel
setting. And document how to opt-in via netplan / networkd /
NetworkManager / cloud config.

-- 
Regards,

Dimitri.