Network Manager dependencies

[Tom H]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre
<mathieu-tl at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 3:24 AM, Tom H <tomh0665 at gmail.com> wrote:


>> NM on Fedora can now handle bonding and bridging by reading
>> "/etc/sysconfig/netwok-scripts/ifcfg-*" files.
>>
>> I was curious about whether NM could do the same by reading
>> "/etc/network/interfaces" so I've just tried to install NM in an
>> X-less Quantal VM.
>
> Not by reading /e/n/i; but bonding and bridging support was added in
> NetworkManager 0.9.4.0.
>
> There is currently no way to configure it besides the rather opaque
> files in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections.

I used a file in "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections" last night. Thanks.


>> "apt-get install network-manager" results in:
>>
> [...]
>> and
>>
>> "apt-get install network-manager -o APT::Install-Recommends=false" results in:
>>
> [...]
>> So, even an installation of NM without its "Recommends" (which isn't
>> something that I like to do or, AFAIK, something that's recommended)
>> results in the installation of packages that are only needed by a DE,
>> like dconf-gsettings-backend, dconf-service, glib-networking,
>> glib-networking-common, glib-networking-services,
>> gsettings-desktop-schemas.

It should've been "that I don't like to do nor".


>> Could NM's "Depends" and "Recommends" be pared down for an X-less
>> use-case? Thanks.
>
> "We'll burn that bridge when we get there." :)
>
> Seriously though; I agree that some of these requirements are
> unfortunate, especially with all this coming from glib-networking
> (which I'll look to make sure is really required). Any help you can
> provide to reducing these requirements and making NetworkManager
> suitable on X-less systems is definitely welcome. I recommend you come
> hang around on #nm on Freenode if it's the case; this is where the
> upstream NetworkManager development gets done.

I've never used IRC and I'm not a developer so I'll probably feel like
an alien on #nm!

I'd nevertheless like to help if I can find the time. If I can figure
out what the deb equivalent of an rpm spec file is, I'll drop the GUI
dependencies, build a local package, and test it.