Enabling Connectivity Checking in NetworkManager

[Marc Deslauriers]

On Fri, 2012-07-13 at 07:54 -0500, Ted Gould wrote:
> On Fri, 2012-07-13 at 08:12 -0400, Marc Deslauriers wrote:
> > On Thu, 2012-07-12 at 23:12 -0500, Ted Gould wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2012-07-12 at 17:42 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 02:19:21PM -0500, Ted Gould wrote:
> > > > > I'd agree that it's an extreme situation, but technically any connection
> > > > > would be.  For instance, my ISP or company would have a high likelyhood
> > > > > that I'm running Ubuntu by watching for this.  For those who are
> > > > > concerned, I don't believe the alternate installer does this check.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm not sure that counts because there is significant top-down pressure
> > > > to stop supporting the alternate installer.
> > > 
> > > Interesting, I wasn't aware.  Personally, I'd support a feature of the
> > > standard installer to put it in a silent mode.  I don't think it should
> > > be a check box, but as perhaps a "Ctrl+P" type thing.  Then we can argue
> > > about whether it's "Privacy Mode" or "Paranoid Mode" ;-)  That way those
> > > who really care would be likely to know it, but it wouldn't complicate
> > > the more standard installs.
> > 
> > Installing without having the network cable plugged in would be a better
> > way of doing this...I'm pretty sure the installer does other network
> > stuff besides the initial network connectivity check that can be used to
> > determine if you're installing Ubuntu.
> 
> And for wireless users is the solution to install in a Faraday
> cage?  ;-)  While I'm sure YOU have one, the rest of us might be
> lacking.

Uhm, when you get to the "Configure wireless" part of the installer,
just click the Skip button?

> 
> If such a mode was established I think it could be used for other things
> during the install as well, for instance, setting the default behavior
> of Network Manager to not ping ever or defaulting to encrypted home
> directories, etc.

This is the equivalent to security theater. I'll call this "privacy
theater".

Marc.