NetworkManager

[Derek Broughton]

Karl Auer wrote:

> On Sun, 2008-10-05 at 15:08 -0300, Derek Broughton wrote:
>> OK - that's a matter of semantics - it seems to me that if you
>> don't "enable" it, you aren't really using manual configuration
>> [of NetworkManager]
> 
> True. But see below.
> 
>> > they are reset to whatever NetworkManager thinks they should be.
>> 
>> It's NOT NetworkManager.  It's dhclient.  NM has nothing to do with your
>> DHCP settings, it _only_ triggers the execution of dhclient.
> 
> Well, it may be more semantics, but dhclient, apart from being the
> *source* of (some of) the details, certainly has nothing to do with
> storing them in any configuration files. NetworkManager, on the other
> hand, does. 

Yes, dhclient does and no, NM doesn't.  

Here's the sequence:

- NM starts dhclient.
- dhclient asks for DHCP settings
- DHCP server sends, amongs other things, the domain server address
- dhclient appends/prepends your hard-coded config values to the search list
- the dhclient "hooks" write resolv.conf

> It seems reasonable to say that it was NetworkManager 
> resetting the details I was seeing in its dialogue boxes.

Those aren't even NetworkManager's dialog boxes!  When you select "manual
configuration" in NM, it takes you _out_ of NM.

> So, just to be bloody-minded, I just went and added a domain to the
> search list in the Network manager dialogue again. It had no effect
> on /etc/network/interfaces at all.

OK, I don't know where that is saved, BUT IT"S NOTHING TO DO WITH NETWORK
MANAGER!  The application is "kcmshell kcm_knetworkconfmodule" - it's
interesting to see that if you run that in a terminal, it shows an XML
config.

> BUT: The new search list *did* get written into /etc/resolv.conf! Which
> means (just to confuse the issue totally) - that it dang well should
> have worked when I did it the first time. 

And THAT is dhclient.  And yet again, I point out to you that if you have an
NM managed interface, "networking restart" won't/can't and still shouldn't
affect it.
-- 
derek