fast boot

[Paul Smith]

On Thu, 2013-08-15 at 06:47 +0000, thufir wrote:
> Well, that's exactly it.  Out of the box, 12.04LTS (for me) doesn't 
> acquire DHCP during boot:
> 
> thufir at dur:~$ 
> thufir at dur:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces 
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
> 
> so, what "magic" (or program) is doing the DHCP lease?

The contents of /etc/network/interfaces are interfaces that are started
automatically when the system boots.  This is handled by "traditional"
scripts and clients.

Other interfaces are started by NetworkManager when the user logs in.
The icon on your panel is getting updated by NetworkManager about the
state of the network, and other applications (Evolution, etc.) will also
be updated in that way.

Most of the GUI elements that manage networks on your system are part of
(or built on top of) NetworkManager.

The idea is that the network interfaces may require passwords (wireless)
or be otherwise restricted to a given user account (VPN, etc.) so the
network cannot be brought up automatically.