Moving towards NetworkManager

[Josef Wolf]

On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 06:19:23PM -0400, Rashkae wrote:
> On 16-07-26 06:09 PM, Josef Wolf wrote:
> >0. First of all, NM is not available on the server install CD. So I need a
> >    working network to install NM. Somewhat ugly this bootstrap situation. I
> >    decide to ignore this for now.
> 
> It looks as though you bootrapped your network by adding your
> interface to the /etc/network/interfaces file
> (This might have been done for your by the server install, which is
> the default behaviour, but is not meant to be used on conjection
> with Nework manager.

Yes. d-i uses the netcfg UDEB to set up networking and saves this to /e/n/i.

My goal is to have ONE installation CD which I'd use for ALL installs, whether
it is a server, a router or a laptop with desktop+wifi.

> Network manager will deliberately ignore interfaces configured via interfaces)
> 
> Backup and edit your Interfaces file to remove everything except:
> 
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback

Yes. This helps.

Thus, my current setup is like this:

1. d-i configures network and stores this configuration in order to do basic
   install.

2. On first reboot after install, my postinstall-script runs and configures
   networking in order to:
   a. run update/upgrade and pull additional packages
   b. check out the repository with my configuration scripts
   This step is necessary because since 10.04 or 12.04, d-i no longer supports
   setting up pppoe
   This configuration is done directly with ifconfig/route/whatever and is NOT.
   stored on the disk. It will vanish on the reboot. The postinstall script
   depends on the checked out configuration system to do the final network
   setup.
   At this point, the user has a chance to change the domain name (which,
   contrary to the other settings WILL be stored to disk). This is because I
   often do the install at home and carry the box to the final network only
   when it is fully installed and functional. This reduces down-time.

3. The checked out configuration system is run and will create the FINAL
   configuration. How this final configuration system looks for the specific
   host in question, is determined by:
   - the hostname
   - the domainname
   - policy/classes settings which are defined withhin this configuration
     system.
   For example, if the FQDN is ext-gw.XXX.YY, then a router is set up for
   external gatewaying. This is because of the class setting "ext-gw"
   The number (load-balancing), type (cable, dsl, ether), provider and
   credentials of those external interfaces is set by policy settings, which
   in turn are based on hostname and domainname settings.

So basically, I'm sitting in-between d-i. netcfg and network-manager and
trying to make sense out of it...

-- 
Josef Wolf
jw at raven.inka.de