Bug 686443

Ok, it is worse than I thought. WLAN doesn't seem to be important for the decision to disable NM but probably if it is a laptop or a desktop.

So if I install openSUSE 11.4 on a desktop computer with a WLAN card I can't use it until I enable NM manually somewhere in Yast.
For me this is a bug because it disables things which could and should be working out of the box.

So like I said the best option would be to enable NM per default if it is not installed in a server/minimal version.

Tim, 

 Do you mean run nm-applet in KDE environment? And What's error when run it?

 Thanks!

The KDE NM Plasmoid shows a red button with a white cross on it if NM isn't running. If you click on it and select "Enable networking" nothing happens of course because NM isn't running.

It seems that only the live installations on desktops are affected because they always are shipped with the nm-applet and in this succession copy it too during installation but NM gets deactivated during stage 2 if the system is not a laptop.

Nevertheless would it be better if NM gets always activated at least on computer with a WLAN connection.

Tim,

 Do you set use the NetworkManager in Yast? Or the NM crash when start? Please attach your /var/log/NetworkManager?

Thanks for your fast replies.

No, NetworkManager works fine it is just deactivated by default if you install openSUSE on a desktop instead of a laptop.

This is an explicit decision I suppose because NM isn't necessarily needed if you don't change your connection regularly.
But like I said NM doesn't hurt either and it makes many things easier because you don't have to search in Yast to set up a network but can use the systray icon to manage your connections.

If you enable NetworkManager in Yast after the installation everything works fine but how should a new user know this?

So since this design decision will most likely not be reverted in 11.4 maybe there could be a message box if you click on the nm plasmoid which informs you that NM is disabled and can be enabled in "Yast - Network" or something like that.
Or as an alternative if you click in the plasmoid on "enable networking" NM gets activated if it is deactivated.

I think this should fix the issue without interfering with the decision.

Tim,

 So what I get is that the knetworkmanager should don't show when the NetworkManager not running, just like the nm-applet.

 Anyway it's should be the NetworkManager-kde4's issue.

no activity for more that 1 1/2y and 11.4 is dead. I will close... please open a new bug if it happens against 12.2 (current stable)

Alin