Bugzilla – Bug 148288
NetworkManager erroneously enabled on notebooks with with two network cards
Last modified: 2006-02-05 22:26:33 UTC
NetworkManager is not supposed to be used on systems with more than one card. Most contemporary notebooks all contain a WLAN plus a wired Ethernet card. So NetworkManager at its present state does not belong on such notebooks. As bug 148210 shows, NetworkManager fails in supporting the WLAN properly. It should therefore either not be installed or at least be disabled in sysconfig. Otherwise SUSE 10.1 will notebook exclude from networking.
Nonsense. Having one system (yours) not yet working with NM, doesn't imply that others encounter the same problem.
So why is the official statement: NetworkManager should not be used on systems with more than one card? If so, the installation should not default to NetworkManager setup on such systems. I just reproduced the bug on another notebook, this time with internal ethernet and a WLAN pc card. Therefore my suggestion: Drop the recommendation not to use NetworkManager on such two or more card systems, if there is no problem with such support.
I am not sure where you get the notion that NM is not intended for systems with more than one network interface. To the contrary, NM shines in such situations, where it can make smart choices about wireless versus wired connectivty. You are confusing bugs with (mis)features. You are experiencing a bug -- a bug, which I might add, the vast majority of users are not seeing.
This is the YaST2 help message from 10.1 beta3: "Use the Traditional Method with ifup if you do not run a desktop environment (GNOME or KDE) or need to use multiple interfaces at once." Clearly this is a bit of makeup, because you have to use the traditional method not only in this case but also when static ip adresses are needed.
The pressing phrase being "at once". NM does not currently support multiple interfaces simultaneously up, in the case of a server routing between two devices. It supports multiple interfaces in general just fine. And, as we have said over and over, NM does support static IP configurations. The YaST interface is not ideal in this situation, but you can (at least) edit the configuration file manually.
Robert, are there already Enhancement requests for the missing features you mentioned? I would need most of them: - more than one network card up at once - static IP for one of the cards (without editing sysconfig files) ;-) My problem would already be solved if it wasn't a "XOR" choice in YaST ("Do you want to use Network Manager _OR_ do you want to use traditional setup?"). It would be a good idea to be able to choose Network Manager _per interface_. Another missing feature is the "data rate" window like in KInternet. If there are no Enhancement requests about that yet, I'll be happy to file them - just tell me ;-)