Wireless newbies -- just try NetworkManager!

Timothy Murphy gayleard at eircom.net
Sat Mar 15 02:06:34 UTC 2008


Paul Johnson wrote:

> I was one of the complainers about NM, so let me report the happy
> outcome. If you turn off the wpa_supplicant and network services, then
> NM will work to connect you to DHCP networks almost always, I'd guess
> it is about 99.5% for me since JL had posted the "please try NM first"
> message.   So why not try it?

As I have already said (several times, I think)
I have 7 (now 8) WiFi devices, and NM works on 5 (now 6) of them.
[I'm not actually running NM on most of the machines it works on.]

> And file a bug report if it does not work.

I had quite extensive (and perfectly amicable) discussion some time ago
with the chief NM designer.
The upshot was that I was told NM expects WiFi devices to incorporate
certain scanning facilities which the WiFi devices I was using at that time
- some of which I am still using - do not support.

> Linux is a bazarre, not a democracy.  If you really want a Linux
> distribution in which everything works with 95% certainty, I suggest
> you buy RedHat Enterprise Linux.

I actually run CentOS-5.1 (re-badged RHEL) on my server,
so am reasonably familiar with it.
I must say my experience, contrary to the claim (or complaint)
that Fedora is "bleeding edge",
is that RHEL is neither more not less reliable than Fedora.
I don't run WiFi on the server, so the issue of NM or wicd or whatever
does not arise.
I'm pretty sure NM would be available on the EPEL repository,
in which case there is no difference from that point of view.

> They have employees who answer your 
> questions.     Don't forget Fedora is a volunteer project, and
> volunteers work on things that 1) interest them and 2) work for them
> and 3) they can defend over the long term against system changes.  Or
> things their employers pay them to work on.  They are letting you use
> their stuff for free.

I haven't forgotten any of those things.
They are not, however, a reason not to expect the same standard
from Fedora as from any commercial system,
or to refrain from comment if you think some development -
eg incorporation of NM as a standard part of Fedora -
is mistaken.

Incidentally, your belief that if you have a commercial product
there must be someone you can ring who will explain
why it is not working as expected is laughably inaccurate,
and makes me wonder if you actually have any commercial software.
In my experience one is far more likely to get helpful advice
about free software like Linux or LaTeX.
 



-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland




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