Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 158664
NetworkManager lacks a panel applet
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:11:06 EST
Description of problem: NetworkManager lacks a panel applet which therefore requires a user to run NetworkManagerInfo from a terminal. This is a usabililty issue that should be taken care of. Many users have complained about the lack of an applet and many have also stated that there is lack of documentation about how to get NetworkManager working with an applet, not realizing they need to run Info. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): NetworkManager-0.4-15.cvs20050404 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Actual results: Expected results: As stated, there should be a way to add a NetworkManagerInfo applet to the panel . Another solution would be to have Info run with the X login scripts, this way whenever a user logs in, they get Info on their panel. Additional info:
The problem here is that its quite hard to add stuff to the user's session without hardcoding it like we do for up2date and others... ray, any ideas, or do we punt this one to FC5 ?
So there are really three options I think. 1) Add it to the default session and all new users get access to it, but existing users have to run it themselves. 2) Hard code it in main.c of gnome-session like we do for other services currently. 3) Wait for FC5 and do it using libgnomeservice. My thought is 3 is the best way to go. Adding it to the default session in an FC4 update won't have that much use because if users are updating their systems they probably already have an account and so won't benefit. Hard coding it to main.c is okay with me, but this doesn't actually seem like update material to me. People don't expect new features to pop up in updates. Updates are more for adding stability. So I'd say, defer this until FC5 when we'll have a good solution to the problem.
I am currently running FC5. I can find no NetworkManagerInfo. I have searched for it with "yum whatprovides" and locate. Also, I looked for something with "libgnomeservice" in the filename. No hits. NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher are not working at all AFAICT, although they are installed. I have heard that NetworkManager supports WPA/WPA2. So far, the only network configuration tool I can locate is system-config-network, which only supports WEP. Thus, I cannot configure my WPA2 connection. So, what happened with this functionality. Is there some new plan?
Hmm. I found the instructions for getting nm-applet (sorry for losing track of your instructions, Dan). However, there are several problems. I will contact you about them seperately. BTW, it looks like you won't have nm-applet/NM installed and configured in the default config until FC6. Is that right? Thx.
nm-applet will hide itself if NetworkManager isn't running. Maybe we should just run it automatically.