NetworkManager doesn't establish a network connection until a user logs in, but services started on boot like ntpd and sshd have legitimate uses for a network connection upon start. NetworkManager should store network connection configuration in a user-neutral location by default or when requested to do so by the user and connect to a user-neutral network connection on boot when one is available.
I am interested in the same functionality. However, I have what seems to be a catch-22. NetworkManager requires dbus. Dbus seems to make LDAP requests when LDAP is used for NSS (for /etc/hosts?) These requests hang if the network is not available. So, which starts first: dbus or NetworkManager? I am using dbus-0.50-1, NetworkManager-0.5.1-4 and glibc-2.3.90-18. Because of this, I have had to use netplugd to manage my network device.
What happens in casses when there isn't a "user neutral" option? I would personally be more interested in a method, that allowed network services to detect that the network is not up, and as such not attempt to load.
If there isn't a "user neutral" option those services should be made smarter, but that's an entirely different set of problems. What is described here is that there _is_ a network out there, NM just won't connect to it until somebody logs in. There should be an option saying: if network X is available, this is the key for it, use it! We've got several wireless machines in this house and 90% of the time they will be used here and nowhere else, having to log in to get them conencted is a nuisance.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 154652 ***