slackware{32,64}-current (08-AUG-2015) network manager tweaks

kingbeowulf · 08-09-2015, 10:27 PM

I've been testing both cpu variants of Slackware-current on 2 laptops and the default shipped NeworkManager.conf does not work out-of-the-box (atheros chipsets and Netgear WNDR3700 with OpenWRT). The issue is repeated connection/disconnection in both KDE and Xfce. I recommend that the following changes be made to the NetworkManager-1.0.4 package, in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

Code:

[main]
plugins=keyfile
dhcp=internal

or

Code:

[main]
plugins=keyfile
dhcp=dhclient

I have ahd both variants working fine for the past day+. It seems upstream is a bit clueless regarding issues with dhpcpd and networkmanager interaction (they don't test or even use dhcpd).
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=743599
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=743472
Selected quotes from the above:

Quote:

...But AFAIK none of the developers use dhcpcd and therefore it should be by default considered broken...
...dhcpcd isn't supposed to be "just a fallback", but none of the developers use it, so it tends to not get tested well, and random bugs like this creep in...

Perhaps someone can verify these?

Of course, some may not run into these issues, as it also depends on the wifi chipset and ipv4 and ipv6 router implementation. In general, however, this modification will help the majoity of users with portable systems who decide to use networkmanager.

Totoro-kun · 08-09-2015, 10:53 PM

Thank You for sharing, my laptops also have connection issues with DD-WRT and Open-WRT routers. Will test this

Dman58 · 08-10-2015, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingbeowulf

I've been testing both cpu variants of Slackware-current on 2 laptops and the default shipped NeworkManager.conf does not work out-of-the-box (atheros chipsets and Netgear WNDR3700 with OpenWRT). The issue is repeated connection/disconnection in both KDE and Xfce. I recommend that the following changes be made to the NetworkManager-1.0.4 package, in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

Of course, some may not run into these issues, as it also depends on the wifi chipset and ipv4 and ipv6 router implementation. In general, however, this modification will help the majoity of users with portable systems who decide to use networkmanager.

It's funny you mention this because I have those same issues on my system. The connection is intermittent and I have to reconnect. I am using Slackware64 kernel 3.10.17 with network manager. Also issue remains when I was on Slackware64-Current as well. I thought it was the rtl8723 wifi card but with ipw4965 it happens just not as much. My router is a Linksys (not sure the model). So the common denominator is Network Manager. I've yet to try the code mentioned in previous post.

bassmadrigal · 08-10-2015, 08:38 AM

I don't know if you'll get Slackware to switch to dhclient by default. See the pertinent section from http://docs.slackware.com/slackbook:network on why...

Quote:

Why does Slackware include two DHCP clients? Sometimes a particular DHCP server may be broken and not respond well to either dhcpcd or dhclient. In those cases, you can fall back to the other DHCP client in hopes of getting a valid response from the server. Traditionally, Slackware uses dhcpcd, and this works in the vast majority of cases, but it may become necessary at some point for you to use dhclient instead. Both are excellent DHCP clients, so use whichever you prefer.

Totoro-kun · 08-10-2015, 08:58 AM

Slackware does not have to switch anything. If above info is correct, then modifying /etc/NetworkManager.conf is all that's needed.

Totoro-kun · 08-10-2015, 11:24 PM

Atleast on Slackware 14.1 setting dhcp=internal does not work. I cannot connect at all. But dhcp=dhclient works so far.

ReaperX7 · 08-11-2015, 05:04 AM

I had trouble with NetworkManager when I switched to OpenRC. Dhcpcd tends to behave itself sometimes better than dhclient, but often I've had dhclient when used with sysvinit (bsd and sysv scripting) behave better than dhcpcd, so honestly both work well depending on the situation.

I don't think change like this is needed. Just the fact that NetworkManager might need some extra documentation, or more examples in sample configuration file might be helpful.

kingbeowulf · 08-13-2015, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

I had trouble with NetworkManager when I switched to OpenRC. Dhcpcd tends to behave itself sometimes better than dhclient, but often I've had dhclient when used with sysvinit (bsd and sysv scripting) behave better than dhcpcd, so honestly both work well depending on the situation.

I don't think change like this is needed. Just the fact that NetworkManager might need some extra documentation, or more examples in sample configuration file might be helpful.

I disagree. The change is needed. Something as important as networking must work OOTB these days (and your issues with OpenRC are irrelevant in this case). There is an issue with NetworkManager and dhcpd not working and the issue is documented in the bugzilla posts I referenced. The problem is Linux distribution invariant. Whether it is the way Networkmanger calls dhcpd, or whether dhcpd is miss-coded, is a discussion for softwere devs, not those of us who use Slackware as a tools for day-to-day computing tasks. From what I understood from the referenced posts: upstream does NOT use dhcpd and they probably use dhclient. With NetworkManager > 1.0.4, the preferred setup may now be dhcp=internal, since upstream has had many issues with external dhcp clients.

Also, NetworkManager.conf is provided by the officially distributed source slackbuild script in source/n/NetworkManager and customized in doinst.sh for HOSTNAME.

ReaperX7 · 08-13-2015, 11:56 PM

Likewise, I disagree.

OpenRC was helpful in diagnosing the problem on my end because it kept a log of the crashed daemon, and it was helpful to note that when I ran the rc-status utility to check the daemons current state, it said it was stopped and crashed. When check using the service script, it reported the same. It was helpful to note through that, that NetworkManager was actually having an issue with the current selected plugin, and I was able to switch to the secondary networking agent provided by Slackware, dhclient, to restore networking abilities.

When I ran 'man NetworkManager.conf' I was able to learn my options were dhclient, dhcpcd, and internal. In reading the manual, internal is not entirely recommended, because it's not as feature-filled as dhclient or dhcpcd, mainly the fact it does not support IPv6.

However, don't get me wrong, NetworkManager does work out of the box with dhcpcd, but the last update has an issue that needs to be addressed. However, Slackware, by default, uses dhcpcd. If NetworkManager needs adjusting in the doinst.sh used at installation time, then it does need adjusting to use the proper plugin, or a working plugin if dhcpcd can't be fixed.

allend · 08-14-2015, 05:11 AM

I have an old USB modem that has not been able to connect using NetworkManager in conjunction with recent versions of dhcpcd. I suspect that this is due to the modem not being fully compliant with standards. Recently I have been using NetworkManager in conjunction with dhclient without issue.
For this reason, I also advocate a switch to dhclient as the default for NetworkManager.

volkerdi · 08-14-2015, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

I have an old USB modem that has not been able to connect using NetworkManager in conjunction with recent versions of dhcpcd. I suspect that this is due to the modem not being fully compliant with standards. Recently I have been using NetworkManager in conjunction with dhclient without issue.
For this reason, I also advocate a switch to dhclient as the default for NetworkManager.

There are two issues with using dhclient. First, it's a memory hog compared with dhcpcd. Second, because it's bundled with the dhcp package, having dhclient as the default will lead to issues when people don't install that package since they aren't going to run a DHCP server on the machine. A while back I had followed upstream's recommendation to use dhclient by default, and that's exactly what happened.

At this point I'm strongly considering going to dhcpcd 6.8.2 and leaving it alone until there's an actual reason to change it. We've been bit by dhcpcd upgrades before...

ReaperX7 · 08-14-2015, 03:36 PM

I've never had any issues with 6.8.2 Patrick. Then again NetworkManager is part of the GNOME project, so heaven knowns what they may have done to the code to cause problems.

Even the ArchWiki only references the internal resolver and dhclient, not dhcpcd. I think dhclient is the default resolver for NetworkManager also.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager

Also noted in the wiki:

Dhcpcd support has been disabled as of version 1.0.0-2 in NetworkManager. Apparently we aren't the only ones with the issues.