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- ******************
- 2008-12-11: NetworkManager core daemon has moved to git.freedesktop.org!
- git clone git://git.freedesktop.org/git/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.git
- ******************
- Networking that Just Works
- --------------------------
- NetworkManager attempts to keep an active network connection available at all
- times. The point of NetworkManager is to make networking configuration and
- setup as painless and automatic as possible. NetworkManager is intended to
- replace default route, replace other routes, set IP addresses, and in general
- configure networking as NM sees fit (with the possibility of manual override as
- necessary). In effect, the goal of NetworkManager is to make networking Just
- Work with a minimum of user hassle, but still allow customization and a high
- level of manual network control. If you have special needs, we'd like to hear
- about them, but understand that NetworkManager is not intended for every
- use-case.
- NetworkManager will attempt to keep every network device in the system up and
- active, as long as the device is available for use (has a cable plugged in,
- the killswitch isn't turned on, etc). Network connections can be set to
- 'autoconnect', meaning that NetworkManager will make that connection active
- whenever it and the hardware is available.
- "Settings services" store lists of user- or administrator-defined "connections",
- which contain all the settings and parameters required to connect to a specific
- network. NetworkManager will _never_ activate a connection that is not in this
- list, or that the user has not directed NetworkManager to connect to.
- How it works:
- The NetworkManager daemon runs as a privileged service (since it must access
- and control hardware), but provides a D-Bus interface on the system bus to
- allow for fine-grained control of networking. NetworkManager does not store
- connections or settings, it is only the mechanism by which those connections
- are selected and activated.
- To store pre-defined network connections, two separate services, the "system
- settings service" and the "user settings service" store connection information
- and provide these to NetworkManager, also via D-Bus. Each settings service
- can determine how and where it persistently stores the connection information;
- for example, the GNOME applet stores its configuration in GConf, and the system
- settings service stores its config in distro-specific formats, or in a distro-
- agnostic format, depending on user/administrator preference.
- A variety of other system services are used by NetworkManager to provide
- network functionality: wpa_supplicant for wireless connections and 802.1x
- wired connections, pppd for PPP and mobile broadband connections, DHCP clients
- for dynamic IP addressing, dnsmasq for proxy nameserver and DHCP server
- functionality for internet connection sharing, and avahi-autoipd for IPv4
- link-local addresses. Most communication with these daemons occurs, again,
- via D-Bus.
- Why doesn't my network Just Work?
- Driver problems are the #1 cause of why NetworkManager sometimes fails to
- connect to wireless networks. Often, the driver simply doesn't behave in a
- consistent manner, or is just plain buggy. NetworkManager supports _only_
- those drivers that are shipped with the upstream Linux kernel, because only
- those drivers can be easily fixed and debugged. ndiswrapper, vendor binary
- drivers, or other out-of-tree drivers may or may not work well with
- NetworkManager, precisely because they have not been vetted and improved by the
- open-source community, and because problems in these drivers usually cannot
- be fixed.
- Sometimes, command-line tools like 'iwconfig' will work, but NetworkManager will
- fail. This is again often due to buggy drivers, because these drivers simply
- aren't expecting the dynamic requests that NetworkManager and wpa_supplicant
- make. Driver bugs should be filed in the bug tracker of the distribution being
- run, since often distributions customize their kernel and drivers.
- Sometimes, it really is NetworkManager's fault. If you think that's
- the case, please file a bug at:
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/issues
- Attaching NetworkManager debug logs from the journal (or wherever your
- distribution directs syslog's 'daemon' facility output, as
- /var/log/messages or /var/log/daemon.log) is often very helpful, and
- (if you can get) a working wpa_supplicant config file helps
- enormously. See the logging section of file
- contrib/fedora/rpm/NetworkManager.conf for how to enable debug logging
- in NetworkManager.
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