On Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:19:55 +0100
Mike Ramchand <Mike.Ramchand at Sun.COM> wrote:
> Michael Hunter wrote:
> > On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:49:29 +0100
> > Mike Ramchand <Mike.Ramchand at Sun.COM> wrote:
> >
> >> Peter Memishian wrote:
> >>> > > * It seems that inetmenu is still being maintained, and still
> >>> uses
> >>> > > wificonfig internally. I've CC'd Mike Ramchand (who I believe
> >>> > > is the primary author) in the hopes that he can clue us in on
> >>> > > the future of inetmenu now that NWAM phase 0 has integrated.
> >>> >
> >>> > Inetmenu being very lightly maintained. (i.e. bugfixes only).
> >>> > Unfortunately nwam Phase 0 does not yet cover some of the scenarios
> >>> that
> >>> > the inetmenu users often require.
> >>>
> >>> I see. Out of curiosity, what are some of those?
> >> OTOH
> >>
> >> 1: The option to configure multiple interfaces.
> >
> > This seems like the big one. Once we support this in phase 1 then many
> > of the other things come along as necessary.
> >
> >> 2: The option to configure the IP address manually.
> >
> > You do this in Phase 0. See the PROFILES section in nwamd(1M). This
> > mechanism isn't the end all for this type of thing so while it might
> > meet some of your needs its also not as feature rich as we want.
>
> I've read the man page. How?
oops, I was jumping ahead of myself here. The static option isn't
discussed. If you look at /etc/nwam/llp you will see lines like:
e1000g0 dhcp
you can change this to
e1000g0 static 10.0.0.1/16
and it will do what you want.
>
> "Profiles are a mechanism for making multiple related changes
> to the system configuration after IP service is available."
>
> It seems from reading this that the "profile" scripts are run AFTER the
> interface is brought up and an IP associated with it.
> >
> >> 3: The option to NOT use NIS even if it is available. (Doesn't everyone
> >> hate a root directory full of stubs created by NIS +auto_master map?,
> >> not to mention the fact that based on the default nsswitch.nis file,
> >> anyone can ssh into your laptop)
> >
> > Not sure if I understand this one. Is there a situation in which you
> > it in your nsswitch.conf and you've enabled nis/client but then don't
> > want to use it?
>
> When you use dhcp to configure the interface, the DHCP server provides a
> bunch of information including DNS and NIS information. If the dhcp
> server DOES provide NIS domain, and NIS server information, you need to
> decide whether or not you want to use NIS, or simply rely on DNS for
> name service resolution. There are many instances where you make a dhcp
> connection where you would NOT want to use NIS, as well as instances
> where you would.
You could use dhcpinfo in your profile bringup script to achieve this.
I'm not suggesting this is easy nor what we would call user friendly.
But these scripts are outs to achieve additional functionality within
the limits of Phase 0.
> >
> >> 4: The ability to configure multiple "profiles" to select from.
> >> 5: The ability to define start/stop user supplied scripts to the
> >> profiles. e.g. I could have a "build-subnet" profile which configures a
> >> static IP address, and then starts my dhcp server.
> >
> > See nwamd(1M) as above.
>
> Using profiles differently here. I think. The nwam profiles are
> equivalent to my point 5.
Yes, closer to your point 5. You can use check-conditions to choose
which one you want to use though...
>
> >
> >> 6: The ability to automatically select one or more profiles on startup.
> >
> > Not sure if what you want is covered above?
>
> Not really.
How does check-conditions not allow you to automatically select a profile?
> >
> >> 7: The ability to use inetmenu either as a GUI, or CLI with identical
> >> functionality.
> >
> > We really have 3 things planned for Phase 1.
> >
> > 1) cli, this is for profile creation not for active control
> > 2) panel applet which gives you blinky lights, status, etc.
> > 3) GUI configuration application which is analogous to 1 but more
> > interactive (shows you current state, etc.)
> >
> > Documentation for all of this stuff is on the NWAM project page and
> > talked about on the discussion list. It would be great to get your
> > input to make sure we cover needs you have.
> >
> >> 8: Updating the /etc/hosts file when configuring IP on interfaces.
> >
> > nwamd(1M)...
>
> Are you suggesting using profiles to do this?
You could. It does seem heavy handed and error prone.
Just to be clear I don't consider the profile mechanism in Phase 0 to
really solve your problems. Its way too crude a tool to be considered
user friendly. But I wouldn't mind using it as a foil to try to
understand your requirements.
[...]
> > So this is a difference between user driven mechanisms like inetmenu
> > and NWAM that I don't think we've spent enough time modeling. You
> > should be able to tell us that is the case at the least and we should
> > be able to guess the case and adjust if we are really doing our job.
> >
>
> Actually, this is more due to changes in the way the dhcpagent works
> (possibly at the behest of the NWAM group, or a side effect of the
> integration), if the link drops, the dhcp client agent releases the IP,
> removes the route and runs the eventhook file. When the link comes back
> up, it re-runs the eventhook. This is NEW behaviour, and manifests
> itself even when using network/physical:default.
[...]
Hmmm, we should investigate this closer. I can think of several things
that have happened here which might have this as a side effect.
Integration of DHCPv6. Integration of bugs our team found. Upgrade of
drivers to support dl note up/down. To start out at the last one what
drivers are you using and between what builds did you notice this change?
mph
