NetworkManager system-wide use

[Philip Prindeville]

David Hollis wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-05-26 at 11:14 -0600, Philip Prindeville wrote:
>
>   
>> Sorry for the slight digression, but can someone explain to me why
>> NetworkManager has a dependency on wpa_supplicant?  Not all
>> wireless networks use WEP/WPA (some are wide open).  Further,
>> not all networked machines (like my desktop) have Wireless NIC's.
>>
>> It would seem to be an unnecessary (and unfounded) dependency.
>>     
>
> Uh, unless I really don't understand your question, the dependency is
> there because SOME/MOST networks do use WEP/WPA.  
>   

Not true.  A lot of hotspots (Starbuck's, Boise airport, certain municipal
networks like Portland, OR, etc. are all open access, with no WEP/WPA).

It is sometimes or even *mostly* the case, but not always.  Therefore, in
the cases where it doesn't apply, no dependency should exist.

The RPM should have some way of detecting if wireless cards are present
(perhaps using the contents of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*) and
then inferring a dependence of wpa_supplicant (which as I said, only
applies IFF you have wireless hardware and the networks you use
require authentication and/or privacy).

NetworkManager should run quite happily if wpa_supplicant isn't present.

-Philip