NetworkManager

External resources

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	Wikipedia

NetworkManager is a network management software for Ethernet, Wifi, DSL, dialup, VPN, WiMAX and mobile broadband network connections.

Note

NetworkManager doesn't work together with other network management software. So disable all other managers.

Installation

Prerequisites

NetworkManager uses udev, D-Bus and polkit, so set them up first.

Kernel

You need to activate the following kernel options:

Kernel configuration

General setup  --->
    [ ] Enable deprecated sysfs features to support old userspace tools

For Wifi devices enable also the following options:

Kernel configuration

[*] Networking support  --->
        Networking options  --->
        <*> Packet socket
    [*] Wireless  --->
        <*>   cfg80211 - wireless configuration API
        [*]     cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility

Software

Portage knows the global USE flag networkmanager for enabling support for NetworkManager in other packages. Enabling this USE flag will pull in net-misc/networkmanager automatically:

File/etc/portage/make.conf

USE="... networkmanager ..."

The USE flags of networkmanager are:

→ Information about USE flags

USE flag	Default	Recommended	Description
avahi	No		Add avahi/Zeroconf support
bluetooth	Yes		Enables Bluetooth Support
connection-sharing	No		Use net-dns/dnsmasq and net-firewall/iptables for connection sharing
consolekit	Yes		Use sys-auth/consolekit for session tracking
dhclient	No		Use dhclient from net-misc/dhcp for getting ip
dhcpcd	Yes		Use net-misc/dhcpcd for getting ip
doc	No		Adds extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally
gnutls	No		Adds support for net-libs/gnutls (TLS 1.0 and SSL 3.0 support)
introspection	Yes		Adds support for GObject based introspection
modemmanager	No		Enable support for mobile broadband devices using net-misc/modemmanager
nss	Yes		Use dev-libs/nss for cryptography
ppp	Yes		Enable support for mobile broadband and PPPoE connections using net-dialup/ppp
resolvconf	No		Use net-dns/openresolv for managing DNS information
vala	No		Enable bindings for dev-lang/vala
wext	Yes		Enable support for the deprecated Wext (Wireless Extensions) API; needed for some older drivers (e.g. ipw2200, ndiswrapper)
wimax	No		Enable support for WiMAX connections using net-wireless/wimax

After setting this you want to update your system so the changes take effect:

root # emerge --ask --changed-use --deep @world

Also install a frontend:

• gnome-extra/nm-applet - GNOME frontend
• kde-misc/networkmanagement - KDE frontend
• nmcli (part of networkmanager) - command line frontend

There are also some extensions:

• net-misc/networkmanager-openvpn - VPN connection to a OpenVPN server
• net-misc/networkmanager-pptp - VPN connection to a PPTP server
• net-misc/networkmanager-vpnc - VPN connection to a Cisco VPN concentrator

Configuration

You can now start NetworkManager:

root # /etc/init.d/NetworkManager start

To start NetworkManager at boot time, add it your default runlevel:

root # rc-update add NetworkManager default

Reload D-Bus so that the NetworkManager changes take effect:

root # /etc/init.d/dbus reload

Usage

To be able to get nm-applet started when starting your light X session or light Desktop Environment, just put the following line in your ~/.xinitrc file:

File~/.xinitrc

dbus-launch nm-applet --sm-disable &

For gnome-base/gnome-keyring support, add the following lines before the previous line. This will ease password management for GnuPG, ssh and Wifi:

File~/.xinitrc

eval $(gnome-keyring-daemon --components=pkcs11,secrets,ssh,gpg)
export GNOME_KEYRING_PID
export GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK
export GPG_AGENT_INFO

Troubleshotting

• Gentoo bugtracker: known bugs
• GNOME bugtracker: known bugs
• GNOME Wiki