GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 663523
Gnome-shell requires networkmanager as a necessary dependency.
Last modified: 2012-01-12 18:12:20 UTC
While updating my Arch install, I noticed that gnome-shell, gnome-control-center, and empathy have networkmanager listed as a necessary dependency. This also seems to be the case from the git tree: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell/tree/configure.ac?h=gnome-3-2#n83 Whilst networkmanager is a perfectly excellent tool for managing networks, I have been using wicd for quite some time, from the days when networkmanager needed a GUI to function (I am not sure if it still does), and would try to avoid having two network configuration tools installed if I can. Aside from the fact that networkmanager is officially a part of gnome and integrates well, is there another technical reason that the above applications require network-manager as a necessary and not optional dependency? If not, is it possible for it to be marked an optional dependency?
(In reply to comment #0) > Whilst networkmanager is a perfectly excellent tool for managing networks, I > have been using wicd for quite some time, from the days when networkmanager > needed a GUI to function (I am not sure if it still does) It doesn't now, see nm-cli. > , and would try to > avoid having two network configuration tools installed if I can. Aside from the > fact that networkmanager is officially a part of gnome and integrates well, is > there another technical reason that the above applications require > network-manager as a necessary and not optional dependency? If not, is it > possible for it to be marked an optional dependency? I don't think so. Making NM optional would mean adding checks in too many places, which adds more work, clutters the code and creates hard to test configurations. And to benefit to how many people? Do you think people would really build gnome-shell from source just to disable NM support? The idea is that there's no point in supporting several network configuration systems. NM is the way to go, it allows for a good integration with the desktop. Promoting it in GNOME is also a way to incite people to report bugs there and improve it, which ensures all the network stack works how it should. If you have reasons to use Wicd rather than NM, you should file bugs. If you haven't, well, it's time to switch... ;-)
Thank you very very much! I don't think I am switching back to nm anytime soon (for now), but I am perfectly content with this point of view!