GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 744754
Don't prefer Mobile Broadband to connected and working Wi-Fi
Last modified: 2020-11-12 14:28:57 UTC
When Mobile Broadband is connected after Wi-Fi, it takes over the default route. It shouldn't, and should be providing fallback for when Wi-Fi isn't available instead.
The default route is chosen based on the metric for the routes. You can set the metric via the ipv4.route-metric setting (`nmcli connection modify ipv4.route-metric 5`). The default of -1 means: choose a priority based on the device type. Which currently means 100 for ethernet, 500 for wwan, 600 for wi-fi, etc. so, on master and nm-1-0, you can overwrite this behaviour, but you have to configure it explicitly per connection. WWan has a higher priority then Wi-Fi based on the assumption that you connected to it explicitly and that you have to pay for it. Hence, it might be the better device. Whether that makes sense is another question. We could revise that, but it would be a behavioural change (obviously)... Another option would be to add a new global configuration that allows you to overwrite the default priority per device. Something like: [main] route-metric=400:type:wwan,500:type:wifi,300:interface-name:em1,600:*
(In reply to Thomas Haller from comment #1) <snip> > WWan has a higher priority then Wi-Fi based on the assumption that you > connected to it explicitly and that you have to pay for it. Hence, it might > be the better device. Whether that makes sense is another question. We could > revise that, but it would be a behavioural change (obviously)... This is an assumption that I would expect to be very wrong on tablets, and somewhat wrong on laptops. My WWAN subscription is basically unmetered. Can't we change the default route, default to having Mobile Broadband be automatically connected (with caveats such as roaming), and have users explicitly say whether Mobile Broadband should be deactivated by default?
(In reply to Thomas Haller from comment #1) > Another option would be to add a new global configuration that allows you to > overwrite the default priority per device. > Something like: > > [main] > route-metric=400:type:wwan,500:type:wifi,300:interface-name:em1,600:* you can now overwrite the default route-metric per device. For example by configuring: [connection.wifi-route-metric] match-device=type:wifi ipv4.route-metric=400 ipv6.route-metric=400 I agree, we should however modify the default values.
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