GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 760198
"nmcli radio" will report the presence of a non-exist WWAN device
Last modified: 2016-01-13 09:59:36 UTC
Even if a system does not have any WWAN devices, the "nmcli radio" command will still show that it's enabled: $ nmcli radio WIFI-HW WIFI WWAN-HW WWAN enabled enabled enabled enabled $ nmcli -v nmcli tool, version 1.0.4 Tested on 201409-15490 Dell Latitude E5550 with Ubuntu Xenial dailylive (4.3.0-5-generic #16), network-manager version: 1.0.4-0ubuntu7 Bug report on launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1531419
Devices can appear and disappear any time (restart ModemManager, plugin USB dongle...). When a device appears, the radio rfkill switch should be already in place.
I think the WWAN section should not be "enabled" for a system without a WWAN device. It's a bit confusing to see this.
"enabled" means, that if you plugin an USB dongle (and NetworkManager has a matching connection that is configured to "autoconnect"), that NM will automatically connect the newly plugged in device. "disabled" means it will not. It makes sense to have this property available any time, so that you can configure it ~before~ plugin in the device. Well, that is just my opinion of how it should be. And I personally think there is nothing to change here.
I think it's more clear about this "enabled" / "disabled" meaning now. Thanks for the explanation, and please feel free to close this bug.
I agree with comment 3, the property indicates whether the user allows WWAN devices to be potentially activated and should be not affected by the actual presence of a device. BTW, the "wifi" property works in the same way, you can have it set to "on" with no wireless nic available. Closing this.