Bug 387235 – Do not hard mask networkmanager use flag in solid ebuild when using >= NM-0.9

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Lamarque V. Souza 2011-10-15 19:06:39 UTC]

The use flag networkmanager is hard masked when compiling solid ebuild against NM-0.9. That breakes Solid's API for querying network status. You can test this with the command:

solid-network query status

The NM-0.9 backend in knetworkmanager ebuild is binary incompatible with Solid's API, that is the reason there is a "fake" backend for NM-0.9 in kde-workspace. The hard mask of networkmanager use flag disables the backend in kde-workspace and leaves Solid without any means to query NetworkManager's status.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compile solid ebuild against NM-0.9
2. Execute the command: solid-network query status
Actual Results:  
The command above returns "networking is not enabled".

Expected Results:  
The command above should return the correct networking status.

As a notice I am the KDE's network management maintainer and it was me that created the "fake" NM-0.9 backend.

[Comment 1 Andreas K. Hüttel 2011-10-21 23:34:58 UTC]

Thanks for the report... just so I understand this correctly, when NM-09 is present, and networkmanager support is requested in solid, then the "fake" backend is generated? I.e. we can just enable -DWITH_NetworkManager independent of NM version?

(Semi-related question, how much functionality does the "fake" backend have, does it return useful info?)

[Comment 2 Lamarque V. Souza 2011-10-21 23:48:12 UTC]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Thanks for the report... just so I understand this correctly, when NM-09 is
> present, and networkmanager support is requested in solid, then the "fake"
> backend is generated? I.e. we can just enable -DWITH_NetworkManager independent
> of NM version?

Yes, the networkmanager_fake-0.9 is compiled only when NM-0.9 is installed. If NM-0.8 is installed it will compiled only the networkmanager-0.7 backend, which supports NM-0.7 and NM-0.8.
 
> (Semi-related question, how much functionality does the "fake" backend have,
> does it return useful info?)

it allows Solid to list network interfaces and network status (online, offline, etc).

[Comment 3 Andreas K. Hüttel 2011-10-21 23:57:02 UTC]

OK great. Fixed, thanks!

[Comment 4 dE 2011-11-16 16:55:53 UTC]

Just wait a second... is knetworkmanager integrated with solid now?

[Comment 5 Lamarque V. Souza 2011-11-16 17:15:35 UTC]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Just wait a second... is knetworkmanager integrated with solid now?

I do not get your question. Monolithic KnetworkManager and Plasma NM for KDE SC 4.x have always used Solid's API.

During NM-0.8 to NM-0.9 transition we implemented the Solid NM-0.9 backend in Plasma NM's repository instead of Solid's repository because Solid's repository is considered API stable.

Some time later I added this neworkmanager_fake-0.9 to Solid's repository because without it Solid's network API is broken when using NetworkManager 0.9, even with Plasma NM 0.9.x installed. That is because the NM-0.9 backend in Plasma NM is binary incompatible with Solid's interface used by KDE SC. That is why I asked to not mask networkmanager use flag in solid ebuild.