Purpose of hidden nm-applet?

[Jean-Philippe Ouellet]

Currently, nm-applet is always started, and hidden by
show-hide-nm-applet if NetworkManager is not enabled (well really...
if the qubes network-manager service is enabled). This seems like an
odd choice vs. not starting it at all.

What is the purpose of this?

Does nm-applet provide some functionality even without NetworkManager running?

It appears that en/disabling qubes-services (such as network-manager
(triggering NetworkManager)) always requires rebooting... was this
planned to not be the case?

[Andrew David Wong]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

IIUC, not starting it at all isn't easy. See this message from Marek:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/DMqWMAi8EP0/9gldaCJZQgAJ

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJYJCvQAAoJENtN07w5UDAwCzcQAJttjFbkvn8/TB9uJHY1A3VB
wBa/jV6xqnhWBpsU+4WGl1rCaRjCPZLrRZdNodoJQDIdEUskBqbm4Mt2HGFCT0Ot
952fn+vQ/zyVlb9HXaFBejxIcfHkJ6XRhHpfjOqjZ9FH++XnxTS00Yytz3Rw7eRB
Dsxg7HSDrQ6u9bA5iGtWYmy4OwDx8YZlJm6TRBsO+XR3w7EAfvvfc/mQTvL4ujZ2
KWFqe4yOD0AA3zickIbmC/0VdzE0D2Qr+8oC0Hz9Vh2lLuiVy89gZAmKEkwPmdRM
5dZhRYWK0y27XcXteFbcK5QYoKq3N9vVNo9pIh0pIpWPF28bjM0YH0N26O12eBrj
aYuwXyNWhanx70/w7UcCsrX0C7KeByyo5vAKV7i2rZZ75AiBbum2KKQdcaGMFgw6
jh/NvRs/kt5IK0NQFI3H6erU8OxE3Tc0bRroxg7I70ACL8lfFNz2ZVmy5FkEoyS5
brRBDijbt8lWOzrT/TaiT3foCU7s7ZmIV+m60jZIPF7Q5JxdrQW7B6FBLmjIs+kt
b1UYoBoV8DxGWmITe3zUDo24Wn2BLQ7jetwEPFARflgctp/N+1AkP5+JHNxy8qli
4sueOuC+TDK3Y9sBZ0fLl/N0YACIoGB2ynnBuyCr7+v1zaIHwexbAUys+Ytlpqkq
9BdCateqd1mz2XE6Dc8P
=JxJS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 12:12:02AM -0800, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> On 2016-11-09 23:35, Jean-Philippe Ouellet wrote:
> > Currently, nm-applet is always started, and hidden by
> > show-hide-nm-applet if NetworkManager is not enabled (well really...
> > if the qubes network-manager service is enabled). This seems like an
> > odd choice vs. not starting it at all.
> >
> > What is the purpose of this?
> >
> > Does nm-applet provide some functionality even without NetworkManager running?
> >
>

> IIUC, not starting it at all isn't easy. See this message from Marek:
>
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/DMqWMAi8EP0/9gldaCJZQgAJ

Yes, exactly. This is related to upstream choice:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/network-manager-applet/commit?id=276a702000ee9e509321891f5ffa9789acfb053c

And not starting it depending on NetworkManager running or not would
require (scripted) modification of /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop
at every startup, which is fragile. For example will break if upstream
decide to rename the file (which happened in the past), substantially
change its content etc.

> > It appears that en/disabling qubes-services (such as network-manager
> > (triggering NetworkManager)) always requires rebooting... was this
> > planned to not be the case?

It isn't on the roadmap anywhere soon. But as usual - we can add it, if
someone would implement it :)

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2

iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJYJFdgAAoJENuP0xzK19cs3d8H/iVu6rVodmJ2XkeRFI/k8WnO
T2bX5+857FvfL44uI+q6/kGWm2JE9SQHghrx0z6htCr3XUFrDdlhPCWoB//S7mI8
SB+DHuYRFhGThjtQPQ6vIXlNA2eXKemb453U5noWCsQJYoojjYUPTAp7j9HSmBZ3
BUlFE7VdikC32p0cXZ4VoI07TnZ8MTzEkjFKqZtP3yRddrwC4zaq5BcZgb+odN6y
uuGBh6vV7iQr+uMUjB3QH0MG3D0HZ2M8VP8t7AREnt5mfxi+AL2gSf05szvYsc53
LxTkzY7ao+cejtWxhdUMVzdoX2kNT18ZByqxTlgJahbNHlkm0wQeMrQFu2jO7xs=
=LevA
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----