Desktop-side networking enhancements

Registered by Jason Warner

The next release will most likely bring in the new version of NetworkManager (0.9 now) with all kinds of fun stuff, like WiMAX and me porting the indicator patch to any changes that may have been made to nm-applet for 0.9, unless it makes it upstream before then.

- NM integration with firewall configuration
- NM integration with proxy configuration
- Changing defaults for connection names/notifications/identification of devices
   - See http://blog.cyphermox.net/2011/03/idea-27250-auto-eth0-isnt-very-user.html

I'd also like to turn on IPv6 in NM by default; with the obvious limitation that it won't block interfaces from coming up if there is no IPv6 available.

Blueprint information

Status:
Complete
Approver:
Martin Pitt
Priority:
Medium
Drafter:
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre
Direction:
Approved
Assignee:
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre
Definition:
Approved
Series goal:
Accepted for oneiric
Implementation:
Implemented
Milestone target:
milestone icon ubuntu-11.10-beta-1
Started by
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre
Completed by
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

2011-0523, alexmv-bestpractical:
A strongly-related feature that I'd love to see is integrating a "default VPN" into the per-SSID configuration, to allow for the "use the VPN when you're on sketchy cafe wifi" use case.

2011-05-20, gekker:
Is there a bug to track ufw profile editing integration in NM? I'd like to link it here as well as to https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-o-qin-ubuntu-china which has a dependency on this feature.
2011-05-18, mathieu-tl:
May want to look into additional new VPN plugins: -openswan and -sstp which will need packaging.
2011-05-08, erik-b-andersen:
- Maybe you want to look at supporting IPv6 tunnels like teredo and Protocol 41 (IPv6 directly in IPv4) tunnels?
- It would be nice to have bug 284596 fixed. I think this is already part of NM 0.9?

pitti, 2011-05-25:
- the current WIs suggest that we want to move to indicator-network, and drop nm-applet. Is that correct?
- the wiki spec talks about automatically configuring the proxy/firewall for a particular wifi/eth network, but the proposed dialogs don't show the current network, or point out that the settings are network-specific? right now they look like global settings. What's the intended behaviour here?
- can we clean up the UDS session notes from the whiteboard, or do you still need them? if there's still something useful there, can you please copy them into the wiki?

mathieu-tl, 2011-05-27:
- current WIs suggest we *might* move to indicator-network, provided it's in a good enough state to speak to NM and match nm-applet's features. I'll bring up the discussion around alpha2, I've adjusted the workitems to show that.
- it's indeed per connection. Knowing how individual connections are configured, the mockups should be looked at as additional tabs in the connection configuration dialog (à-la nm-applet) alonside IPv4, IPv6.

jdstrand, 2011-07-18:
- per conversations with mathieu-tl, ufw/network-manager integration won't land in Oneiric. Adjust my work item accordingly

mathieu-tl, 2011-07-19:
- turns out defaulting to ipv6 automatic/optional was done with the upload of 0.9 (so early in the release) but there are still some issues to iron out with delays establishing connections (which is in progress).

tore anderson, 2011-07-21:
- Mathieu, are you sure about the former comment? In my testing of Oneiric Alpha-2 IPv6 was *NOT* set to Automatic by default and it was unable to connect to my IPv6 network with its default settings (see bug #761558).

mathieu-tl, 2011-07-21:
- defaulting to Automatic is set to done because all the work necessary for it is, well, done. There is a patch for nm-applet and one for NM itself that have just been committed upstream (see bug 761558, which will be closed when these fixes will be uploaded), everything else should already have been working. What's left is just testing and tweak for some other things such as delays in establishing IPv4 and IPv6 in dual-stack, or just ipv4 when ipv6 is automatic but totally unavailable in a network.

jdstrand, 2011-08-16:
- preliminary work on a 'ufw-proxy' command for command streaming support can be found in https://code.launchpad.net/~jdstrand/ufw/ufw-proxy. This has not been merged into trunk yet, but will be in ufw 0.31 (not for Oneiric).

Work items:
[mathieu-tl] prepare and upload packages for NetworkManager 0.9: DONE
[mathieu-tl] switch connection defaults to "Automatic" IPv6, though optional: DONE
[mathieu-tl] port indicator-network to understand/speak to NM: POSTPONE
[mathieu-tl] implement proxy support in indicator-network/nm-applet: POSTPONE
[mathieu-tl] implement firewall support in indicator-network/nm-applet: POSTPONE

Work items for oneiric-alpha-3:
[mpt] Review and approve mockups for UI designs for proxy/firewall in indicator-network: DONE
[mathieu-tl] UI design / whether it makes sense to have fewer profiles and one to many relationships, or one to one and a profile per connection: DONE

Design: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Networking#Firewall

'P' work items:
[jdstrand] add command streaming support to ufw: INPROGRESS
[mathieu-tl] bring up discussion / review of indicator-network features/functionality with NM, choose whether it's suitable for Oneiric: TODO

(?)

Work Items