NetworkManager in Ubuntu sucks!

I recently switched by ubuntu 8.10 server/desktop to using the NetworkManger applet that comes as part of ubuntu. By default it was sat that; but wouldn’t let me change or adjust any of my network settings.

I discovered that in order to make it work I needed to modify the /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf.

david@george:~$ sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

Then change the managed=false line to managed=true

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false

However, once I did this every time that I booted the machine it always come up using DHCP, and not using the static IP address that I had originally set. I discovered that I could always manually change the interface using the NetworkManager to use the static IP opposed to dynamic; but that was a manual task and not great for a machine that is supposed to be acting as a server.

I also noticed that the NFS Server failed to load at boot as well whilst I was using the NetworkManager.

So – today I decided to go back to manual network configuration as it seemed more stable than using the GUI! But that was not as straight forward as I hoped.

Firstly, I reverted back the line in /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf to say false. Secondly I quickly sorted out my /etc/networks/interfaces file so that it was correct.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.3.3
        network 192.168.3.0
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        broadcast 192.168.3.255
        gateway 192.168.3.1

auto br0
  iface br0 inet static
  address 192.168.3.3
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  network 192.168.3.0
  broadcast 192.168.3.255
  gateway 192.168.3.1
  bridge_ports eth0 vbox0 vbox1

Note: I use VirtualBox for virtualisation; hence the need to the Bridge and the vbox references.

All seemed fine – IP traffic was all looking fine; but then I discovered that DNS lookups were not working. After a bit of routing around I noticed that NetworkManager also overwrites the /etc/resolv.conf file – and in my case that was pointing to a invalid entry. So I revert back my /etc/resolv.conf to something more sensible.

nameserver 192.168.3.1

Everything seems to be working again – no more NFS failures on bootup, and all network interface seem present and stable!

    banner ad
    1. Joseph Kerr says:

      UBUNTU SUCKS, can’t get any sound, played with the files nonstop over the past three weeks, dead ends, THROW UBUNTU IN THE TRASH, Windows is expensive, but well worth the money, considering the lack of having to jack around with the settings to have a comfortable experience… If you are a computer whiz, or very intelligent with programs, go ahead and indulge yourself with this useless interface, serves well for hacking, nothing more, a secondary interface at most

      • Ubuntu is a great OS – providing that you have some time to play with it, and you have Google to hand to search out the answers to any issues. Window is expensive, cumbersome, bloated and inefficient – but yes does to run more smoothly out of the box. If only my Windows box did half of the things I could do on my ubuntu boxes with the same ease!

      • Caue Rego says:

        You better off trashing away your machine and getting one that’s compatible with either ubuntu or Mac OS X.

      • Michael says:

        Dude, you need to save that windows money and get yourself some real hardware. Also, it doesn’t require to be “intelligent” to be useful. If you feel stupid, don’t blame the os, blame your inability to use google to find answers.

    2. Anonymous says:

      I bet anything that can be done with Linux can be done with Windows, although Windows isn’t as good at running servers.

      Windows is bloated? Get nlite and make your own lite version of Windows installation disk.

      Windows is slow? Use classic mode and get rid of all the crap that eats up RAM.

      And there are many applications that can make Windows do all sorts of things, and you can even use unsigned desktop themes if you patch a certain file (forgot the name).

      It takes a split second to open my programs list, or to open up the my computer menu. It really comes down to the experience of the user and what’s on the computer, as well as hardware, including RAM, CPU, and free HD space.

    3. vpn solution says:

      Just about anything you want to do with a Linksys Router can be found on their web site. Under the support section you can enter the model and get a lot of information and how to’s. There is a FAQ section as well as live chat support and telephone support at no charge.

    line
    footer
    Copyright © 2009 David Baldaro | Powered by Wordpress | Theme designed by Elegant Themes
    The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer.