[Mageia-dev] Drakxnet, drakroam and Draknetcenter : let's fix it or throw it.

Mon Aug 1 21:04:33 CEST 2011

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Maarten Vanraes
+<maarten.vanraes at gmail.com> wrote:
+> Op maandag 01 augustus 2011 11:42:26 schreef Thomas Lottmann:
+>> Hello,
+>>
+>> I should have written this mail much sooner, but finally, I am totally,
+>> completely and starting to be hatefully fed up of these tools.
+>>
+>> The Mandriva/Mageia tools that manage the network on computers,
+>> especially the wireless networks are completely dysfunctional. While the
+>> Network Center does not seem to even communicate with the system tools
+>> to know what is happening during the link setup, it does not
+>> auto-refresh network lists properly.
+>>
+>> Since 2010.1 now even mixes up itself in it's own network scripts (the
+>> ones stored in wireless.d). This maxes it wrongly detect numerous
+>> wireless points (he seen WPA2 Enterperise hotspots as opened or WEP, or
+>> more nerving, becomes incapable or storing the right authentication
+>> information). A tool that breaks itself is a complete shame!
+>>
+>> The GUI is also appalling. Despite it's numerous possibilities, it is a
+>> mess and 60% of it cannot be used by something else than the system or a
+>> network expert.
+>>
+>> The code itself is undocumented and it extremely difficult to read.
+>>
+>> These tools are getting really bad and not working properly anyway since
+>> a long time now. So either we fix it and improve it (recoding?), either
+>> we definitely switch to Network Manager. I am ready to participate if
+>> necessary (despite my lack of competence), but I do not want to see
+>> these tools 'as is' on my computer anymore, and no longer want to see
+>> these issues that down Mageia's reputation in comparison to other
+>> popular projects here such as Arch, Fedora or Ubuntu, who do have proper
+>> tools delivered by default.
+>>
+>> This is not the first time I complain about this tool. We should not
+>> leave this unchanged. It is far too annoying and pushing to so much loss
+>> of time.
+>>
+>> Yours sincerely,.
+>>
+>> Thomas.
+>
+>
+> personally, alot of problems could likely be attributed to using all those
+> several of those apps together.
+>
+> imho, the network tools should be redesigned a bit, according to good
+> usability, but mostly, either they should all be nicely integrated which each
+> other, or we should just have one that does all nicely.
+>
+> personally, i find the netapplet the best working and use that exclusively to
+> avoid issues.
+>
+> but sadly, even netapplet is far from complete.
+>
+> as some kind of start, we should have an app that exists in drakconf, but also
+> accessible via an applet, but again, perhaps we should have multiple applets,
+> with one for each connection.
+>
+> eg: a wifi access link, 2 network connections (one of which goes to internet),
+> and 3 openvpn tunnels (as an example) it would even be better, if bluetooth
+> networking could also be included. (this would also allow for multiple
+> internet connections at a later time with some advanced routing)
+>
+> at the same time, people could tell at a glance if they accidentally use more
+> than one internet access method.
+>
+> about openvpn, some of those are user-related (even though they have effects on
+> global routing), especially password related things, personally, i think it'd
+> be better if these can only be controlled through the applet by the user it's
+> from (with perhaps an option to allow any user to control this too)
+>
+> again with openvpn, it would be usefull if there was some kind of way to know
+> it's not only running, but also if it's essentially active or not, and if it's
+> used as a internet gateway.
+>
+> These are some things which i have noticed over the years of using it and
+> listening to end-user problems.
+>
+>
+> perhaps the above can be used as a starting point for a usability scheme.
+>
+> Thomas, since you feel this strongly, are you willing to spend some time on
+> this?
+>
+
+AFAIK this is not on mageia 2 specs, maybe you should not ask ppl if
+they have time to work on things not on specs, and try to focus on
+specs.
+We have a lot to do already don't you think ?
+
+Maybe it could be nice to improve net_applet instead of doing "yet an
+other software for network".
+I used some other distro for years and now i use mageia. Honnestly i
+miss nothing ( from a normal user POV )
+