Re: OT(?) -- Should the net.agent script cause "ifup lo" to be run?

[Miles Lane <miles@megapathdsl.net>]

Bill Nottingham wrote:

> David Brownell (david-b@pacbell.net) said: 
> 
>>> It would be nice to be able to determine whether an interface
>>> is created because someone manually loaded the module or whether
>>> kmod loaded it, but I'm not sure how that would be instrumented.
>> 
>> One thing I'm saying is that such things shouldn't matter.
>> Intent shouldn't be asked; reliable program systems
>> rarely have "if (CameFrom (...)) ..." logic.
> 
> 
> Maybe. I'd prefer something more flexible. Because, all hotplug issues
> aside, the assumption that you automatically want to bring up an
> interface immediately on loading any module is one that's never been
> made before, and one that I personally find irritating. (Then again,
> I can just disable hotplug entirely, but I'd prefer to have it for
> other things.)

A net.opts text file could be used to flag which devices to
ignore in the hotplug process.  Wouldn't this be trivial to 
implement?

>>>> In the 2.5
>>>> kernels it might be good to make all network interfaces
>>>> fit into a common initialization model.
>>> 
>>> I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding how PPP works; for
>> 
>> I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying.  But since
>> network interface operation can't change for 2.4, and I
>> think that's what you're focussed on, I won't try to clarify.
> 
> 
> Please clarify. What I'm saying is that PPP is so fundamentally different
> that you *can't* fit it into the ethernet model, even in a 2.5 framework,
> unless you're willing to redesign the whole kernel/pppd/dialer interaction,
> which would be a lot of code and would probably meet with a lot of
> resistance.

Agreed.  In my usage of PCMCIA modems, I have only wanted to 
be connected when I am active on the internet.  I never did
get diald to work, probably because I just didn't take the
effort required.  I do wish that demand-dialing were more 
straightforward to set up.  

What I *would* like to see is support for noticing when a 
new type of modem is inserted and some sort of interactive
configuration system popping up under XFree86.  I suppose
there could be a text-mode version that could launch during
the boot process if a new device is present at boot time.
Then the device could get configured before XFree86 launches.

This is pretty much how I'd like all new system devices
get set up that require sysadmin/user configuration (network
devices, printers, etc).  

This is meant to address, in part, your earlier comments 
regarding the need to a different method of determining 
which network interfaces are assigned to network devices 
at boot time, instead of just relying of PCI bus slot 
location.

This could apply to USB network devices as well.  Basically,
the notion is to map an interface and configuration based
on a flexible set of device characteristics (USB topology
location, device type or the order of a port on a multiport
device).

I know I am probably bungling this feature description,
but hopefully you'll get the gist of the idea.

	Miles


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