NetworkManager heads-up

[John G Heim]

I rue the day I switched the desktops I manage to Ubuntu. I even 
suggested recently in an IT staff meeting that we switch back to debian. 
Didn't fly. The end users might like Ubuntu but it's a sysadmin nightmare.

Anyway, I like configuring my FAI system to look as much like a regular 
install as possible. In a normal Ubuntu install, NetworkManager manages 
the wired ethernet controller. But for years I have been struggling to 
get NetworkManager to work after a FAI install.  It simply would not 
manage the primary network interface on a workstation after an fai 
install. Turns out it's this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1658921

There is a file, 
/usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf, that 
disables management of wired ethernet controllers in NetworkManager. To 
get it to work, you can just delete that file. But Ubuntu handles it by 
createing a file, /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml, that 
re-enables it. So to get it to work in an FAI install, you can 
configure FAI to either delete the file that disables NetworkManager or 
install the file that re-enables it.

You also have to modify the stamdard FAI script, 30-interface, to *not* 
configure the primary interface for ifupdown.

-- 
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John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org