OpenSolaris

Flag Day for NWAM Phase 0.5 (picea)

Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:36:55 -0400
From: James Carlson <james.d.carlson at sun dot com>
To: onnv-gate at onnv dot sfbay dot sun dot com, on-all at sfbay dot sun dot com
Subject: Flag Day for NWAM Phase 0.5 (picea)

The integration of:

  PSARC 2008/482 NWAM Phase 0.5 (picea)
  6648862 nwam is annoying when no network is available
  6642066 NWAM Phase 0 needs better observability
  6604418 weak interfaces turn nwam into a bouncing dog that misses its master
  6745880 starting or restarting nwam always costs a link reinit

represents a flag-day for all those using NWAM.  To check if you are
using NWAM, run this command:

  % svcs svc:/network/physical:nwam

It will report state "enabled" if you are using it.  If not, then
please disregard the rest of this message.

The integration described above removes the zenity-based user
interface from NWAM.  As a result, you will no longer get those
in-your-face pop-up dialog boxes when conditions change on your
network.

The new user interface is a GNOME-compatible applet called "NWAM
Manager."  This was delivered with Nevada build 99 via JDS/GNOME.  If
you have an older version of the GNOME packages, you should consider
upgrading before BFU-ing to ON bits containing the integration above.
However, if you can't upgrade, you can instead install replacement GUI
packages available on the Picea project web site:

  http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam/picea/

If you fail to do this, no harm comes to your system.  Nwamd reverts
to "automatic" mode when the GUI is not present (either because it's
not installed or because the authorized user just isn't logged in),
and will connect interfaces based on priority and the "known
networks," just as it has done in the past.  You simply won't have
control over this behavior (other than to disable the nwam service
and/or modify the documented /etc/nwam/ files).

The new daemon also includes some minor new features, including
support for hot-plug interfaces.

As the "Phase 0.5" name suggests, this project is a stop-gap measure
intended to help alleviate some of the known NWAM problems before the
full Phase 1 project arrives.  It doesn't and isn't expected to fix
every problem, but if you run into insurmountable problems with it,
please let the project team know via nwam-discuss at opensolaris dot org, or
by filing a bug in solaris/network/config (for the nwamd portion of
the feature) or in jds/gnome/sysadmin (for the GUI).

There is also a new troubleshooting page that explains how to get
debugging information:

  http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam/picea/troubleshooting/

~--
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun dot com>
Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive        71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677