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anyone likes that better) than just NetworkManager.
anyone likes that better) than just NetworkManager.


=== NetworkManager ===
=== Linux networking ===


When working on NetworkManager, the following projects cause me headache:
When working with linux networking, the following projects cause me headache:


* NetworkManager itself: I need to test NM in a virtual environment with bridges. These are not supported in the current release. I hope to make the next release mature enough to support its own development.
* NetworkManager itself: I need to test NM in a virtual environment with bridges. These are not supported in the current release. I hope to make the next release mature enough to support its own development.
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* IETF networking standards: For some reasons many IPv6-related standards have serious design flaws that prevent them from working properly.
* IETF networking standards: For some reasons many IPv6-related standards have serious design flaws that prevent them from working properly.


I'm currently maintaining a patchset in a  separate NetworkManager branch called 'pavlix/next'. It has a lot of improvements over the
I'm currently working on the following (may be outdated):
current release of NetworkManager but also over the 'master' branch. The reason for keeping a separate branch is that
I need to do a lot of interdependent stuff to fullfil a big picture of how things should work. Many changes I'm making
are quite big.


I am often rebasing this branch and rewriting its history. It is not currently possible to merge it into 'master' and it is not possible
* [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=683173 New platform interaction framework]
to continuously marge your local changes without a considerable amount of 'rebase' magic.
* NetworkManager upstream QA, bug triaging (component general) and bits of documentation
 
* Virtual device support (bridging, bonding, etc)
The current patchset includes the following changes:
* Fixes and improvements for getaddrinfo() in glibc
 
* Configuration formats
* Add a '''new subsystem for kernel network configuration''' (bgo #683173)
* [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=663602 Building NetworkManager on any distribution without unnecessary hassle]
* Remove distribution-specific initscripts
* IPv4 and IPv6 automatic configuration improvements (NDP and DHCP)
* '''Build on any linux distribution''' without special options (bgo #663602)
* Various NetworkManager fixups and cleanups (like anyone else in the team)
* Remove unnecessary '--with-distro' values (some distributors may need to remove it from their package builds)
* Various linux networking improvements
* Move NM-specific DHCP leases to /var/lib/NetworkManager (may need selinux policy changes)
* Add support for IPv4 dhclient.conf overrides in /etc/NetworkManager
* Don't ask 'nscd' to reload configuration (it uses inotify to watch it)
* Add support for '''bridges''' with manual and automatic IPv4/IPv6 configuration (bgo #546197)
* Fix support for '''bonds''' with manual and automatic IPv4/IPv6 configuration (bgo #540995)
* Read IPv4 addresses also in CIDR format in keyfile
 
Other stuff:
 
* I'm trying to keep NetworkManager bugzilla (at least the 'general' component) in a good state
* I fixed various IPv6-related so that IPv6 autoconfigures in all common scenarios


=== Contact ===
=== Contact ===

Revision as of 17:22, 9 January 2013

Please look at the Networking wiki page. It links to many other interesting wiki pages about linux networking. I moved most of the text from my user page there. Any help appreciated.

About me

From my Linux beginnings, I was attracted by the networking world. I kept experimenting, then started freelancing for companies and ISPs providing consultancy, training, network configuration, programming and other services. I started writing articles and talking at conferences about network-related topics. I was keeping more and more bug reports in various projects including Fedora. After a recent conference talk I was hired by Red Hat and finally started fixing those bugs and working on NetworkManager and other networking-related projects.

I have been using Fedora for some time. My primary interest is computer networking and I didn't like many things in linux networking and particularly in NetworkManager. I've been talking about it and watching and filing bug reports for too long. When I recieved an offer to work regularly on NetworkManager, it was natural to accept.

At the time I joined NetworkManager development, I already had a history of articles, talks and trainings on IPv6 so I started fixing IPv6 automatic configuration. In NetworkManager 0.9.6 it connects to any standard IPv6 networks.

I didn't particularly like how NetworkManager works so after learning a bit about it, I started working on some larger-scale changes in a separate branch called 'pavlix/next' that is described below. All of the modifications are made with the goal of making NetworkManager more robust, testable, debuggable and useful for all sorts of use cases including server, virtualization and desktop.

During my work on NetworkManager, I see more and more problems with other network-related tools including kernel, glibc, avahi, nss-mdns but also with the IETF standards. We have many more things to be fixed (or replaced, if anyone likes that better) than just NetworkManager.

Linux networking

When working with linux networking, the following projects cause me headache:

  • NetworkManager itself: I need to test NM in a virtual environment with bridges. These are not supported in the current release. I hope to make the next release mature enough to support its own development.
  • Kernel: The kernel IPv6 networking layer is somewhat unmanagable. The rtnetlink interface doesn't provide enough funcionality to support IPv6 networking.
  • GLIBC: The getaddrinfo() function doesn't work properly and is not supported in nsswitch.conf. It breaks whenever my development machine happens to be on an IPv4-only network.
  • nss-mdns (Avahi nsswitch plugin): Can't implement link-local name resolution because of the above problem in GLIBC.
  • IETF networking standards: For some reasons many IPv6-related standards have serious design flaws that prevent them from working properly.

I'm currently working on the following (may be outdated):

Contact

Mail: psimerda AT redhat DOT com, pavlix AT pavlix DOT net

Jabber: pavlix AT pavlix DOT net

IRC Freenode: pavlix (#nm and a couple of other channels)

Phone: +420 775 996 256