network manager management interface unclear

[xtknight]

Binary package hint: network-manager

When you configure network manager by right clicking on the system tray icon and selecting Edit Connections, the interface that appears is unclear and a little ambiguous.

On the physical side of things, I have one wireless interface and two wired interfaces.

In the Wired tab interface I see, "Auto Ethernet", "Auto eth0", and "Auto eth1". Somehow I have the ability to add and delete an interface without ever putting it or taking out a PCI card. It's a little confusing what "adding" and "deleting" actually means.

I think what it's trying to do is have multiple profiles for one interface. Can this be clarified by specifying which physical Ethernet adapter is being edited? There is a disconnect between the physical cards in the system and this interface.

The VPN tab is completely disabled and grayed out by default. I think another package needs to be installed to activate it. Maybe that should be specified in this tab.

There's probably some documentation of network manager on the web. I feel like there should be an easily accessible Help button on the program though for those of us who don't want to go scavenger hunting. In the Edit interface I don't know what "link local only" or "shared to other computers" really mean or how to use them properly.

What does "connect automatically" mean exactly? Does that mean it configures the interface on startup, or whenever the interface is plugged in? How come I can add multiple static addresses for one logical interface in "Manual" mode? Which physical interface is it configuring?

These are just some suggestions on how to make the program and configuration applet more usable for everyone from beginners to power users.

[xtknight (xt-knight)]

Related to Bug 303426 and the frustrations mentioned there.

[komputes (komputes)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#When%20not%20to%20file%20a%20bug.

[komputes (komputes)]

These are actually questions and not a bug. Converted to question.

The naming convention of "Audo eth0" is being discussed in Bug #386900