MOTU/Package issue: network-manager & nm-applet don't depend on dhcp3-client

[Tundro Walker]

Using Ubuntu Karmic 9.10
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This isn't a bug, per say, more of a usability / pro-active-prevention measure to keep noobs from shooting themselves in the foot.

Basically, I was able to uninstall dhcp3-client & dhcp3-common packages in Synaptic while still using wpasupplicant, nm-applet & network-manager. I understand that Ubuntu gives you the freedom to switch to a different dhcp client app if you wish. But by letting me uninstall those 2 packages, my comp was no longer able to negotiate dhcp leases from my home network, and the network-manager could no longer hook to my home network and get me on the net.

I tried using the Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic cd as a repo to install them, but it couldn't find dhcp3-* on it, so no luck there. I finally went to another comp of mine, and used it to dig up those 2 packages as .deb files from ubuntu's online repo. I sneaker-net'ed them over to my other box on a usb stick, installed them, and all was well.

I think network-manager, nm-applet, and/or wpa-supplicant should have a dependency to dhcp3-client in order to prevent folks from uninstalling it by accident then later wondering why their network-manager is not connecting to their network when they reboot.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Jan 6 20:55:46 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: dhcp3-client 3.1.2-1ubuntu7
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
SourcePackage: dhcp3
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic i686

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Confirming for now; it is indeed not currently a dependency of network-manager. This will require some discussion however to see if we should add it. On the other hand, it's already a dependency of ubuntu-minimal, so it's a bad idea to remove it and should already be a big warning sign :)

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Mathieu, you should not assign to yourself unless you are preparing code to fix a ticket.

The dependency is set in ubuntu-minimal (where it should be). Removing that package results in an unsupported system. Closing bug as invalid, this works as designed.