Wi-Fi settings are missing a "Connect Automatically" option

[flohack]

A lot of people are complaining about how the Wi-Fi connections are prioritized at the moment. It would be helpful if at least there is an option to set automatic or manual connection for each entry in the Wi-Fi setup. See also this length bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/network-manager-applet/+bug/366780

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jonas G. Drange (jonas-drange)]

I agree, and this is possible. Thanks for reporting this bug.

[Pat McGowan (pat-mcgowan)]

needed for desktop parity as well

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

It wouldn’t be surprising if people are complaining about how Wi-Fi connections are prioritized, because prioritization isn’t implemented at all yet (bug 1538972). But I don’t see how an automatic/manual connection setting would practically help. For example, if you had two commonly-used networks, A and B, and you preferred B, setting A to manual would mean your device wouldn’t connect to A automatically even when it was the only network available. Which would be annoying.

Now, I don’t understand why nm-connection-editor has an “Automatically connect to this network when it is available” setting at all, so it’s possible that I’m missing something. Why does it exist?

[Anupam (anupam207)]

Kinda unrelated, but a fix for bug #1445772 will be very useful for at least some of us.

[flohack (flori-bin)]

Matthew,

the reason is as follows: We got a cable provider in town which offers to all subscribers free WiFi also on other people´s APs. That means I can go online when I need it and no other option is available. However, I don´t want to connect automatically to their WiFi as it is slower and the quality is not so good compared to my work or home WiFi.

Then I set the provider´s WiFi to manually, giving me control over when to connect. Other networks that don´t overlap on the same place can stay in Auto all the time, of course.

So while I still see that giving priorities is maybe a major task, and also not easy to be handled on a daily basis, this simple option could already help a lot of people. Plus you got this in Linux Desktop and also in Windows out of the box.