NetworkManager Applet should not be started on LTSP Thin Clients

[Jim Kronebusch]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

Set up network bonding as shown in this howto:
http://www.howtoforge.com/network_bonding_ubuntu_6.10
This is a howto for an older Ubuntu version but is relevant to 7.04.
Since any interfaces bonded with ifenslave to the master bonded interface do not get an actual IP, the NetworkManager Applet shows up in the Notification Panel with an icon signifying that it is trying to obtain an IP address. This icon is presented to non-priveleged users which is a very bad thing. This allow non-priveleged users the ability to right click the icon and disable networking. In my case I am running edubuntu 7.04 with ltsp 5. This means any user logged into my server can turn off networking and disable all 110 of my clients from connecting thus bringing down my entire school network.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jul 3 11:05:29 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-panel
Package: gnome-panel 1:2.18.1-0ubuntu3.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcCmdline: gnome-panel --sm-client-id default1
ProcCwd: /home/testing
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-panel
Uname: Linux ltsp 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Thu Jun 7 19:00:28 UTC 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Kees Cook (kees)]

Thanks for your report! Other users should not have the ability to change interfaces unless they are members of the "admin" group. I'm marking this public so that other developers will be able to work on it.

[Jim Kronebusch (jim-winonacotter)]

Thanks for your attention to this. For now I have removed the applet in question and disabled use of the applet to all users with pessulus.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

network manager is a desktop user application targetted to allow every desktop user to change networks etc. I would advice you to just uninstall it and use gnome network administration dialog to configure your network.

[Jim Kronebusch (jim-winonacotter)]

I have uninstalled it for my situation. However in the case of Edubuntu, this is a bug. As the default installation is intended to distribute the desktop to multiple users via LTSP. By default no user should in an Edubuntu setup should be able to change network settings in any instance as this will break the server and its connection to clients/network.

A simple fix to the bug could be to not install NetworkManager by default in Edubuntu.

[Jim Kronebusch (jim-winonacotter)]

Did I just read the status on this right...."won't fix"...that is a very poor decision on the part of the Edubuntu team. I really hope this is reconsidered for the sake of future Edubuntu installations. You should never include an application by default that gives the end users the ability to break the entire system.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

oliver, please take a look if you can disable network manager for thin client installs ... please reassign this bug to the appropriate package as well.

[Jim Kronebusch (jim-winonacotter)]

Thanks for reconsidering Alexander. I'm sure Oliver will take good care of this issue.

The response to this makes me think that Edubuntu files bugs to the wrong channels. I used the default bug report system from Edubuntu and it posted the bug here under Ubuntu where this wouldn't be taken as a real problem. Is there an Edubuntu bug system this should go to by default?

Thanks again, Jim

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

nm-applet will need to respect the LTSP_CLIENT variable and not start if it finds it (i'm fine to write a patch).
i cant remove nm from edubuntu-desktop as we use that package in many other contexsts as well.

since nm ignores all interfaces in /etc/network/interfaces i'd just suggest to define stuff like bonding there (as we do for the ltsp dhcp interfcase from the installer already without any problems)

[Jim Kronebusch (jim-winonacotter)]

I'm don't quite understand what you mean by "since nm ignores all interfaces in /etc/network/interfaces i'd just suggest to define stuff like bonding there (as we do for the ltsp dhcp interfcase from the installer already without any problems)". I have bonding defined in /etc/network/interfaces. As I stated above I followed this tutorial http://www.howtoforge.com/network_bonding_ubuntu_6.10 for bonding setup. This was completely done without any type of GUI interface such as NetworkManager. For some reason once bonding is setup NM thinks there is no connectivity and pops the applet up for the user indicating it is trying to find a dhcp address, at which point the user can select it and make changes. I think this also indicates a bug in NM that it doesn't properly understand bonding which is why it indicates it is trying to get an IP when the system really isn't. It must only be written to understand interfaces named with the eth prefix and gets stupid with a bond prefix.

If I misunderstood your statement let me know.

Thanks,
Jim

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

what i meant was that you could use a dummy entry for the interface you dont want to be touched in the interfaces file, so nm wouldnt even want to touch it, sorry, i wasnt clear here.

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

the fix for zthe applet to not run on ltsp clients:
ogra@laptop:~/packages/network-manager-applet-0.6.5$ diff -ruN ../applet.c src/applet.c
--- ../applet.c 2007-09-07 17:22:37.000000000 +0200
+++ src/applet.c 2007-04-19 20:01:12.000000000 +0200
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@
        applet->animation_step = 0;
        glade_gnome_init ();

- if ((!nma_icons_init (applet)) || (g_getenv("LTSP_CLIENT")))
+ if (!nma_icons_init (applet))
                return;

 /* gtk_window_set_default_icon_from_file (ICONDIR"/NMApplet/wireless-applet.png", NULL); */

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

crap, sorry, that should have been ubuntu.not baltix

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

ogra, is the patch good?

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

reschedule for RC release. Would be great if you could test this patch.

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

yup, tested it here, no applet is started...

(you can test yourself with running it from a terminal like: LTSP_CLIENT=foobar nm-applet)
LTSP_CLIENT is always exported on thin clients

[Anthony Mercatante (tonio)]

Oliver, I'd like to know if knetworkmanager should also be considered patching ?

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

indeed, that would make sense, sorry for missing you guys ...

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

network-manager-applet (0.6.5-0ubuntu10) gutsy; urgency=low

  * debian/control: add missing depends on gksu to allow manual
    network-configuration even for minimal ubuntu flavours, like the UME.
  * debian/patches/13_custom-network-admin.diff: use BINDIR "/" MANUAL_CONF_FILE
    when its available on the system. (LP: #145625)
  * debian/rules: apply previously forgotten hunk to install network manager
    applet autostart file to /etc/xdg/autostart/ from LP: #95064.
  * debian/patches/14_lp123808_dont_start_applet_on_ltsp_client.patch: don't
    start nm-applet on ltsp client. (LP: #123808)

 -- Alexander Sack <email address hidden> Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:58:18 +0200

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

Confirmed in knetworkmanager according to the above comment. Low importance since it's not included in edubuntu.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Kubuntu better. The KDE3 version of KNetworkManager has been discontinued by its original authors. This unfortunately means that there will be no more bugfix releases, and updates in general will be limited to those fixing security flaws.

While we cannot fix your bug, the good news is that the applet has been totally rewritten for KDE4 in the upcoming Kubuntu 9.10 release. There is a good chance that this bug is no longer an issue with the new applet. If you find any similar or new issues with the applet included in Kubuntu 9.10, we would politely ask you to file them as new bugs against the "plasma-widget-networkmanagement" package.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.