FS#71289 - Networkmanager is neither part of the gnome nor gnome-extra package group

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Vampir achtneunacht (Vamp898) - Friday, 18 June 2021, 16:53 GMT
Last edited by Balló György (City-busz) - Tuesday, 06 June 2023, 16:57 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig)
Architecture All
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 1
Private No

Details

Description:
Even though NetworkManager is part of the GNOME Project and GNOME complains if it is not installed, it is not part of the GNOME group

I uninstalled KDE (which deleted NetworkManager) and installed GNOME (which did not install NetworkManager) and i ended up with a system without any Wifi connectivity and no LAN access

As the integration of NetworkManager is basic functionality of the GNOME Shell, it should be part of the GNOME group. Even jhbuild contains NetworkManager as part of the GNOME set.

KDEs plasma-meta also does install NM and every other distro does it too. I would say it is the expected behavior from a package manager that if you install a gnome group or meta package (or at least gnome-extra), that NetworkManager gets installed.

Steps to reproduce:
pacman -S gnome
This task depends upon

Closed by  Balló György (City-busz)
Tuesday, 06 June 2023, 16:57 GMT
Reason for closing:  Not a bug
Additional comments about closing:  It's a system service, optional dependency for gnome-control-center
Comment by Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) - Sunday, 20 June 2021, 19:25 GMT
This was changed because of  FS#71153 
Comment by Hayley Hughes (hugglesfox) - Tuesday, 22 June 2021, 07:08 GMT
I agree that when one installs gnome they should expect networkmanager to be installed. Or at the very least there should be a warning on the gnome wiki page so that users know that they need to install networkmanager so they aren't left without a way to connect to the internet.
Comment by Vampir achtneunacht (Vamp898) - Friday, 09 July 2021, 07:21 GMT
According to the GNOME Release Engineering Team, libnma is a Core Component of GNOME

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/releng/-/blob/master/tools/versions-stable

And NetworkManager is listed as an dependency of libnma

If the GNOME Release Engineering Team says, its an essential Core Component of the Desktop, can we please just add it again. Im really sorry for the guy who deleted GNOME and ended up without NetworkManager due to not checking the output of pacman but i think breaking an Desktop Environment due to wrong usage of pacman from one single guy is not an solution.
Comment by Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) - Friday, 09 July 2021, 08:47 GMT
I'm also thinking of adding it as a dep to gnome-shell and/or gnome-control-center.
Comment by mattia (nTia89) - Friday, 25 February 2022, 16:19 GMT
+1
I think `networkmanager` should be part of the `gnome` group.

At the same time, I think `networkmanager` should not be a dependency of any gnome package because:
1) there is a multitude of alternatives
2) one of the advantage of Arch is its flexibility, that is the ability to install or not a package and a person could also not install any network manager software

e.g. a desktop with an Ethernet connection does not need networkmanager
Comment by Balló György (City-busz) - Friday, 31 March 2023, 20:47 GMT
I don't think it should be part of the 'gnome' group. NetworkManager is a core system service that need to be explicitely enabled by the user.

My opinion is to add it as an optional dependency for gnome-shell and gnome-control-center.

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