[Kde-hardware-devel] Review Request: Adds ModemManager support to solid

[Lamarque Vieira Souza]

Em Segunda-feira 14 Junho 2010, Sebastian Kügler escreveu:
> On Monday 14 June 2010 15:57:36 Lamarque Vieira Souza wrote:
> > Em Segunda-feira 14 Junho 2010, Sebastian Kügler escreveu:
> > > On Sunday 13 June 2010 20:03:46 Lamarque Vieira Souza wrote:
> > > > http://reviewboard.kde.org/r/3769/
> > > > Review request for Network Management and KNetworkManager.
> > > > 
> > > > Completed implementation of ModemManager specification, still needs
> > > > (a lot of) testing. Changed the last enum to camel name and renamed
> > > > some files to match file name scheme.
> > > 
> > > Very nice :)
> > > 
> > > I don't like the fact that this will essentially have to wait until 4.6
> > > is out, due to the freeze in workspace/libs (which will go away once we
> > > fold the libsolidcontrol functionality into their specific users).
> > > That'd mean "no proper 3G support until early 2011.
> > > 
> > > Any ideas what we can do about this situation? Maybe ship the
> > > modemmanager stuff inside our network management code, instead of in
> > > kdebase?
> > > 
> >         Honestly I think we better wait until 2011. That is a big patch,
> >         it
> > 
> > is  very likely it still has bugs, most of the code has not been tested
> > too and several methods/signals only work with Modem Manager 0.4, which
> > has not been released yet. Even the Gsm part is not well tested because
> > my Sony MD300 modem does not support several things from the
> > specification. By 2011 we can test the code with more modems and I can
> > finish some implementation details still pending.
> 
> I understand your concerns, but having less people be able to use (and
> test) it, won't make the code better. In fact, having *more* people bang
> on it results in much quicker stabilization.

	I know, the point is that current stable MM version is 0.3 and part of 
implementation only works with Modem Manager 0.4, which has not been released 
yet. Probably no distribution ships with git version of MM 0.4, so until MM 
0.4 is released this code is basically for developers and not for end users. 
Or at least for end users capable of installing git versions of both Network 
Manager and Modem Manager in their respective distributions.
 
> Your point that it might be buggy is of course valid, and we might want to
> refrain from shipping it as stable, but having 4.5 users be able to try it
> would surely be beneficial for us.

	We can ship it with 4.5, I would like to see more people testing it. I 
just think people should be aware it will not work properly with MM 0.3 and I 
had to upgrade Network Manager from 0.8 to git version to make it work 
properly with MM git.
 
> >         I also want to create a new solid backend for Network Manager
> >         0.8,
> > 
> > the  current solid backend implements 0.7 specification. Some usefull
> > features are only available in 0.8 specification, so by 2011 we will be
> > ready for MM 0.4 and NM 0.8.
> 
> Still, likely you don't want to be tied to KDE SC's release cycles with
> that
> 
> :) (especially given that we've decided to fold back libsolid into its user
> 
> apps anyway.)
> 
> Surely something to discuss during Akademy.

	I would like to know exactly how the fold back would be implemented. My 
patch is a solid backend, does that mean there will be a libsolid package 
separated from kdebase-workspace? Well, this is the way Gentoo does things 
here, there is a solid ebuild (the equivalent to a package) and it contains 
only the kdebase/workspace/libs/solid and kdebase/workspace/solid directories, 
so it is possible to create a mmbackend package in kdereview. MM is pure dbus, 
it does not have headers (.h) like NM has, so it can be compiled even if MM is 
not installed. Anyway, I want to finish the MM backend before starting the NM 
backend's upgrade to 0.8.

-- 
Lamarque V. Souza
http://www.geographicguide.com/brazil.htm
Linux User #57137 - http://counter.li.org/
http://www.kde-mg.org