NetworkManager

Kernel

For WiFi devices enable also the following options:

[*] Networking support  --->
      Networking options  --->
        <*> Packet socket
  [*] Wireless  --->
        <*>   cfg80211 - wireless configuration API
        [*]     cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility

Look at the udev page for kernel configuration needed for this NetworkManager dependency.

USE flags

Emerge

After changing use flags run the following command to update the system so the changes take effect:

To manually install NetworkManager, if not already pulled in automatically from above command:

Additonal software

GTK GUIs

nm-applet from system tray

The systray applet is in gnome-extra/nm-applet and works in classic Xembed based systrays. If a systray is not included as part of the desktop environment in use, a standalone systray like stalonetray can be installed. The connection editor GUI in the same package as the applet. Note that this package serves all sorts of desktop environments and panels with systrays but it is no longer used by Gnome which has its own implementations in Gnome Shell and Gnome Control Center.

root #emerge --ask gnome-extra/nm-applet

Also note that the current upstream version doesn't support the appindicator API and thus does not work in some systray implementations like those in current versions of KDE and Unity or the development versions of Enlightenment.

In LXQt when setting panel to autohide and mouse hover on Wi-Fi ico hides your panel, the following are needed:

1. Emerge gnome-extra/nm-applet with USE flag appindicator
2. Emerge lxqt-base/lxqt-panel with USE flag statusnotifier
3. Edit autostart in LXQt: change nm-applet to nm-applet --indicator.

See related bug.

User permission

On Gentoo, NetworkManager uses the plugdev group to specify which users can manage plugable devices. Be sure to substitute <user_name> in the command below for each user who should be permitted to manage network connections on the system:

Service

<syntaxhighlight lang="ini">[Unit]
After=network-online.service
Wants=network-online.service</syntaxhighlight>

Setting a hostname

If NetworkManager was built with the dhclient USE flag enabled a hostname can be set using the following command:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">send host-name "yourhostname";</syntaxhighlight>

Checking connectivity

NetworkManager can try to reach a page on Internet when connecting to a network. For those behind a captive portal, the desktop manager can automatically open a window asking for credentials. It's automatically done since NetworkManager 1.8, but it has to be configured manually for earlier versions. To enable this feature, edit (or create) the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file to look something like this:

<syntaxhighlight lang="ini">[connectivity]
uri=http://nmcheck.gnome.org/check_network_status.txt</syntaxhighlight>

nm-applet and X session startup

To be able to get nm-applet started when starting a light X session or light desktop environment, just put the following line in the relevant user's ~/.xinitrc file:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">nm-applet &</syntaxhighlight>

For gnome-base/gnome-keyring support, add the following lines before the previous line. This will ease password management for GnuPG, ssh and WiFi:

{{FileBox|filename=~/.xinitrc|lang=bash|1=

1. Ensure dbus is either already running, or safely start it

if [[ -z "${DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS}" ]]; then

   eval $(dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session)

fi

1. Make the keyring daemon ready to communicate with nm-applet

export $(gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=pkcs11,secrets,ssh,gpg) }}

Dnsmasq

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">[main]
plugins=keyfile
dns=dnsmasq</syntaxhighlight>

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># DNSSEC setup
dnssec
trust-anchor=.,19036,8,2,49AAC11D7B6F6446702E54A1607371607A1A41855200FD2CE1CDDE32F24E8FB5
trust-anchor=.,20326,8,2,E06D44B80B8F1D39A95C0B0D7C65D08458E880409BBC683457104237C7F8EC8D
dnssec-check-unsigned</syntaxhighlight>

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">[main]
plugins=keyfile
dns=none</syntaxhighlight>

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># This should be the first nameserver entry in resolv.conf!
nameserver=127.0.0.1</syntaxhighlight>

Fixing nm-applet insufficient privileges

If nm-applet fails to create new networks with the error "Insufficient Privileges," then it could be a policy kit issue. Create the following file:

<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
    if (action.id.indexOf("org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.") == 0 && subject.isInGroup("plugdev")) {
        return polkit.Result.YES;
    }
});</syntaxhighlight>

This lets all users in the plugdev group control network manager.

Hostname problems

The standard "keyfile" plugin does not forward the hostname in default configuration - to avoid having it changed upon network connection, add the following section to your NetworkManager.conf and enter your hostname accordingly:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">[main]
plugins=keyfile
hostname-mode=none</syntaxhighlight>

Alternatively, if a hostname is set which NetworkManager considers valid (Mainly anything other than "localhost" or similar default values), the hostname fetching from DHCP servers is skipped. To set a new hostname, edit the file /etc/conf.d/hostname:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># Set to the hostname of this machine
hostname="my-hostname"</syntaxhighlight>

Connection sharing

Connection sharing is not working on an Ethernet connection when set to shared via nmtui.

Verify the connection-sharing USE flag has been enabled for net-misc/networkmanager. This can quickly be performed using eix:

Enable the USE flag if it is disabled (-connection-sharing), then reemerge the package:

DHCPv6 Unique IDentifier (DUID)

The DUID will be generated by NetworkManager and stored as the first line in the following file:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">default-duid "\000\001\000\001\031\012D\036<\331+m3\004";
lease6 {
...</syntaxhighlight>

To generate a DUID NetworkManager relies on the following file, which is created by systemd. This should be unique to any system.

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">c69de11d6bb240558b98fb1d5e4292b3</syntaxhighlight>

For non-systemd users, you can use the following command from lubko on #nm irc channel @freenode.net.

NetworkManager messing with X authentication

When NetworkManager connects to a WiFi access point, it might change your hostname. If it does, it might mess with your X authentication and prevent you from launching X applications. You can verify this with xauth list.

To fix this, you can set hostname-mode = none in your config.