PyQt GUI support

[probonopd]

Would you be interested in an optional PyQt GUI?

Looks like trayicon.py and authentication.py would have to be adjusted. Possibly doable without too much hassle.

[ericbsd]

I am sorry to not have answered before.

What you have in mind?

I am not sure how GTK would fix well QT code, but I am open to that.

[ericbsd]

I guess no reply probably means you got something else working for you.

[probonopd]

Hello @ericbsd I would still be interested in a Qt frontend to the networkmgr backend. Unfortunately I don't have the time to work on it right now, but if someone does, please let us know.

[probonopd]

Hello @ericbsd I have finally started writing the Qt frontend, and it is beginning to work (i.e., I can see the network I am connected to):

However, there is one notable exception that may require a small architectural change: When I select menu items, I see messages like

FreeBSD% ~/helloSystem/networkmgr/networkmgr
ifconfig: down: permission denied
ifconfig: SIOCS80211: Operation not permitted
ifconfig: up: permission denied
ifconfig: down: permission denied
ifconfig: ioctl(SIOCSIFINFO_IN6): Operation not permitted

From looking at the code, it seems like networkmgr is running as root all the time. This is apparently not possible for the Qt equivalent of Gtk.StatusIcon, QSystemTrayIcon. It needs to run as the regular user that is also running the menu bar which is hosting the QSystemTrayIcon.

Hence, I think networkmgr should be changed so that it doesn't run as root (also in the Gtk version). This means that net_api.py needs to be reworked so that the appropriate commands are invoked with sudo, and sudoers would need to be adjusted accordingly to allow for those commands to be executed without the need for a password.

Would you be willing to make this change? Then I should be able to contribute a Qt frontend to this networkmgr repository rather than having to fork it.

---

On a semi-related note, did you consider using wpa_cli, does it have limitations compared to using the commands that networkmgr is using right now?

[ericbsd]

Hi, @probonopd

I started to use sudo to start networkmgr to avoid having service, ifconfig, and other commands in sudoers to avoid spamming system logs like /var/log/auth.log. That is the main reason I prefer to start networkmgr has to root.

If you have a way that would prevent spamming system logs I am fine with it.

[probonopd]

Adding Defaults !syslog to /usr/local/etc/sudoers prevents sudo from logging anything to /var/log/auth.log.

Replace !syslog with !log_allowed to stop logging successful attempts only, still logging denied attemps.

If you only want the logging disabled for certain commands, this is also possible.

[ericbsd]

Adding Defaults !syslog to /usr/local/etc/sudoers prevents sudo from logging anything to /var/log/auth.log.

Replace !syslog with !log_allowed to stop logging successful attempts only, still logging denied attemps.

If you only want the logging disabled for certain commands, this is also possible.

Sorry I completely forgot to reply.

How do you intend to add the sudo in the code?