--- a/doc/netenv-en.html 2006-12-17 14:07:15.000000000 +0100
+++ b/doc/netenv-en.html 2006-12-17 14:05:16.000000000 +0100
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
</head>
<body>
+<p>To the <a href="#toc" >Table of Contents</a></p>
<h2><a name="top">Do you use your laptop in different network environments ?</a></h2>
At home ? In the office ? At a customers site ?
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@
Have a look at <i>netenv</i>'s chooser box:
<p>
-<img src="netenv-chooser-box.png">
+<img src="netenv-chooser-box.png" alt="netenv chooser box">
<p>
Besides the basic functionality of configuring the NIC, the <i>netenv</i> data can be used for thinks like:
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@
<hr>
<p>
-<a name="toc">Table of Contents</a>
+<h2><a name="toc">Table of Contents</a></h2>
<p>
<a href="#top">What does <i>netenv</i> do ?</a>
<p>
@@ -93,6 +94,8 @@
<p>
<a href="#suse">Remarks for SuSe 7.3 Users</a>
<p>
+<a href="#debian">Remarks for Debian Users</a><br>
+<p>
<a href="#alternatives"><i>netenv</i> alternatives</a>
<p>
<a href="#final">Conclusion</a>
@@ -100,7 +103,7 @@
<hr>
-<h2><a name="download">Where to get <i>netenv</i> ?</h2>
+<h2><a name="download">Where to get <i>netenv</i> ?</a></h2>
<I>Netenv</I> has a homepage at Sourceforge:
@@ -118,7 +121,7 @@
<p>
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
-<h2><a name="installation">How to Install</h2>
+<h2><a name="installation">How to Install</a></h2>
It depends ... For all distributions, which use RPM, do as root e.g.:
@@ -132,6 +135,12 @@
dpkg -i netenv-0.92-2.i386.deb
</pre>
+or simply
+
+<pre>
+apt-get install netenv
+</pre>
+
In all other cases:
<pre>
@@ -198,7 +207,7 @@
Suse 8.1, but it should work with 8.0 as well. For older versions
see the next paragraph.
-<h4><a name="suse-8-1">SuSe 8.1</h4>
+<h4><a name="suse-8-1">SuSe 8.1</a></h4>
The postinstall-script adds two lines to /etc/init.d/boot.local:
@@ -233,7 +242,7 @@
The entries IPADDR, NETMASK etc. spring from the basic installation.
There is no need to delete them as they are superseded by the
-assignments in /tmp/netenv. In this example I assume that the NIC is
+assignments in /tmp/netenv<a href="#footnote1" >[1]</a>. In this example I assume that the NIC is
not a PCMCIA-NIC. Otherwise the line
<pre>STARTMODE='onboot'</pre>
@@ -273,11 +282,11 @@
#! /bin/sh
# Copyright (c) 1996 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Germany. All rights reserved.
#
-# Author: Florian La Roche <florian@suse.de>, 1996
-# Werner Fink <werner@suse.de>, 1996
-# Burchard Steinbild <bs@suse.de>, 1996
-# Rolf Haberrecker <rolf@suse.de>, 1998
-# Werner Fink <werner@suse.de> (based on a patch of Andries Brouwer) 1999
+# Author: Florian La Roche <florian@suse.de>, 1996
+# Werner Fink <werner@suse.de>, 1996
+# Burchard Steinbild <bs@suse.de>, 1996
+# Rolf Haberrecker <rolf@suse.de>, 1998
+# Werner Fink <werner@suse.de> (based on a patch of Andries Brouwer) 1999
#
# /sbin/init.d/network
#
@@ -289,14 +298,15 @@
<h3>Debian</h3>
-The Debian-Package netenv is currently worked on. As far as I know,
-PCMCIA-NIC's can be used without further configuration.
- <p>
-Onboard-NIC's though need a changed /etc/network/interfaces. You can
-do this using netenv procedures, see the example script
-netenv_setup_debian_example. If you do nothing, your NIC will be
-configured like it was during system installation regardless what you
-choose with netenv.
+Upon installation of the Debian package it tries to set up a network
+configuration that corresponds to your current
+settings. Unfortunately, network setup is done quite differently in
+Debian, compared to other distributions. Additionally, there are two
+possibilities for the network setup. Therefore you have to do some
+things manually, either for installation or when you want to create
+new network configurations. For further explanations, see
+ <a href="#debian">Remarks for Debian Users</a> below.
+
<h3>Mandrake</h3>
@@ -305,7 +315,7 @@
something during boot. Furthermore the cdialog seems not to be stable.
Problems could be solved only after using the SuSE dialog binary instead.
-<h3><a name="how-to-use-tar">How to use the tar-file</h3>
+<h3><a name="how-to-use-tar">How to use the tar-file</a></h3>
These are the necessary steps:
@@ -340,7 +350,7 @@
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
-<h2><a name="basics">Basics</h2>
+<h2><a name="basics">Basics</a></h2>
The basic idea is to enter information about the current location of
the laptop in a very early phase of booting. This happens before
@@ -369,7 +379,7 @@
carries out further actions without popping up the manu.
<p>
After having selected the current environment, netenv copies the
-actual file to /tmp/netenv.
+actual file to /tmp/netenv<a href="#footnote1" >[1]</a>.
<p>
This file has modes 644, so being readable by any user for further
user dependent configuration tasks.
@@ -401,7 +411,7 @@
</pre>
If in a network with DHCP-Server, input dhcp instead of an
-IP-Address. Then a /tmp/netenv is generated containing only
+IP-Address. Then a /tmp/netenv<a href="#footnote1" >[1]</a> is generated containing only
<pre>
BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
@@ -528,8 +538,16 @@
If you choose CANCEL in the netenv-dialog-box, you may enter a
shell. After quitting this, the chooserbox pops up again.
+<p>
+<strong>This is a security risk! Anybody with physical access to your
+computer will get a root shell without having to enter a
+password!</strong>
+</p>
+<p>Therefore this feature is diabled in Debian, unless you set
+<kbd>ALLOW_EXPERT</kbd> to <kbd>"YES"</kbd> in <kbd>netenv.conf</kbd>
+(see <a href="#debian-features" >below</a>).</p>
-<b>Security hints:</b>
+<h3>Security hints:</h3>
The directory /etc/netenv and the files in it must be writeable only
for root. netenv does some basic checks for this.
@@ -809,7 +827,7 @@
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
-<h2><a name="dns">Remarks concerning DNS</h2>
+<h2><a name="dns">Remarks concerning DNS</a></h2>
<I>Netenv</I> does <b>no</b> DNS configuration. Unfortunately there
are a couple of differences in this area looking at the distributions.
@@ -863,7 +881,7 @@
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
-<h2><a name="suse">Remarks for SuSe 7.3 Users</h2>
+<h2><a name="suse">Remarks for SuSe 7.3 Users</a></h2>
If you have an onboard-NIC (so that there is no need to use a
PCMCIA-NIC), you have to override the standard entry in /etc/rc.config.
@@ -922,6 +940,7 @@
<pre>
default 172.246.2.1
</pre>
+
Using the example where netenv edits /etc/hosts you may use e.g.:
<pre>
@@ -938,8 +957,328 @@
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
+<h2><a name="debian">Remarks for Debian Users</a></h2>
+
+<h3>Overview</h3>
+
+<a href="#debian-config" >Installation and configuration in Debian</a>
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="#debian-interfaces" >configuration in <kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd></a>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#debian-network-opts" >configuration in <kbd>/etc/pcmcia/network.opts</kbd></a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<p><a href="#debian-features" >Additional features with Debian</a>
+</p>
+<p><a href="#debian-wwwoffle" >netenv and the offline-http-proxy wwwoffle</a>
+</p>
+
+<h3><a name="debian-config"></a> Installation and configuration in
+Debian</h3>
+
+
+<p>Upon installation of the Debian package it tries to set up a
+network configuration that corresponds to your current
+settings. Unfortunately, network setup is done quite differently in
+Debian, compared to other distributions. Additionally, there are two
+possibilities for the network setup. Therefore you have to do some
+things manually, either for installation or when you want to create
+new network configurations. </p>
+<p>If <em>netenv</em> cannot parse the current configuration, it will
+not be called upon boot, and the computer will behave as it was before
+the installation. In this case you have to set up a working
+configuration as described below and then create the necessary startup
+link to the init-script with the command
+<tt>update-rc.d netenv start 40 S .</tt> </p>
+
+
+<p>The following paragraphs describe which user changes are required:
+If the <a href="#debian-interfaces" >network settings are stored in
+<kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd></a> so far, then <i>netenv</i> will
+work at once - however creating a new configuration for the network
+chooser box is somewhat complicated. In Debian, this method is in use
+with built-in network cards ("on-board") and sometimes with
+PCMCIA-cards. The second method, where the <a
+href="#debian-network-opts" >network settings are in
+<kbd>/etc/pcmcia/network.opts</kbd></a>, can only be used with
+PCMCIA-cards.</p>
+
+<p>The installation routine detects which method is used and sets up a
+sample configuration accordingly. With both methods, however, the user
+has to make some changes to make things work! If network settings are
+found in both files - or in none of them -, no configuration is
+generated so far, and <i>netenv</i> is not called upon booting. The
+same will happen if it found network settings in
+<kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd>, but this file is yet a symbolic
+link (see below).</p>
+
+<h4><a name="debian-interfaces">configuration in <kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd></a></h4>
+
+<p>The syntax of <kbd>interfaces</kbd> is fundamentally different
+compared to <i>netenv</i>'s expectations - i.e. no variable
+assignments are used. Consequently there is no possibility to simply
+"supersede" the information from this file. Instead, <i>netenv</i> is
+instructed to execute a script after you chose a network
+environment. This script redirects symbolic links. The outcome looks
+like the following:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ls -l /etc/network/interfaces*
+ /etc/network/interfaces -> /etc/network/interfaces.work
+ /etc/network/interfaces.home
+ /etc/network/interfaces.work
+ /etc/network/interfaces.offline
+ /etc/network/interfaces.old -> /etc/network/interfaces.offline
+</pre>
+
+<p>This means that no files are changed, it is only the symbolic link
+<kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd> which is redirected to the
+appropriate target. The file <kbd>/etc/resolv.conf</kbd> must be
+treated in the same way. Note that for offline use, you need to set up
+a <kbd>lo</kbd> device in <kbd>interfaces</kbd>.</p>
+
+<p>The commands that redirect these links could, in principle, be put
+directly in the configuration files for the respective network
+environment. On a computer named <kbd>lulu</kbd> they would, e.g., be
+in <kbd>/etc/netenv/lulu-home</kbd>,
+<kbd>/etc/netenv/lulu-office</kbd> etc. However, the author of
+<i>netenv</i> recommends to keep only variable assignments in these
+files. Specifically, one can define the variable NETENV_SCRIPT. This
+script is then automatically executed and makes the desired
+links. </p>
+
+<p>An example configuration on machine <kbd>lulu</kbd> could look like this: In
+<kbd>/etc/netenv/</kbd> we have the following files:</p>
+
+<pre>
+lulu lulu-customer lulu-offline setup-customer setup-offline
+lulu-work lulu-home netenv.conf setup-work setup-home
+</pre>
+
+(It is required to have one file (or symbolic link) with the computer name and no
+<kbd>-somewhere</kbd>. I usually us this as my default
+configuration.) <kbd>lulu-work</kbd>, for example, contains:
+
+<pre>
+netenv_id=Arbeit
+export NETENV_SCRIPT=/etc/netenv/setup-work
+
+# you can set any variable here. export it!
+</pre>
+
+<p>The variable <kbd>netenv_id</kbd> is used in the chooser dialog box
+of <i>netenv</i>, the script <kbd>setup-work</kbd> is executed
+(sourced, to be exact) after <kbd>lulu-work</kbd> has been read. It
+looks like this:
+
+<pre>
+#!/bin/sh
+
+if [ -r /etc/network/interfaces.work ]; then
+ mv /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.old
+ ln -s /etc/network/interfaces.work /etc/network/interfaces
+fi
+if [ -r /etc/resolv.conf.work ]; then
+ mv /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.old
+ ln -s /etc/resolv.conf.work /etc/resolv.conf
+fi
+if [ -r /etc/exim/exim.conf.work ]; then
+ mv /etc/exim/exim.conf /etc/exim/exim.conf.old
+ ln -s /etc/exim/exim.conf.work /etc/exim/exim.conf
+fi
+</pre>
-<h2><a name="alternatives"><i>netenv</i> Alternatives</h2>
+<p>As you can see, also other files can handily be customized like
+this. Once a configuration is set up - which is usually done by the
+package setup - it should be easy to add more of them.</p>
+
+<p>However, you cannot use the menu option "new" in the chooser box of
+<i>netenv</i> to create a new configuration. This is because it will
+only write variable assignments into a new <kbd>lulu</kbd>-file, but
+not create the necessary script. Instead, you have to manually create
+and and edit files in <kbd>/etc/netenv/</kbd> with contents analogous
+to the files described above: <i><kbd>$computername-$networkname</kbd></i>
+defines the NETENV_SCRIPT, which in turn redirects the symbolic
+links. The Debian setup will create these files with the names
+<i><kbd>$computername</kbd></i> (configuration file) and
+<kbd>setup-default</kbd> (NETENV_SCRIPT), respectively. </p>
+
+<h5>alternatives for <kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd></h5>
+
+<p>There are even more possibilities to configure <i>netnev</i> if the
+network settings are stored in
+<kbd>/etc/network/interfaces</kbd>. Especially the "mapping"
+mechanism, as described in the manpage <kbd>interfaces(5)</kbd> is
+very interesting. An other way is outlined in the file
+<kbd>netenv_setup_debian_example</kbd>.</p>
+
+<h4><a name="debian-network-opts">configuration in <kbd>/etc/pcmcia/network.opts</kbd></a></h4>
+
+<p>If your network settings are stored in
+<kbd>/etc/pcmcia/network.opts</kbd>, you have one big advantage: This
+file uses variable assignments, for example </p>
+
+<pre>IPADDR="123.456.789.12"</pre>
+
+<p>This is exactly the method that <i>netenv</i> was originally built
+for. Consequently, you can simply use the menu option "new"
+(<kbd>Set_up_new_environment</kbd>) in its chooser dialog box to
+create a new network environment. </p>
+
+<p>However, in order that these variables are in effect when a network
+card ist started, they need to be read in in
+<kbd>/etc/pcmcia/network.opts</kbd>. Since this file belongs to the
+package <i>pcmcia-cs</i>, <i>netenv</i> is not allowed to change it
+during setup. However, you as a user (or rather administrator) may and
+should do it. The simplest way would be to add the line</p>
+
+<pre>. /var/tmp/netenv</pre>
+
+<p>to the end of the file (yes, with the leading dot!). Somewhat more
+sophisticated would be to apply the following patch (also included as
+netenv-network.opts.patch):</p>
+
+<pre>
+--- etc/network.opts.orig Sat Nov 8 12:10:56 2003
++++ etc/network.opts Sat Nov 8 12:42:27 2003
+@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
+ PPPOE="n"
+ # Use WHEREAMI (via the whereami package)? [y/n]
+ WHEREAMI="n"
++ # Use NETENV (via the netenv package)? [y/n]
++ USE_NETENV="y"
+ # Host's IP address, netmask, network address, broadcast address
+ IPADDR=""
+ NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
+@@ -55,5 +57,13 @@
+ # Card eject policy options
+ NO_CHECK=n
+ NO_FUSER=n
++ if [ $USE_NETENV = y ]; then
++ if [ -r /var/tmp/netenv ]; then
++ . /var/tmp/netenv
++ else
++ echo "/var/tmp/netenv unreadable. Perhaps you should set"
++ echo "USE_NETENV=n in /etc/pcmcia/network.opts"
++ fi
++ fi
+ ;;
+ esac
+</pre>
+
+<p>This has several effects. First, it allows for easy deactivation of
+<i>netenv</i>. Second, the first pair of lines is added near the place
+where also <i>wherami</i>, a program with similar functionality, is
+configured - anybody will easily find out that <i>netenv</i> is
+used. This might be interesting in case of a bug report. Third and
+last there is an additional check for existence and readability of the
+file where <i>netenv</i> stores the information to be used this time. </p>
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="debian-features" ></a>Additional features with Debian</h3>
+
+The Debian package offers additional features. To use them, you have
+to edit the configuration file <kbd>/etc/netenv/netenv.conf</kbd>.
+
+<dl>
+ <dt><strong>expert mode</strong>
+ <dd>The <a href="#configuration" >expert mode</a> is a security
+ risk, because it means to get a <kbd>root</kbd>-shell without
+ entering a password. Therefore it is disabled in Debian. If you
+ want to use it anyway, use the following variable assignment
+ in <kbd>netenv.conf</kbd>:
+ <pre>ALLOW_EXPERT=YES</pre>
+ You have been warned!
+
+ <dt><strong>Automatic selection of a default configuration</strong>
+ <dd>Debian's dialog Program (not gdialog from the gnome-utils
+ package, which otherwise works fine with netenv) has a timeout
+ function. If you set the variable <kbd>NETENV_TIMEOUT</kbd> to an
+ integer larger than 0, the dialog during boot will wait as many
+ seconds. If no input is detected during that interval, the
+ default configuration will be booted, i.e. the file in
+ <kbd>/etc/netenv/</kbd> which has the same name as the hostname
+ will be used. If <kbd>NETENV_TIMEOUT</kbd> is set to zero, then
+ it will not timeout and wait for an input. Beware that the latter
+ behavior will break remote boots!
+
+ <dt><strong>Remembering last selection.</strong>
+ <dd>Debian's <i>netenv</i> can also remember your last selection. You can
+ enable this by setting the <kbd>NETENV_REMEMBER_LAST</kbd> variable to
+ <kbd>yes</kbd>. Furthemore if you set it to <kbd>default</kbd>, in
+ case of timeout your last selection will be used instead of the
+ normal default (see above).
+
+ <dt><strong>Selection of the default configuration using a variable</strong>
+ <dd>The default configuration for <i>netenv</i> corresponds to the
+ file <kbd>/etc/netenv/<i>$hostname</i></kbd> (without a trailing
+ "<kbd>-place</kbd>"). You can normally bypass the selection dialog
+ by setting the variable <kbd>NETENV</kbd> to the name of the
+ <kbd><i>place</i></kbd>, either as an argument to the kernel
+ loader, or as an environment variable during normal system
+ operation.
+ This is, however, not possible for the default, since this
+ would mean an empty <kbd>NETENV</kbd> variable. In Debian, you can
+ use the hostname instead: On a computer named lulu
+ <pre>NETENV=someplace netenv</pre>
+ will change to the setup specified in
+ <kbd>/etc/netenv/lulu-someplace</kbd>, whereas
+ <pre>NETENV=lulu netenv</pre>
+ will bring you to <kbd>/etc/netenv/lulu</kbd>.
+
+ <dt><strong>Automatic restart of daemons</strong>
+ <dd>Starting from 0.94 of <i>netenv</i> it is possible to call the
+ program during normal system operation and change the network
+ configuration. Some background processes (daemons) may have to be
+ restarted or made to reread there config files (which may have
+ changed, see below). All <kbd>init</kbd> scripts that are assigned to
+ <kbd>NETENV_RUN_INIT_SCRIPTS</kbd> in the configuration file are
+ executed with the parameter <kbd>restart</kbd> after changing the
+ network configuration. The scripts are specified as a space
+ separated list, enclosed in quotes, e.g.
+ <pre>NETENV_RUN_INIT_SCRIPTS="chrony myinitscript"</pre>
+ <kbd>/etc/init.d/networking</kbd> will be executed in any case.
+
+ <dt><strong>Bypassing the "restart networking now?" dialog</strong>
+ <dd>Before doing the automatic daemon restarting as described above,
+ <i>netenv</i> will ask whether to restart the network at all (when
+ called during normal system operation). This can be bypassed by
+ setting the variable <kbd>NETENV_DO_RESTART</kbd> in
+ <kbd>netenv.conf</kbd> to <kbd>yes</kbd> (meaning to always
+ restart without asking) or <kbd>never</kbd> (meaning to never
+ restart).
+
+</dl>
+
+<h3><a name="debian-wwwoffle">netenv and the offline-http-proxy wwwoffle</a></h3>
+
+<p>As described above it is possible to tell <kbd>netenv</kbd> to
+ restart some daemons using their init scripts. Unfortunately this
+ does not work with <kbd>wwwoffle</kbd>. The reason is that
+ <kbd>wwwoffle</kbd> remembers its status (online or offline) before
+ stopping the service, and restores it after starting again. This is
+ reasonable under some circumstances (e.g. if the wwwoffle package is
+ updated while being online). However, it has the unwanted result that
+ <tt>/etc/init.d/wwwoffle restart</tt> cannot be used if one is
+ about to change from an offline to an online configuration, or vice
+ versa.</p>
+
+ <p>Therefore there is an other variable for <kbd>wwwoffle</kbd> (and
+ possibly other scripts with similar behavior),
+ <kbd>NETENV_START_STOP_SCRIPTS</kbd>. Scripts in this space-separated
+ list will not be called with <kbd>restart</kbd>, instead first with
+ <kbd>stop</kbd> and afterwards with <kbd>start</kbd>.</p>
+
+ <p>The Debian maintainer of <kbd>netenv</kbd> thinks this behavior of
+ the wwwoffle package is a bug, see <a
+href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=224937"
+>http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=224937</a>.</p>
+
+
+<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
+
+<h2><a name="alternatives"><i>netenv</i> Alternatives</a></h2>
As frequently in Linux there are other choices. Read
<a href="http://tuxmobil.org/Mobile-Guide.db/Mobile-Guide.html">Linux on the
@@ -954,19 +1293,28 @@
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
-<h2><a name="final">Conclusion</h2>
+<h2><a name="final">Conclusion</a></h2>
I hope <i>netenv</i> will be useful for you. Do not hesitate to send
-questions and comments to <a href="mailto:bav@epost.de">bav@epost.de</a>.
-<p>
+questions and comments to Gerd Bavendiek, <a
+href="mailto:bav@epost.de">bav@epost.de</a>. <p>
<a href="#toc">Back to Table of Contents</a>
+ <h1><a name="footnotes">Footnotes</a></h1>
+
+ <a name="footnote1">[1]</a> In Debian, the file
+ <kbd>/var/tmp/netenv</kbd> is used instead of
+ <kbd>/tmp/netenv</kbd>. This is because during the boot process, the
+ <kbd>/tmp/</kbd> directory is cleaned after <cite>netenv</cite> has
+ been executed. <cite>netenv</cite> would still work, however it would
+ no longer be possible to read the current configuration from that file.
+
<hr>
<address><a href="mailto:bav@epost.de">Gerd Bavendiek</a></address>
<!-- Created: Mon Apr 13 21:25:07 CEST 1998 -->
<!-- hhmts start -->
-Last modified: Tue Apr 1 20:55:37 CEST 2003
+Last modified: Sun Dec 17 14:05:16 CET 2006
<!-- hhmts end -->
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</html>
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