Bug#993819: release-notes: Please document the removal of wicd

[Roger Lynn]

Package: release-notes
Severity: important

Hi,

Please document the removal of wicd in Bullseye. This seems particularly
dangerous if the upgrade is being done over a network connection being managed
by wicd as it seems likely that the connection will be lost when wicd is
removed (due to dependency problems). It would also be helpful if alternatives
could be suggested.

Thanks,

Roger

[Hendrik Boom]

Post by Roger Lynn
Package: release-notes
Severity: important
Hi,
Please document the removal of wicd in Bullseye. This seems particularly
dangerous if the upgrade is being done over a network connection being managed
by wicd as it seems likely that the connection will be lost when wicd is
removed (due to dependency problems). It would also be helpful if alternatives
could be suggested.

I already did that in the draft upgrade instructions for Devuan, as
something to be done before anything else.

SHould I send a copy of the paragraph to this list?

-- hendrik

Post by Roger Lynn
Thanks,
Roger

[Joost van Baal-Ilić]

Hi,

Post by Hendrik Boom

Post by Roger Lynn
Package: release-notes
Severity: important
Please document the removal of wicd in Bullseye. This seems particularly
dangerous if the upgrade is being done over a network connection being managed
by wicd as it seems likely that the connection will be lost when wicd is
removed (due to dependency problems). It would also be helpful if alternatives
could be suggested.

I already did that in the draft upgrade instructions for Devuan, as
something to be done before anything else.
SHould I send a copy of the paragraph to this list?

Yes, that would be helpful, and please do Cc ***@bugs.debian.org .

Thanks, Bye,

Joost

[Hendrik Boom]

Post by Joost van Baal-Ilić
Hi,

Post by Hendrik Boom

Post by Roger Lynn
Package: release-notes
Severity: important
Please document the removal of wicd in Bullseye. This seems particularly
dangerous if the upgrade is being done over a network connection being managed
by wicd as it seems likely that the connection will be lost when wicd is
removed (due to dependency problems). It would also be helpful if alternatives
could be suggested.

I already did that in the draft upgrade instructions for Devuan, as
something to be done before anything else.
SHould I send a copy of the paragraph to this list?

Here is the text I have included in the current draft upgrade
instructions for Devuan:

Warning: `wicd` will no longer be available after the upgrade, so if
you use it to connect to the internet through wifi, you will be cut
off. To prevent this, you should change to a connection manager that
*will* still be available, such as `connman`. If you want a convnient
graphical interface, without which making connections can be difficult,
you should install `connman-gtk`. You should do this *before* you
start the upgrade, or you will have trouble reconnecting if things go
wrong.

-- hendrik

Post by Joost van Baal-Ilić
Thanks, Bye,
Joost

[Paul Gevers]

Hi Hendrik,

Post by Hendrik Boom
Here is the text I have included in the current draft upgrade
Warning: `wicd` will no longer be available after the upgrade, so if
you use it to connect to the internet through wifi, you will be cut
off. To prevent this, you should change to a connection manager that
*will* still be available, such as `connman`. If you want a convnient
graphical interface, without which making connections can be difficult,
you should install `connman-gtk`. You should do this *before* you
start the upgrade, or you will have trouble reconnecting if things go
wrong.

Isn't NetworkManager the default graphical manager nowadays? Or is there
a link with systemd such that you wouldn't mention it for Devuan? No
judgement intended, just wanting to have the facts straight.

Paul

[Hendrik Boom]

Post by Paul Gevers
Hi Hendrik,

Post by Hendrik Boom
Here is the text I have included in the current draft upgrade
Warning: `wicd` will no longer be available after the upgrade, so if
you use it to connect to the internet through wifi, you will be cut
off. To prevent this, you should change to a connection manager that
*will* still be available, such as `connman`. If you want a convnient
graphical interface, without which making connections can be difficult,
you should install `connman-gtk`. You should do this *before* you
start the upgrade, or you will have trouble reconnecting if things go
wrong.

Isn't NetworkManager the default graphical manager nowadays? Or is there
a link with systemd such that you wouldn't mention it for Devuan? No
judgement intended, just wanting to have the facts straight.

When I installed devuan a few releases ago it gave me connman. So I
knew it worked. And I tested it on chimaera.

network-manager is also available on Devuan, so I guess, there's no
systemd issue. But I am loathe to recommend something I hadn't tested
on chimaera.

-- hendrik

Post by Paul Gevers
Paul

[Noah Meyerhans]

Post by Paul Gevers

Post by Hendrik Boom
Warning: `wicd` will no longer be available after the upgrade, so if
you use it to connect to the internet through wifi, you will be cut
off. To prevent this, you should change to a connection manager that
*will* still be available, such as `connman`. If you want a convnient
graphical interface, without which making connections can be difficult,
you should install `connman-gtk`. You should do this *before* you
start the upgrade, or you will have trouble reconnecting if things go
wrong.

Isn't NetworkManager the default graphical manager nowadays? Or is there
a link with systemd such that you wouldn't mention it for Devuan? No
judgement intended, just wanting to have the facts straight.

Users who have wicd installed have already most likely expressed a
preference for something other than NetworkManager. In most
installations, installing something like task-gnome-desktop or
task-xfce-desktop will pull in NetworkManager by virtue of their
Recommemds on network-manager-gnome.

I don't know much about connman or connman-gtk, but if it's the current
best alternative to NetworkManager, then maybe it makes sense to
recommend it as a replacement for wicd. On the other hand, maybe a
gentle nudge back toward the "default" set of packages will lead to a
better experience in the longer term. Recommending either
NetworkManager or connman as alternatives might be a good compromise.

noah

[Justin B Rye]

Post by Hendrik Boom
Here is the text I have included in the current draft upgrade
Warning: `wicd` will no longer be available after the upgrade, so if
you use it to connect to the internet through wifi, you will be cut
off. To prevent this, you should change to a connection manager that
*will* still be available, such as `connman`. If you want a convnient
graphical interface, without which making connections can be difficult,
you should install `connman-gtk`. You should do this *before* you
start the upgrade, or you will have trouble reconnecting if things go
wrong.

Thanks for giving us something to start from! But becoming
unavailable for installation doesn't necessarily imply being
automatically purged on upgrade. I gather wicd-gtk had Python2 GTK
dependencies; is there anything to stop users insisting on hanging on
to those on Bullseye? It would certainly be wiser to switch ASAP, but
I don't think we can categorically declare that "you will be cut off".

Other nitpicks:
* At least according to the package description I might in principle
have been using wicd to manage a _wired_ connection.
* And is there some particular reason for pointing in the direction
of connman rather than network-manager? (Don't desktops usually
provide GUIs of their own for this sort of thing?)
* Meanwhile, you're assuming the context of mobile devices that need
to make frequent connections to new networks. The reason I know so
little about this sort of software is that "making connections can
be difficult" has never been true for my PC - I just need to edit
one configuration file each time I move house!

A revised version, still short on releasenotes-style markup:

The network connection manager `wicd` will no longer be available
after the upgrade, so to avoid the danger of losing connectivity
users are recommended to switch before the upgrade to an alternative
such as `network-manager` or `connman`.

(Plenty of room for other recommendations there if needed.)

[Andrei POPESCU]

Post by Justin B Rye
The network connection manager `wicd` will no longer be available
after the upgrade, so to avoid the danger of losing connectivity
users are recommended to switch before the upgrade to an alternative
such as `network-manager` or `connman`.

LGTM (with the usual FWIW).

Kind regards,
Andrei

[Debian Bug Tracking System]

Your message dated Thu, 23 Sep 2021 21:50:48 +0200
with message-id <36f1c9d4-2a29-e7bf-4e2e-***@debian.org>
and subject line Re: Bug#993819: release-notes: Please document the removal of wicd
has caused the Debian Bug report #993819,
regarding release-notes: Please document the removal of wicd
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

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