Subject: Re: [bug#30991] [PATCH v2 3/3] services: Add ModemManager to '%desktop-services'.

From: Danny Milosavljevic <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 09:04:07 +0200

Hi Ludo,

On Sun, 06 May 2018 23:00:54 +0200
[email-masked] (Ludovic Courtès) wrote:

> >> I would not add it to ‘%desktop-services’ because I’d think it’s not a
> >> very common requirement, but I don’t know.  WDYT?  
> >
> > Do we need internet in order to install GuixSD?
> >
> > Then modem-manager should at least be available in the installation image.  
> 
> I think this is orthogonal to the question of adding it to
> ‘%desktop-services’ since the installation image doesn’t rely on
> ‘%desktop-services’.

True.  I agree.

> Nevertheless, this will all be a matter of size, usability, and
> documentation.  If it adds “too much” to the size of the installation
> image, I’d be rather against it.

Well, some way of getting to the internet eventually needs to be available
somewhere.

(it's fine if it's only in the installed system, so I guess compilation
of everything is fine).

In Austria the cellphone internet is very cheap - so almost everyone has it
(and many have only that).  That said, USB or Wifi tethering is common, too.

I'm just trying to reduce the number of things I have to charge on the road :)

GNU Linux distributions nowadays have trouble providing any kind of simple
dialup installation - so it's more difficult to install GNU Linux here.
I think that's ridiculous since the AT commands and PPP required to have
some kind of internet didn't change sice circa 1985 - and it's small, too.

(I didn't know ModemManager before I packaged it here - but it does
some extra stuff like provide network card simulator integration for the
extremely fast LTE modems)

I still have not-so-fond memories of manually downloading a random wvdial
binary and its dependencies in order to be able to install Gentoo.  A normal
person (TM) would just give up ;)