NetworkManager is a software utility to simplify the use of computer networks on Linux and other Unix-based operating systems.
It was recently announced release of new version of NetworkManager 1.46 and in this release A large number of support improvements have been implemented in different sections, from udev properties, support for HSR protocols and more.
For those who are unfamiliar with NetworkManager should know that this is a software utility for simplify the use of networks of computers on linux and other Unix-based operating systems. This utility takes an opportunistic approach to network selection, trying to use the best available connection when outages occur, or when the user moves between wireless networks.
You prefer Ethernet connections over "known" wireless networks. The user is prompted for WEP or WPA keys, as required.
Main new features of NetworkManager 1.46
In this new version of NetworkManager 1.46 The use of Python 3 has been made mandatory for the development and use, since Support for compiling with Python 2 has been discontinued. Additionally, Systemd versions lower than 200 are no longer supported.
Another change that stands out is thate parameter has been implemented «connection.stable-id» which allows you to use the variable «${NETWORK_SSID}» for generating stable identifiers based on the Wi-Fi SSID, as well as supporting the new value «wifi.cloned-mac-address=stable-ssid» for MAC address randomization based on the Wi-Fi network.
In addition to this, in NetworkManager 1.46 Limitations have been implemented in nmcli, the output of IP addresses and routes, as well as the number of IP addresses and routes transmitted via D-Bus, are limited. Additionally, the address/route update speed is limited to 3 changes per second.
On the other hand, it stands out support for viewing the ability of the wireless device to operate in the 6GHz band and Ethtool EEE configuration.
We can also find that added an option to disable automatic addition of edns0 and trusted advertisement options to DNS settings, and implemented the fwmark property for IP tunnels.
Added support for udev properties «ID_NET_AUTO_LINK_LOCAL_ONLY=1» to enable link-local addresses in the default wired connection and udev property «ID_NET_MANAGED_BY» to manage an interface only when set to “org.freedesktop.NetworkManager”.
Of the other changes that stand out of this new version:
- Additional sandboxing configurations are included in the cloud configuration file with the service for systemd.
- nmcli provides a visualization of Wi-Fi performance.
- Added support for HSR (High Availability Perfect Redundancy) and PRP (Parallel Redundancy Protocol) protocols.
- Static routes were allowed to be configured with an empty IP address, and IPv4 DAD (Duplicate Address Detection) mode is enabled by default.
- VPN provides support for two-factor authentication implemented on the VPN plugins side.
- Now allows configuring static routes even when addresses are empty.
- Supports modification of the DSCP header field for DHCP packets.
- Allows you to create generic devices through the external "device manager".
- Includes documentation improvements and numerous bug fixes.
- Adds options to prevent edns0 and trust-ad from being automatically added to DNS settings.
- Implements the fwmark property for IP tunnels.
- Enable more isolation options in the systemd service file for cloud-setup.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it about this new release of Networkmanager you can check the details from the link below.
How to get NetworkManager 1.46?
Interested in being able to obtain this new version, you should know that you can install the new version directly from the Ubuntu repositories, in addition to that if you prefer you can obtain this version and build from your source code. The link is this.
To install the new version of NetworkManager 1.46 on your system, just run any of the following commands.
Update and install all available packages
sudo apt upgrade -y
Update and install only networkmanager:
sudo apt install network-manager -y