NetworkManager is a set of co-operative tools that make networking simple and straightforward. Whether WiFi, wired, 3G, or Bluetooth, NetworkManager allows you to quickly move from one network to another. It has two components: 1. a system level service which manages connections and reports network changes 2. a graphical desktop applet which allows the user to manipulate network connections. The nmcli tool provides similar functionality on the command line. system connections and security ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In NetworkManager version 0.9, network connections are stored as keyfiles in the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ directory. When creating new wireless or wired connections, they are by default system-owned (i.e. available to everyone) and the secrets (e.g WPA-PSK or WEP key) are stored as plain text in the corresponding connection configuration file. The advantage of system connections is, that they can be active before a user has logged in and they are active across user sessions. Modifying or creating such system-owned connections requires admin privileges. To avoid prompts for the root/admin password, NetworkManager ships a PolicyKit configuration file which grants everyone in group "netdev" or "sudo" the privilege to modify a system connection without prior authentication. Adding a user to group sudo grants him root-like privileges though. If that is not wanted, you can choose to add him to group netdev instead. If the user should not have the privilege to add and modify system connections don't add him to either groups. In that case, the user clients (like nm-applet) will default to creating user-owned connections where the secrets are stored in the user keyring. VPN and 3G type connections are by default also user-owned. For more information see NetworkManager.conf(5) or http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager/SystemSettings The keyfile specification is available at https://developer.gnome.org/NetworkManager/0.9/ref-settings.html unmanaged devices and /etc/network/interfaces ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Network devices which are configured in /etc/network/interfaces will typically be managed by ifupdown. Such devices will by default be marked as "unmanaged" in NetworkManager. You can tell NetworkManager to read and use the network configuration from /etc/network/interfaces by editing /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and changing the configuration as follows: [ifupdown] managed=true After modifying /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf or /etc/network/interfaces you need to restart the NetworkManager service via "service network-manager restart". It needs to be considered though that the network interface will also still be managed by ifupdown. This can lead to unexpected behaviour if two network configuration systems manage the same device. If you want to have a network interface managed by NetworkManager it is thus recommended to manually remove any configuration for that interface from /etc/network/interfaces.