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Remove the `nm-applet` dependency?

Open monomadic opened this issue 3 years ago • 6 comments

I'm running manjaro (but have run several distros with the same issues) and I always use a simple window manager (usually sway). The protonvpn-cli package never seems to document or require the nm-applet dependency, and this is a cause of confusion not just for me but for many, judging by the twelve or so issues previously lodged (or an error message stating the dependency is required when running the app - the error message is currently something about keys unable to be exchanged etc but running nm-applet fixes the problem).

Unfortunately, this dependency causes my system to fail to suspend (it won't lock, which is a security concern) and upon opening the lid some of my libinput devices appear to not respond. Looking though journalctl it appeared that the vpn was not freeing libraries correctly and it was traced back to nm-applet. Others have lodged similar issues over the lifetime of the library apparently.

It seems like nm-applet should not be required for protonvpn-cli to function correctly - would it not make sense to either treat the dependency as a legitimate, recognised dependency or, preferably, remove it altogether (or use it only if present)?

monomadic avatar Feb 19 '22 15:02 monomadic

It is useful on some WM like i3, to connect to a new secured connection or network. It is sometimes buggy, and maybe another program could be used for this, but it’s not an unused dependency.

Anglodel avatar Mar 21 '22 11:03 Anglodel

Yes this is a terrible find right here and definitely should be removed. Same issue in awesomeWM.

dualfade avatar May 11 '22 13:05 dualfade

it’s not an unused dependency.

I did say undeclared, not unused. Downloading the protonvpn package does not ensure nm-applet is functional or even present. nm-applet has its own deps too which I don't want to bring into my system. There's no reason a cli program should be dependencing on a gui library.

monomadic avatar May 15 '22 11:05 monomadic

Yes, the problem is that nm-applet is not marked as a dependency during installation of protonvpn-cli. As users we don't know if it's needed (when the command fails, we don't know what the problem is and have to find a solution on our own). Even if nm-applet is installed, we don't know that it has to run when using protonvpn-cli.

ferroson avatar Aug 29 '22 00:08 ferroson