Network Manager brokenness, and Skype without PulseAudio.
If someone using an Ubuntu desktop, and after update to 16.10 he is wondering where his "Wired connection 1" went, and why his attempts to connect to VPN using Network Manager interface are failing, the culprit is
/usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf
The bug (with the dreaded WONTFIX) is at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1638842 . This is getting annoying.
I have added ",except:type:ethernet" to the end of its "unmanaged-devices" definition, however it may be that someone using Bluetooth or other unusual devices may just replace this file with an empty one.
In other news, I have found that apulse works for running Skype without PulseAudio, as long as ALSA is not trying to use PulseAudio. On Gentoo this means actually removing PulseAudio support, as opposed to having it inactive, however on distributions with binary packages that would be problematic. It happens that removing /usr/share/alsa/pulse-alsa.conf (and preventing it from being installed again) is sufficient.
/usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf
The bug (with the dreaded WONTFIX) is at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1638842 . This is getting annoying.
I have added ",except:type:ethernet" to the end of its "unmanaged-devices" definition, however it may be that someone using Bluetooth or other unusual devices may just replace this file with an empty one.
In other news, I have found that apulse works for running Skype without PulseAudio, as long as ALSA is not trying to use PulseAudio. On Gentoo this means actually removing PulseAudio support, as opposed to having it inactive, however on distributions with binary packages that would be problematic. It happens that removing /usr/share/alsa/pulse-alsa.conf (and preventing it from being installed again) is sufficient.