F44 Change Proposal: Stop Creating Default Network Profiles By Anaconda [SystemWide]

[rvykydal (Radek Vykydal)]

F44 Change Proposal: StopCreatingDefaultNetworkProfilesByAnaconda [SystemWide]

Wiki

Announced

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

Traditionally Anaconda installer used to create default network profiles (NetworkManager ifcfg files or keyfiles) on the installed sytem for each wired device. With the change only the devices configured during installation (by boot options, kickstart or interactively in UI) will have the profile on the installed system.

The change affects only non-Live ISO installation variants like Fedora Server Network Install or DVD ISO. On Live ISO variants (like Fedora Workstation) the default profiles are not created by anaconda (and Live environment tools are used for network configuration).

Owner

• Name: [[User:rvykydal| Radek Vykydal]]
• Email: rvykydal@redhat.com

Detailed Description

The reasons for the current behavior - creating of the default profiles for each wired network device - were from large part technical, imposed by the architecture of the installer network configuration module. The Anaconda default profiles were created at the initial stage of installation from NetworkManager connections where possible - either by dumping a connection (for example ‘Wired Connection’ created in initramfs) - or cloning a default connection (‘Wired Connection 1’ created after switchroot) with connection id updated to the interface name. In cases where reusing the connection created by NM was not possible Anaconda created new connection on its own via NetworkManager API. In some cases Anaconda was also updating some values of the connections like addr-gen-mode.

Over the years there were requests from the users to stop creating the profiles for unconfigured devices - only the devices configured in installer should have persistent profile created on the installed system. The updates in the NewtworkManager backend and its integration in the installer, together with improved CI coverage, now allows to drop the default connections and by this also to address several long term issues:

• There were bugs reported related to the default connections present on the installed system unexpectedly by the users (2031385 – Generating a network bridge config in kickstart %pre causes double-config, Bug Access Denied, https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-100200). In some cases the profiles prevented proper activation of virtual connections configured by the user. The issues were usually addressed by installer by updating already complex logic for management of the profiles by the installer. For port devices installer already stopped to create the profiles recently (Do not create default wired connections for bond ports by rvykydal · Pull Request #5703 · rhinstaller/anaconda · GitHub).
• On the Live ISO installations (as Fedora Workstation) the installer network configuration UI and the connection management had to be disabled because it was conflicting with the Gnome configuration tools present in the environment. In scope of the ongoing move towards the WebUI graphical user interface the installer team aims to provide UI that can seamlessly integrate with other tools, usable both in Live ISO environment and installer image environment (for example Server variant using Netinst ISO or DVD ISO), preferably reusing Cockpit network configuration module. This requires dropping some parts of installer network connections management - with this change being an important step (see https://issues.redhat.com/browse/INSTALLER-3088).
• Significant part of installer users work around the current behavior by removing the default connections created by installer in their custom kickstart ‘%post’ scripts or other installation post-processing ([Making sure you're not a bot! fedora-cloud-base.ks] for example).
• There was already a request from NetworkManager side for installer team to drop creating of default profiles: network: remove dumpMissingDefaultIfcfgs by lkundrak · Pull Request #1588 · rhinstaller/anaconda · GitHub. Installer team was not able to prioritize it to be addressed yet.

Feedback

The feedback we were getting from the community over the past years was asking for removing of the default Anaconda profiles, as pointed out in the Detailed Description.

On the other hand we may expect negative feedback triggered by potential need for adaptation to the new behavior.

Benefit to Fedora

• Improved consistency - persistent profiles exist only for configured devices.
• Single point of truth for defaults - installer steps out of the business of creating default network profiles (name, id, binding) and even setting its default values.
• User perspective: no unexpected network configuration produced by installation. Workarounds for removing undesired profiles in post installation steps are no more needed.
• More flexibility for network configuration tooling choices in the installer environment (like LiveISO).
• Makes shared use of Cockpit network configuration module in installer WebUI for non-live ISO variants feasible.

Scope

• Proposal owners: replace the DumpMissingConfigFiles API with API for just persisting initramfs configuration. The work is in advanced progress in Stop creating Anaconda default network connections by rvykydal · Pull Request #6787 · rhinstaller/anaconda · GitHub.
• Other developers: potentially adapt scripts and tools assuming existence of the persistent profiles for non-configured devices
• Release engineering: [Making sure you're not a bot! #Releng issue number]
• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Alignment with the Fedora Strategy:

Upgrade/compatibility impact

Upgrades impact: none, the change is applied only to newly installed systems.

Compatibility impact: automation tools used to post process network configuration of systems after installation might need adjustments if they are working with network profiles without verifying its existence

Early Testing (Optional)

Do you require ‘QA Blueprint’ support? Y/N

How To Test

The change can be tested by installing Fedora variants which are using installer environment iso (boot.iso, netinst or DVD, for example Fedora Server) on various installation scenarios with or without network configuration in installer:

• via boot options (for example ‘ip=dhcp’, ‘ip=enp1s0:dhcp’)
• via kickstart (‘network’ command)
• via text UI
• via Gtk UI
  The devices not configured by any of these means should not have persistent configuration profile on installed system (in ‘/etc/NetworkManager/system-connecitons’). See also the examples in the User Experience section.

User Experience

Example 1: Fedora Server Network Installation, no network configuration during installation.

Without the change - state after installed system reboot:
root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# nmcli con

NAME     UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE..

enp0s22  2c4fb9f7-feab-3c4e-a4d5-549b34feab67  ethernet  enp0s22.

lo       eff6e9ee-ffe6-4cd8-8d91-a131d75ccdaf  loopback  lo......

root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# ls /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/

enp0s22.nmconnection

root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s22.nmconnection.

[connection]

id=enp0s22

uuid=2c4fb9f7-feab-3c4e-a4d5-549b34feab67

type=ethernet

autoconnect-priority=-999

interface-name=enp0s22

timestamp=1765956677

[ethernet]

[ipv4]

method=auto

[ipv6]

addr-gen-mode=eui64

method=auto

[proxy]

With the change - state after installed system reboot:
root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# nmcli con

NAME                UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE..

Wired connection 1  3500649e-c341-3a36-bb89-02e29d6f6f4f  ethernet  enp0s22.

lo                  4147084d-dedd-4513-aed2-bb8ecbe0b26e  loopback  lo......

root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# ls /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/

root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# ls /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/

 lo.nmconnection  'Wired connection 1.nmconnection'

root@ibm-p8-kvm-03-guest-02:~# cat /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/Wired\ connection\ 1.nmconnection.

[connection]

id=Wired connection 1

uuid=3500649e-c341-3a36-bb89-02e29d6f6f4f

type=ethernet

autoconnect-priority=-999

interface-name=enp0s22

timestamp=1765959194

[ethernet]

[ipv4]

method=auto

[ipv6]

addr-gen-mode=default

method=auto

[proxy]

[.nmmeta]

nm-generated=true

Example 2: Fedora Server DVD installation with network device unplugged during installation and plugged in before booting installed system. No network configuration during installation.

Without the change - state after installed system reboot:
root@dhcp193:~# nmcli con

NAME    UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE.

lo      60c2b452-c923-44b7-b119-484f1fc119dc  loopback  lo.....

enp1s0  f986e267-90bc-4e3a-bc89-d16ffa581246  ethernet  --.....

root@dhcp193:~# ls /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/

enp1s0.nmconnection

root@dhcp193:~# ls /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/

lo.nmconnection

root@dhcp193:~# cat /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp1s0.nmconnection

[connection]

id=enp1s0

uuid=f986e267-90bc-4e3a-bc89-d16ffa581246

type=ethernet

autoconnect=false

interface-name=enp1s0

[ethernet]

[ipv4]

method=auto

[ipv6]

addr-gen-mode=eui64

method=auto

[proxy]

With the change - state after installed system reboot (is the same as in Example 1):
root@dhcp193:~# nmcli con

NAME                UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE

Wired connection 1  9196327c-a909-3cda-8733-06d6c77546f9  ethernet  enp1s0

lo                  64f89f2c-85c8-40eb-92bf-b6712e3162d5  loopback  lo

root@dhcp193:~# ls /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/

root@dhcp193:~# ls /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/

 lo.nmconnection  'Wired connection 1.nmconnection'

root@dhcp193:~# cat /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/Wired\ connection\ 1.nmconnection

[connection]

id=Wired connection 1

uuid=9196327c-a909-3cda-8733-06d6c77546f9

type=ethernet

autoconnect-priority=-999

interface-name=enp1s0

timestamp=1765961287

[ethernet]

[ipv4]

method=auto

[ipv6]

addr-gen-mode=default

method=auto

[proxy]

[.nmmeta]

nm-generated=true

Dependencies

It is possible that some Anaconda installer clients performing installed system post processing will need to adapt to the change, expecting the Anaconda default profiles existing (for their modification, removal, etc).

Regarding system management / configuration tools, I think the risk they may assume the profiles existing on the installed system is reasonably small, and the tools should be able to handle their removing without issues.

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: Reverting the change.
• Contingency deadline: Beta freeze
• Blocks release? No

Documentation

I am not aware of the current behavior being documented anywhere else then in the [pyanaconda.modules.network.network_interface — Anaconda 44.9 documentation DumpMissingConfigFiles API].

The new behavior should be the one users would expected by default, so no explicit documentation is required.

The change of behavior will be documented in release notes.

Release Notes

\n

Last edited by @alking 2025-12-19T18:24:28Z

Last edited by @alking 2025-12-19T18:24:28Z

[system]

How do you feel about the proposal as written?

• Strongly in favor
• In favor, with reservations
• Neutral
• Opposed, but could be convinced
• Strongly opposed

If you are in favor but have reservations, or are opposed but something could change your mind, please explain in a reply.

We want everyone to be heard, but many posts repeating the same thing actually makes that harder. If you have something new to say, please say it. If, instead, you find someone has already covered what you’d like to express, please simply give that post a instead of reiterating. You can even do this by email, by replying with the heart emoji or just “+1”. This will make long topics easier to follow.

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[alking (Allison King)]

Spaces were added to the title of this proposal due to Discourse requirements with respect to title clarity

[siosm (Timothée Ravier)]

The title of the posts here should be taken from the first title of the Wiki page change page, and not from the name that is part of the URL as that is arbitrarily constrained by MediaWiki.

[alking (Allison King)]

This change proposal has now been submitted to FESCo with ticket #3525 for voting.

To find out more, please visit our Changes Policy documentation.

[alking (Allison King)]

This change has been approved by FESCo and will be included in Fedora Linux 44.
To find out more about how our changes policy works, please visit our docs site.

FESCo Issue: Making sure you're not a bot!