Networking

Runink River uses NetworkManager, supervised by s6. In Plasma, the network applet in the panel (plasma-nm) handles wired, Wi-Fi and VPN connections; nmcli and nmtui do the same from a terminal.

During the install: network first

Setting up the network is the first thing the live session does, and every outcome is valid: online, lan-only or offline all continue, because the install copies the live system and downloads nothing. The live session’s tool is river-netsetup (automatic wired setup, Wi-Fi, static addresses, nmtui for anything else, or offline), with a read-only check:

river-netsetup --check     # links, addresses, routes, DNS, gateway, internet over IPv4 and IPv6

The internet check is a plain TCP connection to port 443 of a well-known host; nothing is downloaded. On a machine without a screen, the live medium also accepts the network setup on the kernel command line (river.net=dhcp, river.net=dhcp,v6only, river.net=static:ADDR/PREFIX,gw=...,dns=..., river.net=off). Wi-Fi passphrases are never accepted there, because every local user can read /proc/cmdline; use a config file (sudo river-netsetup --config FILE). The syntax is in docs/INSTALL.md (“Network first”).

On the installed system

If the installed system is not connected yet, connect from the panel applet, or:

nmcli device status                                  # interfaces and their state
nmcli device wifi list                               # Wi-Fi networks in range
nmcli --ask device wifi connect "Example Lab"        # asks for the passphrase

Static addresses

nmcli connection modify "Wired connection 1" \
  ipv4.method manual ipv4.addresses 192.0.2.10/24 ipv4.gateway 192.0.2.1 ipv4.dns 192.0.2.53 \
  ipv6.method manual ipv6.addresses 2001:db8::10/64 ipv6.gateway fe80::1
nmcli connection up "Wired connection 1"

IPv6-only networks

The default is dual-stack: IPv4 by DHCP and IPv6 by SLAAC or DHCPv6. On an IPv6-only network, turn IPv4 off for the connection so the machine does not wait for a DHCPv4 answer:

nmcli connection modify "Wired connection 1" ipv4.method disabled

Firewall

The host firewall and how to open a port are described in Firewall.