Dbus Tutorial - Fun with Network Manager

Introduction
Introspection: figuring out the rules 
Fun with Network Manager
Create a service 
Gobject Introspection


Let's figure out how to use  dbus to get detailed information out of Network Manager (NM), and then to plug our own information back into NM.

Example #1: This script determines if a specific network is the active connection. This is handy for, say, mapping network printers or networked drives, or setting the time, or automating backups, or lots of other stuff.

#!/bin/sh
# What network am I on?

# Get the Active Connection path
# Result should be like: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/187
active_connection_path=$( dbus-send --system --print-reply \
                          --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
                          /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
                          org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
                          string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
                          string:"ActiveConnections" \
                          | grep ActiveConnection/ | cut -d'"' -f2 )

# Get the Access Point path
# Result should be like: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/194
access_point_path=$( dbus-send --system --print-reply \
                     --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
                     "$active_connection_path" \
                     org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
                     string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Connection.Active" \
                     string:"SpecificObject" \
                     | grep variant | cut -d'"' -f2 )

# Get the Access Point ESSID
# Result should be something like "NETGEAR"
essid=$( dbus-send --system --print-reply \
                   --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
                   "$access_point_path" \
                   org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
                   string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.AccessPoint" \
                   string:"Ssid" \
                   | grep variant | cut -d'"' -f2 )



# If we are on the HOME network
if [ "$essid"=="MyHomeNet" ]; then
   # Do network-specific changes here

elif [ "$essid"=="WorkCorporateNet" ]
   # Do network-specific changes here

else
   # Do changes for unrecognized network or no network at all here

fi
exit 0

Example #2: Disable networking

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"NetworkingEnabled" \
            variant:boolean:false

Example #3: Enable networking. It's exactly the same as the previous example, except for the last line.

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"NetworkingEnabled" \
            variant:boolean:true

Example #4: Check networking status

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"NetworkingEnabled"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.325 reply_serial=2
   variant       boolean true

Example #5: Disable Wireless

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"WirelessEnabled" \
            variant:boolean:false

Example #6: Enable Wireless

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"WirelessEnabled" \
            variant:boolean:true

Example #7: Check Wireless Status

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"WirelessEnabled"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.326 reply_serial=2
   variant       boolean true

Example #8:

Example #9: List all active network connections

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"ActiveConnections"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.328 reply_serial=2
   variant       array [
         object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/18"
      ]

Example #10: Which interface is the active connection using?

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/18 \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Connection.Active" \
            string:"Devices"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.331 reply_serial=2
   variant       array [
         object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0"

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0 \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Device" \
            string:"Interface"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.332 reply_serial=2
   variant       string "wlan0"

Example #11: Get the current wireless access point

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/18 \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Connection.Active" \
            string:"SpecificObject"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.334 reply_serial=2
   variant       object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/209"

Example #12: Get the list of all visible wireless access points

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager 
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0 \
            org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Device.Wireless.GetAccessPoints

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.333 reply_serial=2
   array [
      object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/209"
      object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/208"
      object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/207"
      object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/206"
   ]

Example #13: Read the SSID of the active wireless access point

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/209 \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.AccessPoint" \
            string:"Ssid"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.335 reply_serial=2
   variant       array of bytes "NETGEAR"

Example #14: Read the signal strength of the active wireless point

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/209 \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.AccessPoint" \
            string:"Strength"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.340 reply_serial=2
   variant       byte 54
# 54 in byte (hexadecimal) = 84 in decimal. Strength = 84%

Example #15: Read the stored NM connection that is currently active

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/18 \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Connection.Active" \
            string:"Connection"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.379 reply_serial=2
   variant       object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/10"

Example #16: Disconnect from the current network connection (auto-reconnect)

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.DeactivateConnection \
            objpath:"/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/18"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.370 reply_serial=2

Example #17: Disconnect from the current network connection and stay disconnected

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0 \
            org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Device.Disconnect

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.354 reply_serial=2

Example #18: Connect to a specific wireless network

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.ActivateConnection \
            objpath:"/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/10" \
            objpath:"/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0" \
            objpath:"/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/AccessPoint/209"

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.382 reply_serial=2
   object path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/20"

Example #19: Dump all information about an access point

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/10 \
            org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Settings.Connection.GetSettings

method return sender=:1.4 -> dest=:1.386 reply_serial=2
   array [## EDITED - it's really long]