I tried to create an Ad-Hoc WiFi network but it failed due to dnsmasq
not being installed. Luckily I figured I should look at syslog:

Dec  2 20:08:09 chianamo NetworkManager[1956]: <error> [1291291689.837124] [nm-device.c:2434] start_sharing(): (wlan0/wlan0): failed to start dnsmasq: Could not find dnsmasq binary

There should be some feedback in the UI if it fails due dnsmasq /
iptables / etc being missing. Preferably the creation dialog should
detect lack of those binaries and present an error message instead of
allowing the user to attempt to create the connection. After I installed
dnsmasq-base, creating an ad-hoc network worked fine.

severity 605697 wishlist
thanks

Hi
the package description it says:

optional dependencies:
..
* dnsmasq-base/iptables: Required for creating Ad-hoc connections and
 connection sharing.


With Recommends being installed by default, you explicitly need to remove it or
mark it to not be installed, and in that case you usually should know what
you're doing (and hopefully read the information that is provided).

Sorry to say this, but this is a very low prio bug for me. If there is a patch,
I'll review it, but I probably won't work on it myself.

Thanks,
Michael

Well aware of all that.

Please at least forward this upstream.