Ever thought of using "Ceni" as network manager? At the least on the minimal isos? Very stable application in my experience, maybe that is why I like it so much on my "unstable" systems. :)
Oooops, did a forum search after blazing away. Saw that this topic has been covered before. :-[
Ceni was the default network manager for the CLI edition before, but changed to network-manager.
Ceni doesn't support mobile devices, but nm does, even in text mode.
https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/sparky_cli
Thanks pavroo, I feel quite :-[ now. I have been reading the wiki, promise! But somehow ;D