At random times NM applet menu stops responding

[Teo]

At random times, Network Manager's whole menu stops working.

If I'm already connected (I mainly use wifi), then network keeps working fine, however none of the items in the menu does anything.

Examples,
I click on Edit Networks => nothing happens.
I click on Disconnect => nothing happens
I click on more networks => a tiny empty submenu is shown (instead of a list of available wifi networks, and there are plenty of them here)

Rebooting fixes the issue.

This is almost certainly a regression in a recent update, as I never experienced this until recently.

This may be happening after suspend/resume, but I'm not sure.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: network-manager 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-26.41-generic 3.2.19
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-26-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Jun 29 21:43:29 2012
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.67 metric 2
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-17 (43 days ago)
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
 wlan0 802-11-wireless connected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
 eth0 802-3-ethernet unavailable /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE NET-ENABLED WIFI-HARDWARE WIFI WWAN-HARDWARE WWAN
 running 0.9.4.0 connected enabled enabled enabled enabled enabled

[Teo (teo1978)]

It has just happened WITHOUT suspending and resuming.
It was working fine, after a reboot; then I disconnected and reconnected many times, to different networks, and it was working; and after a long time, when trying to disconnect and reconnect to a different network, the issue appeared.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Taylor Raack (track16)]

I have the exact same issue. Also wondering if it might have to do with suspend / resume. I'll try to get some output logs from running nm-applet manually and grabbing log output.

[Aaron Roydhouse (aaron-roydhouse)]

I have had it every since the 11.10 Unity release. It affects menus and non-Unity system tray icon menus also (like shutter, empathy, reminna). I believe it is actually a Unity/Compiz problem rather than Network Manager specific. It definitely does not require a suspend/restore to happen, just enough time/activity.

What happens is after a period of use, usually less that a day, some kind of resource appear to run out or have leaked itself out. Then various things that require the resources stop works; so dynamically-created menus tend to be the first victims. The Network Manager VPN menu is definitely once of the most crippling because I know no work-around. Certainly no amount of restarting NM etc, will help. Logging out and logging back in again will fix it for a few hours, then you'll be screwed again.

I suspect, without any proof of knowledge, that the fault hits when you get close to needing to page or reclaim memory. I have 8GB and usually would be at ~7GB in used for applications/VM when it hits. That could just be coincidence though.

I have given up expecting any of major Unity bugs to get fixed, so I just live with it until I get my next laptop, which of course will definitely not have Unity. Maybe Mint, or hell, Windows XP would be a step up at this stage :-)

In the meantime, if anyone has any work-around that doesn't require a log-out I'd love to hear about it.

[Teo (teo1978)]

@Aaron, my workaround is to kill nm-applet (not Metwork Manager itself) and restart it. It does fix the issue for me... for a few hours, until it appears again (but that also applies to logging out and in).

It's annoying though because the only way I know of doing this is from a terminal, and then I am obliged to keep the terminal open forever (even though I relaunch nm-applet with "nm-applet &" with the "&"). But I guess someone can give us a solution for this?

[Ryan Carter (vaelen989)]

Can confirm that this affects me as well (12.04 up to date as of today)

@matteosistisette I have been been launching nm-applet from the alt+F2 run dialog so that I don't have to keep a terminal open, give that a try.

[Alexandre Grojsgold (alexandre-grojsgold)]

It is still happening with 13.04. Workaround, from a terminal window:

killall nm-applet
nohup nm-applet &

Always works.

Could not associate with any other event, apparently it happens at random times.

[Dawid Wróbel (dawidw)]

Can also confirm this bug is still here in 13.04.

[Ben Gamari (bgamari)]

Has anyone observed this recently?