Multiple Network Authentication Dialogs

[Otus]

Network Manager opens multiple windows asking network authentication.

If network signal is weak, this can happen automatically as NM loses the network then finds it again, asking for authentication. This can result in tens of windows after a few hours, if unsupervised.

To test manually:

1. Select a wireless network for which no password has been saved from nm-applet.
2. The dialog pops up.
3. Without closing the dialog, reselect the network from nm-applet.
4. A second (identical) dialog pops up.
(Expected: The old dialog is reused, or is closed as stale.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: network-manager 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-29.46-generic-pae 3.2.24
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.315
Date: Mon Oct 1 14:22:27 2012
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.0.1 dev wlan0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.0.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.15 metric 2
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120817.3)
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-con:
 NAME UUID TYPE TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP-REAL AUTOCONNECT READONLY DBUS-PATH
 Wired connection 1 12cd62ad-698e-4507-a944-0d89176544fd 802-3-ethernet 1349083407 Mon 01 Oct 2012 12:23:27 PM EEST yes no /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/2
 penthouse a48953a3-d68b-41b9-81bb-4d2027587186 802-11-wireless 1349090319 Mon 01 Oct 2012 02:18:39 PM EEST yes no /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/1
 temp d3d7b612-ca12-4fe1-8cfd-2d0d1b2eb3f6 802-11-wireless 1348708389 Thu 27 Sep 2012 04:13:09 AM EEST yes no /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/0
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
 eth0 802-3-ethernet unavailable /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
 wlan0 802-11-wireless connected /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 disabled

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Myk Dowling (politas)]

This also happens when the Wifi signal is a little flaky with networks that do have a password entered already. Sometimes, I've woken up my laptop to find over a hundred dialog boxes asking me to enter/confirm the password for my home wifi.

[Otus (jan-varho)]

This is fixed in (at least) raring, but it would be great to get the fix backported to precise as well, so someone with the powers should mark it as affecting Precise before marking it fixed for Ubuntu.

[Otus (jan-varho)]

I take that back. I can't reproduce manually by trying to connect to the same network without giving credentials, but I just woke up to ten dialogs, so apparently a poor signal can still cause it.

[Steve Magoun (smagoun)]

I reproduced this in 14.04 by leaving a machine idle for 2 weeks. When I returned to it, there were (if my math is right) 3196 authentication dialogs onscreen.