No system-wide proxy for "automatic" proxy setting method

[Joshua Lock]

Ubuntu Version info:
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10

Software centre version info:
  Installed: 5.4.1.2
  Candidate: 5.4.1.2
  Version table:
 *** 5.4.1.2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I have a computer which is on a network with a proxy configured (where the "Apply system-wide" button was used) on which the USC fails to install software with an error dialogue of:

"Failed to download package files

Check your Internet connection."

I am able to browse the internet in Firefox and install packages from the command line using aptitude on this same computer.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

Is it just software-center? Or does e.g. update-manager also fails to connect to the network? Did you setup a https proxy as well?

[Joshua Lock (incandescant)]

You are quite right, since filing this report I've discovered that the update manager fails too. I am , however, able to update and install software by using aptitude on the command line.

I configured the proxy using the automatic method and entering a URL. I do have a https_proxy set in my environment.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

This is a problem with gnome-control-center/ubuntu-system-services. The static proxy setting are written to /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf but this is not done for the automatic proxy settings.

[Joshua Lock (incandescant)]

Quite right, I see there's no case for G_DESKTOP_PROXY_MODE_AUTO in on_proxy_apply_system_wide() of 50_ubuntu_systemwide_prefs.patch in gnome-control-center.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

What value should be written in the automatic mode case?

[Joshua Lock (incandescant)]

Of that I'm not really certain. I filed this report because as a user the behaviour surprised me that some things would be able to access the network and others wouldn't.

Having dug into the problem a little it's apparent that it's not trivial to solve - that doesn't mean that it's not worth solving, though.

Perhaps Ubuntu could integrate the PACRunner project[1], or something similar, and teach the various network dependant tools to talk to that rather than relying on environment variables?

Or perhaps the tools can be taught to use libproxy[2]?

At the very least maybe we should alert the user that the automatic settings will result in various things, such as software installation, possibly not working.

I suppose which resolution is chosen depends on how much of a priority seamless networking on proxied connections is for Ubuntu and the engineers involved.

1. http://git.kernel.org/cgit/network/connman/pacrunner.git
2. https://code.google.com/p/libproxy/

[Dehumanizer (pedro-timoteo)]

So, basically, the System Settings->Network->Network Proxy option, when set to Automatic Proxy, does nothing at all (Ubuntu 13.10 here)?

I've confirmed that, when setting it to my proxy.pac URL, it doesn't even attempt to fetch it (that is, nothing appears on the web server logs), unlike, say, Firefox, which fetches it on startup.