Unable to connect to VPN while on a network connection that is not managed by network manager

[Peter Bašista]

I needed to use my network connection before login, so I had to disable it in network manager and set it up using /etc/network/interfaces instead. However, I would still like to use VPN connections which I have already stored in Network Manager. But as I have tried to do it, "something" crashed. Ubuntu error reporting says it was gnome-control-center, I don't know, haven't looked much into it.

Apparently, there is a problem with activating VPN connections in network manager while not being connected to any network via network manager (but of course, being connected to some network using other methods). The fact that it is not possible is ridiculous. Why? The VPN connection itself should only be dependent on whether the underlying interface is connected to some network or not... There should be no ties with network-manager-specific status of connections regarding this interface. It is absolutely irrelevant.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu13
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-7.15-generic 3.8.0
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-7-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.8-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Feb 24 12:31:27 2013
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-control-center
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-13 (42 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha amd64 (20130112)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcCmdline: gnome-control-center network
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SegvAnalysis:
 Segfault happened at: 0x7f2ddd2b8b80: mov 0x8(%rax),%edx
 PC (0x7f2ddd2b8b80) ok
 source "0x8(%rax)" (0x00000008) not located in a known VMA region (needed readable region)!
 destination "%edx" ok
SegvReason: reading NULL VMA
Signal: 11
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
StacktraceTop:
 ?? () from /usr/lib/control-center-1/panels/libnetwork.so
 g_closure_invoke () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0
 ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0
 g_signal_emit_valist () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0
 g_signal_emit () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0
Title: [network]: gnome-control-center crashed with SIGSEGV in g_closure_invoke()
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
usr_lib_gnome-control-center:
 activity-log-manager-control-center 0.9.4-0ubuntu6.1
 deja-dup 25.5-0ubuntu1
 gnome-control-center-signon 0.1.2bzr12.12.05-0ubuntu1
 gnome-control-center-unity 1.2daily13.02.15-0ubuntu1
 indicator-datetime 12.10.3daily13.02.06-0ubuntu1

[Apport retracing service (apport)]

StacktraceTop:
 device_off_toggled (vpn=0x7f2e26ac5320, sw=<optimized out>, pspec=<optimized out>) at net-vpn.c:368
 device_off_toggled (sw=<optimized out>, pspec=<optimized out>, vpn=0x7f2e26ac5320) at net-vpn.c:344
 g_closure_invoke (closure=0x7f2e26ad1820, return_value=0x0, n_param_values=2, param_values=0x7ffff71b8ad0, invocation_hint=0x7ffff71b8a70) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.35.8/./gobject/gclosure.c:777
 signal_emit_unlocked_R (node=node@entry=0x7f2e26473cf0, detail=detail@entry=1063, instance=instance@entry=0x7f2e26a1ce90, emission_return=emission_return@entry=0x0, instance_and_params=instance_and_params@entry=0x7ffff71b8ad0) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.35.8/./gobject/gsignal.c:3566
 g_signal_emit_valist (instance=0x7f2e26a1ce90, signal_id=<optimized out>, detail=1063, var_args=var_args@entry=0x7ffff71b8d28) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.35.8/./gobject/gsignal.c:3314

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The bug hasn't seen any activity in years and there has been no recent similar reports, the code also changed quite a lot since and it's likely the issue doesn't exist anymore. Closing, feel free to open a new report if you still get problems in recent Ubuntu versions