network-manager service doesn't start at boot time

[amichair]

I just completed the upgrade from Kubuntu 14.04 to 14.10. Haven't had any network trouble before the upgrade. After the upgrade, the network-manager service does not start when the computer boots up - the Kubuntu splash screen says 'waiting for network configuration', then 'waiting another 60 seconds for network configuration' (or something like that), then finally boots up without a network connection. Also the Network Management tray icon tooltip says that the network-manager service is not running. However if I then manually open the terminal and run 'sudo service network-manager start', then it starts ok and the network connects within a few seconds and everything works ok until the next reboot. I'm on a desktop PC with a wired LAN connection and no wifi adapter. network-manager version is 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu28.

[amichair (amichai2)]

After wasting a whole day on this, I think I found the culprit. I had to delete a whole bunch of files named 'sendmail' which were scattered around /etc (/etc/ppp/ip-up.d/sendmail /etc/ppp/ip-down.d/sendmail /etc/network/if-post-down.d/sendmail /etc/network/if-up.d/sendmail /etc/network/if-down.d/sendmail /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks.d/sendmail /etc/resolvconf/update-libc.d/sendmail, and there are a few more that should probably also be deleted). Note that I do not have the sendmail package installed at all!

I do not know, however, why the upgrade to 14.10 triggered this failure. Maybe it removed something related to sendmail, or started doing something with these files that were previously ignored... dunno. In any case, it's a pretty serious upgrade bug, since it prevents the network from connecting, and is quite non-trivial to trace back to its origin (there were lots of other errors/warnings in syslog that seemed related but weren't, and nothing there about these sendmail files or a hint as to the cause of failure).

The indirect reason this happens on wired connections is probably that there is a correlation between hosts which at some point had sendmail installed and those that are on a wired connection :-)

Please fix this issue quickly before others upgrade and lose their connectivity... (already encountered someone else with the same symptoms).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Valorie Zimmerman (valorie-zimmerman)]

My difficulties also began upon upgrade. However, I get no warning. I'm running the Plasma 5 desktop, so I have the new nm widget.

In spite of configuring my home wireless setup, including proper password, etc. and selecting "connect automatically on start" - it never does. I have to click the widget and click the connect *every*time*. Really annoying.

If there is a network problem it doesn't autoconnect once the router has been reset either, which in 14.04 it did without a hiccup.

[bit.ly/danielsilion (siliond)]

@amichair
Your workaround worked for me.

Thank you,
Daniel
bit.ly/danielsilion

[mrkwenz (mrkwenzel)]

Updated lubuntu from 14.04 to 14.10 today. Had the same issue. #1 worked for me. Had installed sendmail in the past. I tracked down that the /etc/network/if-*.d/sendmail scripts were the culprit. Just moved them to sendmail.bak (in if-up, if-down and if-post-down) and now everything works fine. Thank you!

[Jens Jäschke (brokenphysics)]

I am/was also affected by this bug and can confirm that it is caused by leftover files from a former sendmail installation.
Because of this, I'll add the sendmail package to the bug.

Reinstalling sendmail removed the bug.
Doing an "apt-get purge" on all sendmail-related packages also removed the bug (and the offending files).

@ amichair Thank you for figuring this out! You probably saved me much time!

[Urop (urop)]

Yep. Likewise. Uninstalled sendmail on Ubuntu 14.04. Upgraded to 14.10. Subsequently had "waiting for network configuration" during boot, and no network conection and no network manager after boot. Reinstalled sendmail, restarted, and then purged the newly installed sendmail. Now everything seems to be working as normal.

[Urop (urop)]

Oh.. I should add: It wasn't just that the network manager wasn't there on boot, as in the bug title. If the network-manager service was started, the network manager would appear, but pretty much every entry in the drop-down would be greyed out, so no connections could be established, such as wireless/VPN etc. The only way I could get an internet connection was to first start the network-manager service and then plug in a cable.

[Romain Lebreton (romainlebreton)]

I may have another look at the problem.
I was experiencing the same "waiting for network configuration" issue after installing sendmail. I looked at my /var/log/upstart/network-interface-lo.log and network-manager.log log files and I found this.
       /etc/network/if-up.d/sendmail: 44: .: Can't open /usr/share/sendmail/dynamic
       run-parts: /etc/network/if-up.d/sendmail exited with return code 2
Indeed, the line 44 of the script /etc/network/if-up.d/sendmail calls another script /usr/share/sendmail/dynamic that does not exists.
My (bad) patch was to comment line 44 of /etc/network/if-up.d/sendmail which solved the "waiting for network configuration" issue at startup.
Hope it helps !

[helpdeskdan (helpdeskdan-gmail)]

$ sudo ls -l /usr/share/sendmail/dynamic
ls: cannot access '/usr/share/sendmail/dynamic': No such file or directory

Thank you Romain, hopefully this can be fixed.