VPN - "Additional Search Domains" Settings are being Ignored

[Lonnie Lee Best]

During configuring of a VPN, Network Manager normally allows you to specify "additional Search Domains" that are located on the virtual private network:

http://neartalk.com/ss/2016-10-16_001_601x625.png

However, in Ubuntu 16.10 the network manager is ignoring the "additional Search Domains" that I've specified at the dialog I've linked above.

Normally, after connecting to a VPN (where additional Search Domains are specified), the command (below) will show (in addition to your local Search Domains) the remote Search Domains (located on the VPN):

nmcli dev show | grep DOMAIN

Unfortunately, in Ubuntu 16.10, this is not working. Consequently, I cannot resolve remote computers by their computer-name because the "Search Domains" I've specified are not getting appended to the computer-names I'm pinging.

I've confirm this issue on both OpenVPN and Cisco vpnc connections. The additional Search Domains are not making it here:

nmcli dev show | grep DOMAIN

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.10
Package: network-manager 1.2.4-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.8.0-22.24-generic 4.8.0
Uname: Linux 4.8.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.3-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Oct 16 10:16:04 2016
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-10-13 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak" - Release amd64 (20161012.2)
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE STARTUP CONNECTIVITY NETWORKING WIFI-HW WIFI WWAN-HW WWAN
 running 1.2.4 connected started full enabled disabled disabled enabled enabled

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

I've reproduced this bug on a completely fresh installation of Ubuntu 16.10

Steps:

1) Install these packages:
sudo apt install network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-vpnc-gnome

2) Create an openVPN or cisco-vpnc VPN-Connection and input the additional search domains of the network you are connecting to here: http://neartalk.com/ss/2016-10-16_001_601x625.png

3) Connect to the VPN

4) Try to find the Additional search domains you've configured in the VPN:
nmcli dev show | grep DOMAIN

(you won't find them)

In Ubuntu 16.04, "nmcli dev show" would show the additional search domains specified in the VPN configuration. In 16.10, they do not show up and additional search domains do not work.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

Can someone else please confirm this bug?

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

After doing a fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04 into a fresh virtual machine without doing any upgrades both "VPN - Additional DNS Server" and "VPN- Additional Search Domains" worked.

However, these features *stopped working* after doing an upgrade like this:
sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get upgrade

I've attached to this post, a log of the initial install (time stamped), and if you scroll to the bottom you can see a list of upgrades (time stamped).

One of these upgrades broke both "VPN - Additional DNS Server" and "VPN- Additional Search Domains" functionality!

Most likely, one of these is the culprit:

2016-10-19 18:18:44 upgrade network-manager:amd64 1.2.0-0ubuntu0.16.04.3 1.2.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.3
2016-10-19 18:18:45 upgrade network-manager-gnome:amd64 1.2.0-0ubuntu0.16.04.3 1.2.0-0ubuntu0.16.04.4

See attachment.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

Work-around:

Using Synaptic Package Manager, downgrading the network-manager package to version 1.1.93-0ubuntu4 and restarting the network-manager causes the unwanted behavior to stop.

Work around steps:

1) Install Synaptic Package Manager
sudo apt-get install synaptic

2) Search for "network-manager" (no quotes), and then select "network-manager" so that it is highlighted.

3) In the "Package" menu, select "Force Version" and choose 1.1.93-0ubuntu4 from the drop-down-menu:
http://neartalk.com/ss/2016-10-19_005_1918x1077.png

4) Click the Apply button

5) Restart the network-manger service:
sudo service network-manager restart

6) Reconnect to your vpn

After these steps I was able to ping computers on the remote VPN network by their computer-name without having to explicitly type the "Search Domain" portion of their address, as prescribed by the "Additional Search Domain" option in the VPN configuration dialog.

This is only a work-around, there is definitely a bug in network-manager version 1.2.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.3.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

Related:

- https://bugs.launchpad.net/network-manager-applet/+bug/1633874

- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1629611

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.