Installation of network-manager-config-connectivity-ubuntu fails when installing ubuntu-desktop task from mini.iso

[Thomas Ward]

Installation of this package as part of the Ubuntu Desktop task fails if being executed from the mini.iso after installation. This is due to teh Network Manager service not running when it tries to install itself.

This seems like it might be related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1726958 in some way, as they both happened on a 17.10 installation installed from the mini.iso and the command line (no GUI initially).

This issue does *not* happen with the Ubuntu Desktop ISOs.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: network-manager-config-connectivity-ubuntu 1.8.4-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Oct 24 13:17:34 2017
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.226.2 dev ens33 proto dhcp src 192.168.226.131 metric 100
 192.168.226.0/24 dev ens33 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.226.131
 192.168.226.2 dev ens33 proto dhcp scope link src 192.168.226.131 metric 100
IwConfig:
 ens33 no wireless extensions.

 lo no wireless extensions.
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RfKill:

SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-con: NAME UUID TYPE TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP-REAL AUTOCONNECT AUTOCONNECT-PRIORITY READONLY DBUS-PATH ACTIVE DEVICE STATE ACTIVE-PATH SLAVE
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH CONNECTION CON-UUID CON-PATH
 ens33 ethernet unmanaged /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/2 -- -- --
 lo loopback unmanaged /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1 -- -- --
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE STARTUP CONNECTIVITY NETWORKING WIFI-HW WIFI WWAN-HW WWAN
 running 1.8.4 disconnected started unknown enabled enabled enabled enabled enabled

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, could you give details on the error you get?

[Thomas Ward (teward)]

Sebastien:

Yeah, it complains because when it tries to execute its postinstall tasks, the Network Manager service isn't yet started.

My suggestion would be to test if the service is actually in a 'running' state or not before trying to install, and if not, attempt to start the service. That's probably just a handful of lines in the postinst file, but that's the exact error, it fails to configure proper in its postinstallation tasks because the service wasn't running and it couldn't connect to it.

[Thomas Ward (teward)]

Note that if you manually start the network manager service and then do `apt-get install -f` or `sudo dpkg-reconfigure network-manager-config-connectivity-ubuntu`, it appears to work. So something in the apt ordering is not starting network manager once it's been installed, so a `sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop^` call as per the wiki to emulate the tasksel task itself post-install of the system will fail only on that package.

This assumes of course one's starting from a barebones mini.iso installation, and hasn't done any custom configuration.