Web-login page for captive portals not opening on public wireless networks

[Karl Kastner]

On Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS Focal Fossa the web page to log on to public wireless networks does not open. Without this, it is not possible to access public networks in cafes and hotels. It neither works with Firefox, Chrome nor Konqueror. I could ping the gateway so the redirection to the web login page seems to fail. In Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10, the login page opens as expected on the same machine.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: network-manager 1.22.10-1ubuntu2.1
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-050800-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.12
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Jan 10 18:11:46 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-11-05 (1893 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Beta amd64 (20150805)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlp3s0 proto dhcp src 192.168.1.136 metric 302
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlp3s0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev wlp3s0 proto dhcp scope link src 192.168.1.136 metric 302
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-09-10 (122 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.NetworkManager.NetworkManager.conf: [modified]
modified.conffile..etc.apport.crashdb.conf: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.NetworkManager.NetworkManager.conf: 2019-02-11T22:32:49.282695
mtime.conffile..etc.apport.crashdb.conf: 2019-03-07T21:28:39.455024
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE IP4-CONNECTIVITY IP6-CONNECTIVITY DBUS-PATH CONNECTION CON-UUID CON-PATH
 wlp3s0 wifi connected full full /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/2 Linksys01382 1 cdc94299-456e-46e1-8487-08b668336342 /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/4
 p2p-dev-wlp3s0 wifi-p2p disconnected none none /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/3 -- -- --
 lo loopback unmanaged unknown unknown /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1 -- -- --
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE STARTUP CONNECTIVITY NETWORKING WIFI-HW WIFI WWAN-HW WWAN
 running 1.22.10 connected started full enabled enabled enabled enabled enabled

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Carsten Agger (agger)]

I experienced this recently while staying on a hotel in London. While I managed to get online on my Android phone, it was annoying - would be good to see it fixed so it works out of the box.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Could you add the 'journalctl -b 0' log from a system having the issue next time you hit the bug?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Unsure if the issue is due to network-manager if the firefox portal isn't working either

[Karl Kastner (kastner-karl)]

I found meanwhile that the web login worked at most other places I have been to since then. Thus, Ubuntu 20.04 seems to ignore the captive portal only under particular circumstances which indicates that one of the less common captive portal variants does not work.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for network-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]