Enabling/Disabling VPN crashes window manager

[Robert C Jennings]

When I click on a VPN connection in the Gnome top bar to enable or disable the connection the entire desktop session crashes and dumps me at the session login screen.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Hirsute Hippo (development branch)
Release: 21.04

$ loginctl show-session $(awk '/tty/ {print $1}' <(loginctl)) -p Type | awk -F= '{print $2}'
wayland

$ apt-cache policy network-manager
network-manager:
  Installed: 1.30.0-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.30.0-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.30.0-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ apt-cache policy gnome-shell
gnome-shell:
  Installed: 3.38.3-3ubuntu1
  Candidate: 3.38.3-3ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 3.38.3-3ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ dpkg-query -W|grep mutter
gir1.2-mutter-7:amd64 3.38.3-3ubuntu1
libmutter-7-0:amd64 3.38.3-3ubuntu1
mutter 3.38.3-3ubuntu1
mutter-common 3.38.3-3ubuntu1

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
Package: network-manager 1.30.0-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.10.0-14.15-generic 5.10.11
Uname: Linux 5.10.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu59
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Mar 8 14:12:44 2021
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-04-21 (1416 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Beta amd64 (20170404)
RebootRequiredPkgs:
 libssl1.1
 libssl1.1
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 1.30.0 connected started full enabled enabled disabled enabled enabled

[Robert C Jennings (rcj)]

This looks to be around the time of the issue where I disabled a VPN connection (from syslog):

Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: **
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: Clutter:ERROR:../clutter/clutter/clutter-stage.c:3785:on_device_actor_reactive_changed: assertion failed: (!clutter_actor_get_reactive (actor))
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: Bail out! Clutter:ERROR:../clutter/clutter/clutter-stage.c:3785:on_device_actor_reactive_changed: assertion failed: (!clutter_actor_get_reactive (actor))
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: GNOME Shell crashed with signal 6
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: == Stack trace for context 0x556edc56f150 ==
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #0 556edea1ffc0 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:390 (1162dc8fad80 @ 138)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #1 556edea1ff18 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/status/network.js:1429 (2ab06bf803d0 @ 171)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #2 556edea1fe80 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/status/network.js:171 (2ab06bf82560 @ 111)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #3 7ffef0da2770 b self-hosted:850 (b5d5c736d80 @ 454)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #4 556edea1fde0 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:411 (1162dc8face0 @ 56)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #5 556edea1fd48 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:398 (1162dc8fad30 @ 41)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat gnome-shell[677801]: #6 556edea1fca8 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:138 (1162dc8fb4c0 @ 88)
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
Mar 8 14:11:54 splat dbus-daemon[1286]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'

[Robert C Jennings (rcj)]

As a workaround for anyone, you can use nmcli to bring up a VPN connection.

Run `nmcli c` to get a list of connections, once you have the name you can enable it with `nmcli c up $name` or disable it with `nmcli c down $name`.

[Robert C Jennings (rcj)]

@3v1n0 (Marco Trevisan) has pointed out https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1651 as a possible fix

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Should be fixed by https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1651