When updating, restarting hal leaves you without internet connection

[Matteo Settenvini]

This is critical if you want to run automatic updates, expecially on Ubuntu Server.

If some package installs fdi files, hal is restarted during the update process.

This terminates NetworkManager, and leaves you without an Internet connection. You've got to restart manually NetworkManager via "sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart".

Possible workaround/solution: restarting hal restarts also NetworkManager, if it was active before starting the upgrade.

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

Constantly happens. Seems due to a crash happening in NetworkManager every time hal is restarted.
Very problematic for Ubuntu Server!

Stacktrace:
  #0 0x08055f70 in nm_device_get_udi ()
  #1 0x08072fd3 in ?? ()
  #2 0x08073d22 in ?? ()
  #3 0x080827ba in _nm_marshal_VOID__STRING_STRING_POINTER ()
  #4 0xb7f05c9b in g_closure_invoke () from /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0
  #5 0xb7f1d685 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0
  #6 0xb7f1ed9e in g_signal_emit_valist () from /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0
  #7 0xb7f1f246 in g_signal_emit () from /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0
  #8 0x08069f8f in nm_hal_manager_query_devices ()
  #9 0x08072716 in ?? ()
  #10 0xb7f13ba4 in g_cclosure_marshal_VOID__VOID ()
     from /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please add the /var/log/syslog to your bug report as an attachment? Also you can submit more information for it by looking to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingNetworkManager , Thanks in advance.

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

I'll attach here also the crash file I got with symbols installed.
This bug is easily reproducible if you just type "/etc/init.d/hal force-reload" while NetworkManager is alive and connected.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you Matteo, for this information. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce the issue running the command you gave us. Is there another way to trigger it?

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

None that I know of; however, it happens almost *everytime* here, both through an update that triggers a hal restart, and restarting hal manually.

There are some (few) times that the crash doesn't happen when restarting hal, but let's say that I do hit it 90% of the times.

Is there some more information that I can provide? Should I try to start NetworkManager with gdb directly?

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

I attach a new apport crash report because this seems to contain a little bit more infos.

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

Still happening constantly.

[razor1394 (razor1394)]

This has happened all the way since Intrepid. I'm currently on Jaunty and it still happens.

[razor1394 (razor1394)]

Usually, I don't need to restart the service as a simple "sudo NetworkManager" is sufficient.

To clarify... This happens to all my i386 computers (4).

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

Changing to confirmed as per razor1394 comment.
Still happening with nm 0.7.1~rc3-0ubuntu2.

[Florin (tlenze)]

My Network Manager doesn't crash, but I lose my wireless connection whenever an update restarts HAL. It is even grayed out in the Network Manger menu. Not sure if this is a separate issue or not.

[razor1394 (razor1394)]

Seems to be solved with Jaunty i386 beta? NetworkManager seems to come right back up after going down during updates.

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

@Florin: that's the intended behaviour.

@razor1394: last crash I had more-or-less a week ago. Last updates went well,so probably it's fixed. If you don't hear anything from me in the next days, it means I haven't had any other crashes.

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

Assuming fixed, then.