Network connections disappear from list after making available to all users

[Daniel Burton]

Binary package hint: network-manager

In the Gnome Network Manager Applet, when I edit connections and make them available to all users, they disappear from the Network Connections list, and I can no longer enable them. A file with the name of the connection appears under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections, but the connection never comes online. I never see any output in my log files that indicates the system is attempting to bring these connections online. I have tried this with both wireless and wired connections.

The set of steps to reproduce this is as follows:

1. Right click on the network manager applet and click on Edit Connections.
2. Click on Add and configure a new connection and fill in the information or click on Edit and edit existing one, changing some part of the network configuration
3. Make sure the Available to all users box is checked.
4. Click Apply.

Auto eth0 disappeared and stopped working after reconfigured it for a zerconf local network and clicked on Apply. In addition, the same thing happened when I attempted to create new connection provides for the interface eth0. After this, I attempted to do the same thing with wireless connections, just to see if the behavior would be the same - it was.

After doing this, the contents of /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections looked like this:

-rw------- 1 root root 550 2009-07-26 20:25 Auto Burton
-rw------- 1 root root 335 2009-07-26 21:45 Auto eth0
-rw------- 1 root root 284 2009-07-26 20:27 Auto eth1
-rw------- 1 root root 297 2009-07-26 20:45 Auto eth2
-rw------- 1 root root 303 2009-07-26 21:22 Foobar
-rw------- 1 root root 307 2009-07-26 21:22 Foobar2
-rw------- 1 root root 324 2009-07-26 20:46 Wired connection 1

Wired Connection 1, Foobar, and Foobar 2 are connections I created from scratch and attempted to make available to all users, after Auto eth0 disappeared. Auto Burton was an existing wireless network profile that I attempted to make available to all users.

Uninstalling network-manager with the --purge option and deleting this directory before reinstalling puts the system back into he default state, but the problem returns as soon as I attempt to make a connection available to all users again.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
IfupdownConfig: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/etc/network/interfaces'
InterestingModules: ath_hal
NonfreeKernelModules: ath_hal nvidia
Package: network-manager 0.7.1~rc4.1.cf199a964-0ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-13-generic i686

[Dana Goyette (danagoyette)]

I can confirm this same behavior; oddly enough, it only started happening for me after I upgraded to Karmic and NM 0.8.
network-manager package Version: 0.8~a~git.20090804t185522.4bab334-0ubuntu1

[Tony Espy (awe)]

I think there may be a slight misunderstanding on what it means to "Add" a network using the Connections Editor.

The applet only shows networks ( aka Wi-Fi access points ) that it sees in response to scanning. The client ( your laptop ), sends a Wi-Fi broadcast message that basically means ( "Hey, who's out there?" ). APs in range, reply and get added to the list of networks your machine sees. These are the networks listed in the applet menu.

If on the other hand, you add a new wireless network via the Connection Editor, and there's not a real physical AP with the name you used in range, you won't see it in the applet menu. You will still see it in the Connections Editor, even if you click "Available to all users".

If the network you're adding "does exist", and is range, then it's a different problem. Please confirm. For now, I'm going to mark as Incomplete.

Also note, I wasn't too sure of the purpose behind "Add" myself. I assumed it could be used to add a network for an AP that doesn't broadcast it's name ( ESSID ), however this isn't true, to connect to a hidden network, you have to use "Connect to hidden network..." from the applet menu.

[Daniel Burton (lordofthebrambles)]

I am talking about adding connections via the connection editor and having them disappear from its list. I am having this problem this for wired network connection, in addition to wireless ones. Also, the first wireless connection I attempted to make available to all users did exist, and I was in range. It actually still did appear in the list under the menu bar applet, just not in the connection editor list.

[Tony Espy (awe)]

OK, thanks for the clarification Daniel. I tested last night with NM 0.8 on Karmic and wasn't able to reproduce. I'll take another look today.

[Tony Espy (awe)]

OK, one more question...

When you add the new network, are you changing the "Connection Name" field at the top of the dialog? By default new networks created in this manner are named "Wireless Connection 1", "Wireless Connection 2", etc....

I just tried to reproduce and thought I'd confirmed it. I added a new network called UbuntuTest, and after saving it didn't appear in the list, although "Wireless Connection 1" did show up.

[Dana Goyette (danagoyette)]

For myself, I also see existing connections disappear from the list -- for example, my "Auto Home" connection, where Home is the SSID.
All it takes for me to see this happen is the following:
Connect to the network using the normal menu, and enter passphrase.
Then open the connection editor, check "available to all users" for Auto Home, and hit apply.
For me, the connection immediately disappears from the list in the editor; the next time I use the menu to connect, it asks for the passphrase again, as if it has never before connected to that network.
it is entirely possible these are two different issues, however.

[Daniel Burton (lordofthebrambles)]

Actually, I also have the behavior described in the last comment. This seems to be the same problem. What makes the connection disappear is making it available to all users, whether it is newly created or an existing connection that I am editing.

[Spang (hetkot)]

I was able to fix it a bit.
 * I had to comment out an existing eth0 connection.
 * Add a new connection available for all users (which disappeared) using nm-connection-editor running as root (with sudo).
 * Then restart networking with the init.d script and NetworkManager with the Upstart "restart" utility

Now I have a globally available connection.
I am forced to use DHCP, static configuration keeps on disappearing, but ok it's usable already.

Note: this was concerning a wired connection.

[Carl Heymann (ch-heymann)]

I'm having the same problems. Trying to make a 3g connection available for all users, but this just causes the connection to disappear. Spang's procedure doesn't help me: I can run through the whole 3g connection creation wizard, but afterwards the connection just never gets added to the list.

When running nm-connection-editor from command line, I get these lines in the process of trying to create the connection:

** (nm-connection-editor:6591): WARNING **: nm_connection_list_new: failed to load VPN plugins: Couldn't read VPN .name files directory /etc/NetworkManager/VPN.
** (nm-connection-editor:6591): WARNING **: Tried to set deprecated property gsm/band
** (nm-connection-editor:6591): WARNING **: Tried to get deprecated property gsm/puk
..

[David Girault (dfgweb)]

Hi all,
I think this bug is related to #391040

Another way to remove this bug may be found here.
To be short, try to set "managed=true" in [ifupdown] section in /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

[Ahmad Syukri Abdollah (syockit)]

Even upstream seems to be incomplete: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=589639

By the way David's workaround above works for the time being.

[mchiareli (mchiareli)]

This is not just about wired, this error is present for all kind of connection, DSL, Wireless, GSM, CDMA.

[Diuturno (filippoburanelli)]

I had the same problem. Wireless connection correctly working, but when I try to make "available to all users" the connection disappears and it disconnects. I followed the advice of David Girault (i.e. "managed=true"), then I rebooted. After the reboot all the connections previously disappeared now are visible and working. In addition (Off Topic) nm doesn't ask me to unlock the password keyring anymore. I was a bit upset about that! Many thanks

[Ari Hyttinen (ari-hyttinen-gmail)]

Got things working by adding "managed=true" as well (Lucid 10.04.1 upgraded from Karmic 9.10).

But nm-connection-editor definitely needs to be able manage this "managed" setting! Really frustrating to have configured network just disappear when selecting "Make available to all users". And then, first reaction is to reconfigure the network, and again it disappears... What's the use of a fancy GUI configuration tools, if user still has to go to command line to fix the mess?

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Well, this is fixed by way of a redesign of NM in 0.9; the Fix is available in Oneiric which will be released in October.

Unfortunately, it will not be possible to backport these changes.

Note that what you're seeing may have been due to configuration of eth0 or other devices in /etc/network/interfaces. If your connections don't need to be configured there and you want to use NetworkManager, you should be able to safely remove or comment them out.