NetManager crashes from time to time

[A.Kromic]

Binary package hint: network-manager

I'm not really sure if this is a duplicate, because it's not clear to me is this the same type of crash as the others I've seen reported. I've used Apport to upload data on this when it happened.

It happens on a Lenovo ThinPad R61i laptop.

What happens is that it crashes from time to time, for no apparent reason, and it stops managing networks. Interfaces not in dire need of management like the ETH0 continue to work unmanaged, but wireless stops working. Restarting the NetworkManager daemon usually solves the problem, however sometimes the wireless adapter stays down, and I'm unable to bring it back up (tried turning on and off by wlan-killswitch, putting the laptop to standby etc.)

Now, I'm not really sure if this is problem with NM bringing down the wlan interface or is it vice versa... It is possible that a faulty driver causes this. However, I've encountered similar problems several Ubuntu versions back, and on a different laptop, so I guess there might be something wrong with the NM.

When NM alone crashes, it's not a problem for me, I just restart the daemon. It might be a problem though, for many ordinary users have no clue what happened, let alone knowing how to restart the daemon...

When the wlan interface goes down together with it, it does become an annoying problem, because I've found no way to bring it up again other then rebooting.

Kind Regards,
Arny

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
Package: network-manager 0.7.1~rc4.1.cf199a964-0ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_IE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: network-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-15-generic x86_64

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

akromic,

This looks to me like an issue with a failing AP or wireless card (or driver), rather than a bug in network-manager. Is anybody else seeing similar problems with different hardware or a different version of Ubutnu or network-manager with this wireless network?

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

It's possible this could be a bug of the integrated wlan adapter, AP works fine though.
Yet, since restarting nm solved the problem, I guessed it could be it, however it might also be due to a buggy driver.
I remember when using a wlan pccard on my previous laptop, I watched on the xconsole how the driver handled its failures gracefully - when retried something too many times, it reset the card and re-uploaded the firmware, then it would work fine again. I guess something is missing in my current configuration to handle wlan card failures as gracefully.

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

Btw.
I guess this and Bug #257227 could have the same cause...

[A.Kromic (akromic)]

Just to add, the same happens in Karmic.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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