Network interfaces are not loaded by init if NetworkManager is not installed before dist-upgrade

[Fisslefink]

Binary package hint: update-manager

I performed a dist-upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04, then immediately to 9.10. Logs are attached.

In my configuration with 8.10, I did not use Network Manager. I had a manually configured static IP address in /etc/network/interfaces, and this was loaded normally on boot.

After the upgrade to 9.10, the init symlinks to /etc/init.d/networking were missing from the folders /etc/rc1.d, /etc/rc2.d, /etc/rc2.d, /etc/rc3.d, /etc/rc4.d, and /etc/rc5.d. Since there were no symlinks to /etc/init.d/networking in any of the startup init profiles, the network interfaces were never activated upon booting. I believe this error occurred on the transition from 9.04 to 9.10, because I did not have to do anything special to activate the network adapters when performing the dist-upgrade from 9.04.

The /etc/networking/interfaces file remained intact, and the /etc/init.d/networking script behaved properly when I executed the command "/etc/init.d/networking start". Also, manually starting the interface using "ifup eth0" also worked.

I did not want to install NetworkManager, and it should not be required. Others have suggested removing NetworkManager to use a static IP, as in this forum post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309835

Strangely, there was a symlink to /etc/init.d/networking located in "/etc/rc6.d/S35networking" and "/etc/rc0.d/S35networking". However, these would only be run during "init 0" or "init 6", which are halt and reboot, respectively. I made a new symlink to /etc/init.d/networking in the folders /etc/rc1.d, /etc/rc2.d, /etc/rc2.d, /etc/rc3.d, /etc/rc4.d, and /etc/rc5.d, and named it "S28networking". Hopefully the system will now start networking properly at boot time.

Here is my current directory listing for these files:

$ sudo find /etc/|grep networking
/etc/rc0.d/S35networking
/etc/rc1.d/S28networking
/etc/rc2.d/S28networking
/etc/rc3.d/S28networking
/etc/rc4.d/S28networking
/etc/rc5.d/S28networking
/etc/rc6.d/S35networking
/etc/init.d/networking
/etc/init/networking.conf

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Dec 12 11:07:17 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: update-manager 1:0.126.9
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.52-generic
SourcePackage: update-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2714): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2714): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2827): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2820): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

[Fisslefink (erin-simonds)]

Update and edits:

Adding the symlinks as described above did *not* fix the problem. The interface was brought up, and was visible with "ifconfig -a" with the assigned static IP address. However, internet sites were not accessible.

Despite having an entry in /etc/network/interfaces to set my router as the nameserver ("dns-nameservers 192.168.2.1"), resolv.conf does not get updated with the nameserver's IP address:

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN

Running "/etc/init.d/networking restart" or "ifdown eth0;ifup eth0" fixed the problem:
$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.2.1

...........I was forced to edit /etc/init.d/networking manually to change the "start" command to behave like the "restart" command:

#!/bin/sh -e
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: networking
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop: $local_fs
# Default-Start:
# Default-Stop: 0 6
# Short-Description: Raise network interfaces.
### END INIT INFO

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin"

[ -x /sbin/ifup ] || exit 0

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

# helper function to set the usplash timeout. https://launchpad.net/bugs/21617
usplash_timeout () {
 TIMEOUT=$1
 if [ -x /sbin/usplash_write ]; then
     /sbin/usplash_write "TIMEOUT $TIMEOUT" || true
 fi
}

process_options() {
    [ -e /etc/network/options ] || return 0
    log_warning_msg "/etc/network/options still exists and it will be IGNORED! Read README.Debian of netbase."
}

check_network_file_systems() {
    [ -e /proc/mounts ] || return 0

    exec 9<&0 < /proc/mounts
    while read DEV MTPT FSTYPE REST; do
 case $DEV in
 /dev/nbd*|/dev/nd[a-z]*|/dev/etherd/e*)
     log_warning_msg "not deconfiguring network interfaces: network devices still mounted."
     exit 0
     ;;
 esac
 case $FSTYPE in
 nfs|nfs4|smbfs|ncp|ncpfs|cifs|coda|ocfs2|gfs|pvfs|pvfs2|fuse.httpfs|fuse.curlftpfs)
     log_warning_msg "not deconfiguring network interfaces: network file systems still mounted."
     exit 0
     ;;
 esac
    done
    exec 0<&9 9<&-
}

case "$1" in
start)
# /lib/init/upstart-job networking start #This line and the one following it were the only commands under the "start" case
# ;; #This line and the one following it were the only commands under the "start" case
## Lines below were added manually (copied from the "restart" case)
 process_options

 log_action_begin_msg "Reconfiguring network interfaces"
 ifdown -a --exclude=lo || true
 if ifup -a --exclude=lo; then
     log_action_end_msg $?
 else
     log_action_end_msg $?
 fi
 ;;
## All lines below this point were not changed manually

stop)
 check_network_file_systems

 log_action_begin_msg "Deconfiguring network interfaces"
 if [ "$VERBOSE" != no ]; then
     if ifdown -a --exclude=lo; then
  log_action_end_msg $?
     else
  log_action_end_msg $?
     fi
 else
     if ifdown -a --e...

[RedSingularity (redsingularity)]

Cleaning out old reports. Please file a new one if this is still a problem in a current release. Thanks.
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad