networkmanager doesn't repport the state of network

[Corsaire]

Binary package hint: network-manager

Ubuntu natty (development branch)
updated as of this day

I do have an ethernet connection with a bridge for the use of Virtual Machines with KVM

Networkmanager doesn't see the network interfaces at all and tels there's no wired connection (see screenshot)

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Applications should still report that they are connected to the Internet (e.g. you can use Empathy, or Evolution, without them complaining that there is no connection). Can you confirm this?

If it's not the case, then please use the 'apport-collect 744141' command to add information to this bug report.

If Empathy and all see that there is a connection, then this is expected behavior. NetworkManager is set to ignore devices configured in /etc/network/interfaces and just consider them online, since they can't be "managed" (because doing so risks interfering with other applications that expect to configure the interface).

[Corsaire (stranche)]

Yes, Empathy and other applications works fine

Thanks for the tip

[Corsaire (stranche)]

rises some questions tough, in Ubuntu 10.10 I can clearly remember seeing the network in the NetworkManager icon where now whe can see an empty signal level, so it's a new behavior ?

Another question out of interest, how do you configure NetworkManager to ignore devices configured in /etc/network/interfaces and just consider them online ?

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Seems it's a new different icon used when there is absolutely no connection as per NM, rather than the waves with a red exclamation mark you probably used to see.

NM is configured to totally ignore devices from /etc/network/interfaces by default. That's a setting you can change in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf: change the line that reads:

managed = false

to

managed = true

If you want NM to take into account the device as being UP, and being able to do limited management with NM (which should be just turning it on or off similar to ifup/ifdown). I can't guarantee how well this will work with bridge interfaces though (it might break).

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Setting bug to Invalid since there is no bug, just expected behavior.