After upgrade, all network settings are lost

[Malte S. Stretz]

I just upgraded from natty (with the kubuntu-backports ppa enabled) to oneiric. After the upgrade all my Network Manager settings (Wireless networks, VPNs, etc.) are lost.

The secrets are still stored in the KDE Wallet.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: plasma-widget-networkmanagement 0.9~svngit.nm09.20110610.0c83d8-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Oct 28 12:09:53 2011
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: networkmanagement
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-28 (0 days ago)

[Malte S. Stretz (mss)]

The connections are also still available in ~/.kde/share/config/networkmanagementrc.

[Malte S. Stretz (mss)]

For the record: I think I upgraded (uh... downgraded?) from plasma-widget-networkmanagement 0.9~svngit20110728-0ubuntu3~natty1~ppa5 to 0.9~svngit.nm09.20110610.0c83d8-0ubuntu5. Attached is the apt.log from the oneiric upgrade.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Hatl (hatl)]

same problem here
update from natty to oneiric
config missing
connection settings still under .kde/share/apps/networkmanagement/connections

[stel (stel-onshore)]

same here including saved VPN connections and wired connections all missing from kde control module for network manager (the plasma widget). i also see settings still there in .kde but how do we suck them back into network manager?

[stel (stel-onshore)]

well after a lot of monkeying i found that one could import old connections to new network manager. this can be automated with a script but for now here's the most basic method.

1. copy connection files from .kde/share/apps/networkmanagement/connections to /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
2. edit any of these files and modify the following.
3. in [connection] section delete the '{' and '}' from the uuid value.
4. in the [ipv4] section change method=Automatic to method=auto.

that's it. now manage connections will show this entry and also rename the file to whatever the id= value is. i like that change but i have to say there doesn't seem to be a good reason to make these changes that break things or at least not migrate them. the rest of the parameters don't seem to matter enough but you can clean up if you like. create a new one to use as a template. i've not tested wireless connections with security but here's what you do to make them show up in manage connections.

in [802-11-wireless-security] section change keymgmt=WPAPSK to key-mgmt=wpa-psk.

really bad that passwords (shared key) appear in plaintext as psk=xxx. i also don't see an entry in kwallet even though network manager asked me to open the wallet. i hope someone comes up with something better. as a result i'm skeptical that just making the above changes and not entering a password in the file will work. i'm not somewhere i can test this now.

[stel (stel-onshore)]

looks like it's similar for vpn the Data= line is broken out as individual items. here's a sample.

[connection]
id=test_open_vpn
uuid=arbitrary
type=vpn

[vpn]
service-type=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn
connection-type=password
remote=IP or dns name
comp-lzo=yes
proto-tcp=yes
tap-dev=yes
port=your vpn port
username=yourusername
ca=/path/CA.pem

[vpn-secrets]
password=xxx

again the password is in plain text here which sux. i have network manager set to store connection secrets in secure storage but it isn't doing it even though i'm prompted for the kwallet password.

[stel (stel-onshore)]

oh and you have to make the same edits as with wireless connections, i.e. Automatic to auto and take out the brackets from the uuid.

[stel (stel-onshore)]

looks like vpnc connections (as opposed to openVPN) don't insert the password in plain text and use kwallet properly. i've still not been able to get either type of vpn to work but at least i know how to get them to show up. i'm not sure it's worth the work as setting them up from scratch is just as easy.

[Malte S. Stretz (mss)]

I installed plasma-widget-networkmanager 0.9~svngit.nm09.20111023.ff842e-0ubuntu1 from precise and voila! all my connections are back.