Doesn't autoconnect to wifi using iwd

[Heather Ellsworth]

If you create your wireless connection with wpa_supplicant, then the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/<ssid-name>.network lists the "interface-name". But then when you install iwd, it becomes the handler of wireless networks and changes the network interface name without updating the name (or removing it) from the .network file.

The upstream bug is https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/issues/1091

Filed the launchpad bug in iwd because an iwd post-install script will be the proposed solution.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Here is a patch that adds a postinst script to iwd. This backs up the wireless network files created with wpa_supplicant, creates new network files to be understood by iwd, and restarts NetworkManager for the new profiles to take effect.

I tested this on a fresh Kinetic (20220920) daily ISO install.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "Patch to fix autoconnection" seems to be a debdiff. The ubuntu-sponsors team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review and hopefully sponsor the debdiff. If the attachment isn't a patch, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are member of the ~ubuntu-sponsors, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issue please contact him.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sounds like an explanation/fix for bug 1990891?

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Patch to fix autoconnect with iwd. This fixes the situation when iwd is now handling the wifi devices. This patch better handles the permissions of the created system-connections-wifi directory and handles the case where grep encounters nothing (-s).

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Hi,

This patch is still in the sponsorship queue but it didn't land in Kinetic as intended. Is it still relevant? The upstream issue is closed. Was there any activity in iwd in Debian in relation to this change?

I found https://iwd.wiki.kernel.org/networkmanager#converting_network_profiles which seems relevant.

I'm not really familiar with the area, just trying to help things along. So I could easily be mistaken here through lack of knowledge. But iwd packaging doesn't have any metadata that prevents co-installation with wpasupplicant as far as I can see. So how do we know that if the user installs iwd, then they definitely want their Network Manager profiles converted over? This gives me doubt that the iwd postinst is the right place to do this conversion. But I can't think of any better suggestions; as I say I'm not familiar in this area.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Hey Robbie,

Yeah this patch for iwd will need to be reworked to fit with the yaml files used by netplan (since that's default in mantic), instead of the traditional /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*.network files used in kinetic and lunar. The upstream bug was closed just due to lack of activity. the change is not in lunar either.

Depending on the priority of switching to iwd, the effort to test and document iwd with netplan, and rework this patch as needed, can be planned accordingly.

[Dan Bungert (dbungert)]

Hi Heather,

Since the patch will need a little adjustment for netplan I'm unsubscribing Ubuntu Sponsors. Please re-subscribe Ubuntu Sponsors when the change is ready. Thanks!