networkmanager docklet doesn't work with NetworkManager >= 0.9.0

[Christoph Mende]

[Error 21:34:34.597] [NetworkDevice] org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Interface "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" isn't exported (or may not exist), can't access property "State"
[Error 21:34:34.600] [NetworkDevice] org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Interface "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" isn't exported (or may not exist), can't access property "DeviceType"

it seems like org.freedesktop.NetworkManager does indeed not exist. nm-applet accesses org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerSettings. I'm not really familiar with dbus, so please tell me if I can give any more information.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

I'm not sure exactly what version you are using, but I think your network manager is just not running properly.

I am on Ubuntu 10.10 with network-manager package version 0.8.1+git.20100810t184654.ab580f4-0ubuntu2 and that bus exists for me.

Also, the official specification states that in 0.8, that bus exists:

http://projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager/developers/spec-08.html

[Rico Tzschichholz (ricotz)]

I can confirm this problem on Ubuntu 11.04 with network-manager 0.8.4+git.20110228t143901.5cdded6-0ubuntu1 and polkit 0.101-1

[Diego Algara (diego-algara-deactivatedaccount)]

Still at 0.8.4~git.20110319t175609.d14809b-0ubuntu3 :<

[Nic Grounds (nic-h)]

I was able to get the networkmanager docklet to work by downgrading to NetworkManager 0.8-r1 (I'm on Gentoo Linux, so that may be a Gentoo-specific release, I'm not sure). All versions/revisions of NetworkManager 0.8.1, 0.8.2, and 0.8.4 I had at my disposal worked with the docklet.

[aamer (aamermoquim)]

[Error 02:07:10.355] [NetworkDevice] org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Interface "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" isn't exported (or may not exist), can't access property "State"
[Error 02:07:10.357] [NetworkDevice] org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Interface "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" isn't exported (or may not exist), can't access property "State"
[Info 02:07:10.548] [DrawingService] Could not find 'network-wireless-connected-75', using fallback of 'gnome-netstatus-75-100'.
[Info 02:07:10.718] [DrawingService] Could not find 'network-wireless-connected-75', using fallback of 'gnome-netstatus-75-100'.

This Is what I get on ubuntu 11.10 running xubuntu-desktop. "NetworkManager --version" gives:

Failed to read classid file: Object not found
0.9.1.90

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

This might be related to bug 861641.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Isny (isny)]

Anything we can do to just tell networkmanager that it's online so the weather docklet will update?

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

If you don't mind hacking the Docky source and compiling it yourself, it is easy to disable that check. Just comment out lines 121, 124, and 156 in the file: Docky.Services/Docky.Services/SystemService.cs

Then recompile and install it and it will just assume it is always connected and ignore NM.

This obviously isn't a proper fix, hence why we haven't pushed this hack ourselves.

[RavanH (ravanhagen)]

So... is this being worked on or is there no outlook on a fix? As it seems to affect the Weather Docklet as well: It does not fetch weather data even though it can connect to the Wunderground API to get location data. Strange.

I was hoping to see Docky's Weather do its wonderful things again on Ubuntu 11.10 running network-manager-gnome version 0.9.1.90-0ubuntu6 but sadly, no :(

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

You can use the hack I posted in the comment above yours, compile from source and it will work fine. Other than that no, it is not being worked on as we are focused on another project (Docky 3).

[Mike McKay (mikeymckay)]

@psybers - I followed the instructions to compile from source including your changes here:

http://wiki.go-docky.com/index.php?title=Installation

But I am dying here during make:

print() on closed filehandle CACHE at /usr/bin/intltool-merge line 365, <PO_FILE> line 78020.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

@Mike: that's interesting... try running 'intltool-update -pot' from the src/po directory. Then try make again.

[z06gal (z06gal)]

Any idea when Docky 3 will be out? I am guessing this issue will be resolved in the new version. Thanks ;)

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

Yes this would be fixed in Docky 3. But that could be over a year from now. I'm sure at some point we'll push a fix to the 2.x series, it's just that we are quite busy with real life.

[z06gal (z06gal)]

Lol! Thanks ;)

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

I temporarily pushed the 'hack' fix that will at least allow the docklets to use networking if it is available. It also means they will keep trying to update even if your networking is missing. But I think this is a better way to break.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

According to Rico, that hack actually doesn't work. When I upgrade to 12.04, I will get a working hack in place but I am still on 10.10 and the docklets work fine for me. ;-)

[z06gal (z06gal)]

Thank you Robert! ;)

[Rob Gibbon (robgibbon)]

Actually, if you edit line 178 of docky/Docky.Services/Docky.Services/SystemService.cs to reference a lower case state property like this:

                  return (NetworkState) Enum.ToObject (typeof(NetworkState), network.Get (NetworkManagerName, "state"));

Then you will be able to see the weather again.

It's a change to dbus / NetworkManager to enforce strict interface compliance. You can try it with these commands:

#broken
dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" string:"State"

#works
dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" string:"state"

I didn't get the network manager itself to work yet, though.

[Rüdiger Kupper (ruediger.kupper)]

Same problem here.

[Diego Espada (diegoesp)]

Same problem here. Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS

[Francisco (franciscoda)]

Hello. I've just sent a merge proposal regarding this bug. Might need testing on additional setups