Gnome PPP dialogue doesn't send one-time passwords to wvdial

[Tony Yarusso]

Binary package hint: gnome-ppp

It seems that the graphical frontend gnome-ppp to wvdial is not properly sending passwords when prompted for them. If the password is specified in the wvdial.conf file (or the "remember password" box is checked, effectively the same thing I think), then everything is fine. However, if one wants to put in the password every time (rather than storing it in a plaintext file), then things hang. It should be noted that if wvdial is run directly on a terminal with Ask Password = on and Password = (blank), it will prompt for a password, and when that is typed in, it works fine, which seems to indicate the problem lies with gnome-ppp and not wvdial. Observations include that the password is not shown while typing in the wvdial case, similar to bash and usual logins. Running gnome-ppp from a terminal to see what happens, when it gets to the point where the password is asked for, the one provided in the dialogue (where it was shown as asterisks) is shown in the terminal in plaintext, and not accepted. It says the password is being sent, but everything hangs at this point. Here's an example of the output copied straight from gnome-terminal:

dave@dave-laptop:~$ gnome-ppp
WVCONF: /home/dave/.wvdial.conf
GNOME PPP: Connecting...
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Ignoring malformed input line: ";Do NOT edit this file by hand!"
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.55
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Cannot get information for serial port.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Initializing modem.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATZ
GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATZ
GNOME PPP: STDERR: OK
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Modem initialized.
GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Please enter password (or empty password to stop):
thiswasmypasswordhereGNOME PPP: STDERR: Caught signal 2: Attempting to exit gracefully...

The exit is from hitting Ctrl-C after a few minutes of inactivity - clearly hung at this point.
Again, this is from trying to provide the password in the box in the gnome-ppp dialogue but with the remember box UNchecked. If checked it's absolutely fine.

[Wade Bowmer (static-ubuntu)]

I've also seen this behaviour. Took a while to notice because I tend to check 'Remember password' boxes but my father prefers to type them in each time...

It's in the gnome-ppp you get in Edgy Eft.

[Zak B. Elep (zakame)]

I have received word from Andrew Howlett with regard to this bug. He says:

> The second problem is #84837. When you leave the "save password"
> checkbox unchecked then gnome-ppp fails to send the password. This is
> a very simple problem. The problem is that gnome-ppp is sending the
> password to stdout, not the wvdial pipe. To fix this change line 72 in
> gnome-ppp-wvdial.c
>
> change
> in = g_io_channel_unix_new ((guint)data);
> to
> in = g_io_channel_unix_new (wvdial.in_pipe);

[Alexander Menk (alex-menk)]

problem still exists in gutsy (7.10) ..
see also: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=244824

[Adrianus (adrianus-kurnadi)]

problem still exists in hardy heron (8.04) ..

[Taneli Leppä (rosmiitto)]

Also exists on fully updated (as of now) Karmic.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-ppp - 0.3.23-1ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-ppp (0.3.23-1ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * Add USB ports to drop-down menu (LP: #59386)
    - debian/patches/60_add_usb_ports.patch: add /dev/ttyUSB* to
      gnome-ppp.glade.
  * Properly send password to wvdial (LP: #84837)
    - debian/patches/61_send_password.patch: send password to the pipe
      instead of stdout in src/gnome-ppp-wvdial.c.
  * Fix minimize on connect option
    - debian/patches/62_minimize.patch: change window hint to
      GDK_WINDOW_TYPE_HINT_NORMAL in gnome-ppp.glade.
  * Fix "malformed input line" warning
    - debian/patches/63_comment.patch: write the comment line with a #
      so wvdial will ignore it in src/gnome-ppp.c.

 -- Marc Deslauriers <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:23:25 -0400

[Hosed (liveonaware)]

Yes, how do you fix this? I'm using Ubuntu 9.04, it fails to send password.

Where can I download the new package gnome-ppp? Is this for Karmic only? Thanks.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Yes, it's in Karmic only.