network-admin doesn't make interface definitions "auto"

[Saivann Carignan]

This bug can be reproduced each time with a up-to-date hardy beta. When trying to configure the wireless WPA2 network to connect with manual configuration inside the Gnome Network configuration tool, network stops to work. When trying to start network with sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart, terminal shows this :

RTNETLINK answers: No such process
SIOCDELRT: No such process

The laptop must be rebooted or the network does not work at all. Once the computer has rebooted, network start to work again after doing sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart. This has nothing to do with wrong configuration or hardware failure.

[Tommaso R. Donnarumma (tawmas)]

Confirming as I have the same issue.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Click on the Network Manager applet
2. Click on Manual configuration... in the menu
3. Unlock
4. Double-click on wired network (in my case)
5. Uncheck Enable roaming mode, select Static IP address from the dropdown and enter some sensible data for IP address, subnet mask and Gateway address
6. Open a terminal window and do sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Expected outcome:
The configured interface took up the manual configuration and network is connected and working.

Actual outcome:
The error messages reported by the OR appear, the interface doesn't have a valid IP and network is not working.

Probable cause and temporary workaround:
This is a sample of the /etc/network/interfaces file as written by the configuration tool (after configuring eth0):

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.2.101
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.2.1

Note the blank line above the eth0 stanza, where the line auto eth0 should appear. I found that manually editing the file to add the auto eth0 line and restarting networking once more fixes the problem.

Once the problem is fixed, I've further found that you can use the configuration tool to switch back and forth between DHCP and Static IP Address, so long as you don't re-enable roaming mode. Doing so deletes the whole interface stanza, including the auto <interface-name> line, and the problem is back.

As a sidenote, I've found that I can't configure the same interface through Network Tools. Any attempt (even with a restored configuration file) just brings up a dialog telling that the interface doesn't exist.

[Tommaso R. Donnarumma (tawmas)]

Above, there are two blank lines between the iface lo and iface eth0 lines that don't show up properly in HTML. Attaching a sample file instead...