nm-applet system tray drop-down menu items missing

[DrJohn]

After upgrading Asus EEE-1215N from 11.10 --> 12.04, the nm-applet dropdown menus, right- or left-click, on the system-tray nm icon show only 'Enable Networking', 'Enable Wireless', 'Connection Information', 'Edit Connections...'. Other items such as the list of wired and wireless interfaces, available hotspots, wireless connection options, and VPN options, are not present at first. After a variable time, usually more than 5 minutes and as much as ~1 hour after boot-up / login, the missing items appear.

At all times the network connections, wired and wireless, work normally, except of course that I cannot connect to a different wireless spot or start a VPN connection. All the nm-applet menu items appeared right away under 11.10; this delayed behavior appeared only upon upgrading.

[CODE]
/etc$ cat NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
dns=dnsmasq

[ifupdown]
managed=false

~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
~$ apt-cache policy network-manager
network-manager:
  Installed: 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4
  Candidate: 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages
[/CODE]
Apport report attached.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: network-manager-gnome 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.39-generic 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue May 29 14:50:59 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nm-applet
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
IpRoute:
 default via 10.0.10.240 dev eth0 proto static
 10.0.8.0/21 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.11.65 metric 1
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.3.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.3.120 metric 2
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager-applet
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-10 (19 days ago)
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
 eth0 802-3-ethernet connected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
 wlan0 802-11-wireless connected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE NET-ENABLED WIFI-HARDWARE WIFI WWAN-HARDWARE WWAN
 running 0.9.4.0 connected enabled enabled enabled enabled disabled

[DrJohn (jhinshaw)]

Found in syslog:
[CODE]~$ cat /var/log/syslog | grep "May 29.*Netw.*error"
May 29 13:19:42 eee-1215N NetworkManager[941]: <error> [1338322782.289666] [wifi-utils-nl80211.c:654] nl80211_wiphy_info_handler(): Don't know the meaning of NL80211_ATTR_CIPHER_SUITES 0x000fac06.[/CODE]
Occurs once per boot.

[DrJohn (jhinshaw)]

SIGKILL to nm-applet's pid followed by starting nm-applet again brings it up with the full set of drop-down menu items.

[osprey (theosprey)]

It seems a bug like the #1005979, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1005979
With a slightly different scenario, but the same result. In my case also just shutting down and powering on again the wireless cards resets the nm-applet.

[Alexandru Burlacu (alex-burlacu)]

A restart of nm-applet solved this issue for me (as you can see bellow):

alex@alex-desktop:~$ ps -A | grep nm-applet
21903 ? 00:00:00 nm-applet
alex@alex-desktop:~$ kill 21903
alex@alex-desktop:~$ nohup nm-applet &
[1] 22476
alex@alex-desktop:~$ nohup: ignoring input and appending output to `nohup.out'
alex@alex-desktop:~$

Hope it helps you.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[DrJohn (jhinshaw)]

Seems to be fixed after installing updates of 06-12-2012 including network-manager:i386 (0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4, 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1). However, the fix could have appeared in the 06-15-2012 update that included linux-image-3.2.0-25-generic:i386 (3.2.0-25.40). Didn't notice exactly with which update it began to work.

[Gabriel Coimbra (synamics)]

That:
 <error> [wifi-utils-nl80211.c:654] nl80211_wiphy_info_handler(): Don't know the meaning of NL80211_ATTR_CIPHER_SUITES 0x000fac06.
Appeared in my syslog too, the version of network-manager-gnome is:
0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2
The same problem with me...
My PC is: Dell Insipron N4050 or 14
Aparently after the version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4, 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1, the error is fixed, thanks....

[David Trask (dtrask)]

Same problem for me and NOT fixed as of 0.9.4.1 Very annoying. Affects ASUS EEE-PC 1005HA netbook running Ubuntu 12.04 installed yesterday with all updates.

[Gabriel Coimbra (synamics)]

"Same problem for me and NOT fixed as of 0.9.4.1 Very annoying. Affects ASUS EEE-PC 1005HA netbook running Ubuntu 12.04 installed yesterday with all updates."
Yeah, I confirm that, another information:
NetworkManager[1140]: <error> [1340728482.354758] [wifi-utils-nl80211.c:654] nl80211_wiphy_info_handler(): Don't know the meaning of NL80211_ATTR_CIPHER_SUITES 0x000fac06.

 NetworkManager[1140]: <warn> (wlan0): driver supports Access Point (AP) modeJun 26 13:34:42 RedBot NetworkManager[1140]: <warn> failed to allocate link cache: (-10) Operation not supported

[Nikki1993 (nikki-icekronik)]

Same here, running Ubuntu 12.04. No updates which I received haven't helped yet.

[Chris Berst (cberst)]

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 and was not experiencing this problem until yesterday when I installed the following packages:

openconnect 3.15-0ubuntu2
libopenconnect1 3.15-0ubuntu2
network-manager-openconnect 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu1
network-manager-openconnect-gnome 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu1

Uninstalling these packages did not return the nm-applet to normal behavior.
The current solution(s) I am using, as described by others, is to either kill/restart nm-applet or toggle the "Enable Networking" menu selection of the applet.

[Patrick Roskelley (proskelley)]

After being frustrated with NM-Applet not functioning correctly since I upgraded to 12.04, I wondered if it may be part of a larger problem.
I decided to rename the 'panel' directory for xfce4 inside of '/home/<user>/.config/', so that it would reset the defaults of the Panel, and then I rebooted. After that the Indicator Plugin functioned as expected with NM-Applet showing the VPN option.

I did not see any mention within this thread of people trying to reset their Panel to default, so I figured my solution may not be a just a fluke just for my configuration.