NetworkManager menu items have no effect when selected

[sds]

The NetworkManager menu items have no effect when selected.

1. wired connection works.
2. __known__ wireless connections work.
3. __unknown__ wireless connections do __NOT__ work because they require that I select the connection I want from the menu and there is no effect from selecting menu items.

Specifically, when I click on the NM menu in the top menu bar (between bluetooth and sound volume), I see the usual items
(wired network/disconnect/wireless network/disconnected/hot spot 1/hot spot 2/.../connecto to hidden/create new/vpn/enable/info/edit); and the list of the available wifi hot spots changes with time and they become (un)available.

when I plug in a wired connection, I become connected to the internet and this is reflected in the menu too.

however, nothing I do with the menu has any effect: I cannot disable/enable wireless/networking; I cannot select the hot spot to connect to &c &c &c.

The only thing I can do it kill the NM process which is then auto-restarted.

I tried reinstalling all the network-manager-* packages to no effect.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: network-manager 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-32.51-generic 3.2.30
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-32-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu14
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Oct 21 23:39:46 2012
ExecutablePath: /usr/sbin/NetworkManager
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.2.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.2.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.2.105 metric 1
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-01 (173 days ago)
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
 wlan0 802-11-wireless disconnected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
 eth0 802-3-ethernet 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

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Similar to bug #779754. Does it happen after sleep/suspend?

[sds (sds-gnu)]

why is it invalid?

it has no relation to sleep/suspend; 'service network-manager restart' has no effect.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Okay, it is not invalid, just for the network manager package, because it is most likely a bug in the network manager applet if you look at the top of the bug report page.

[sds (sds-gnu)]

it appears that restarting nm-applet solves the problem (at least, temporarily).
this, however, has to be done from the shell prompt (killall nm-applet && nm-applet &) and cannot be done via the gui.