NetworkManager applet wireless connections refresh too slow

[peterzay]

When I physically turn off a wireless router, the connection name remains in the list of Wireless Networks long after. Repeated clicking on the network manager applet does not refresh the list.

The delay to refresh the list of Wireless Network names can be 10-15 minutes.

The problem is reproducible.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: network-manager 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-34.53-generic-pae 3.2.33
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-34-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu15
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Dec 4 13:18:20 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.10 metric 1
MarkForUpload: True
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-con:
 NAME UUID TYPE TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP-REAL AUTOCONNECT READONLY DBUS-PATH
 Wired connection 1 fdee8a75-ec5f-4055-8be8-93d42633b4ac 802-3-ethernet 1354645049 Tue 04 Dec 2012 01:17:29 PM EST yes no /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/0
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
 eth0 802-3-ethernet connected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
 wlan0 802-11-wireless disconnected /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

[Christopher M. Rogers (cajhne)]

This bug also affects newly turned-on wifi hotspots.

The only fix I can find, is to set a hotkey to restart the network manager manually, and set the action to:
service network-manager restart

If it is not possible to refresh the network list, I recommend at least adding a button to the drop-down to restart the network manager in the mean time.

[Bent Haase (bent-haase)]

This also concerns me since a few years in Ubuntu now.
Why not finally adding a simple "refresh button" in the dropdown menu, which executes some code like this:

`iwlist wlanXYZ scan`

Also giving the user a simple option to change the auto refresh interval would make using wireless networks way more convenient. Sometimes you have to wait for minutes until Ubuntu finally connects to a WIFI network when you don't manually restart the network manager so you force the system to refresh the network list.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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