New network-manager is not started at boot

[Mélodie]

Hi,

I am using Ubuntu Precise Mini built with Lightdm and Openbox.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04

At first I had wicd, and found that the boot was delayed too much, so I did a search on the web and found this bug report which was looking like the problem I met with:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+source/console-common/+bug/881079

This is how I removed wicd, wicd-gtk... and installed network-manager instead. Then I could not have a connection unless I started it from console with dhclient : "sudo dhclient eth1" (with eth0 it said there was no eth0 interface available). Ok that worked, but still network-manager would not start at boot.

So I did again a search on the web and found this thread related to my problem:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=12016190

I followed the advice given, did a downgrade of the said packages and posted about all this here at then end of that thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12361224#post12361224

please read the above post, I have given useful informations found in logs in that one post, and information about packages I have installed, related to network.

After I read the first post of that thread I replaced the newer packages with these ones:
libnm-glib4_0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb,
libnm-glib-vpn1_0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb,
libnm-util2_0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb,
network-manager_0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb,
network-manager-dbg_0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb

but the network-manager-gnome has only the latest version available therefore I have these installed at the moment:
libnm-gtk-common (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2)
libnm-gtk0 (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2)
network-manager-gnome (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2)

and the packages from the former version of network-manager as mentioned above.

The result : now network-manager is started at boot and the wired connection IS AVAILABLE as soon as the desktop is up and running.

However I regret that I can still see in the boot sequence the message : "Waiting up to 60 more seconds for network configuration" whereas I have already waited for a bunch of seconds at the message just before "waiting for network configuration".

This happens in two machines at home.

About the new network-manager : the version number 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3 has this in the file
/etc/init/network-manager.conf:
*******************************

# network-manager - network connection manager
#
# The Network Manager daemon manages the system's network connections,
# automatically switching between the best available.

description "network connection manager"

start on (local-filesystems
   and started dbus)
stop on stopping dbus

expect fork
respawn

script
 # set $LANG so that messages appearing on the GUI will be translated. See LP: 875017
 if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
  . /etc/default/locale
  export LANG LANGUAGE LC_MESSAGES LC_ALL
 fi

 exec NetworkManager
end script

*******************************

and after I reinstall the newer packages:

*******************************

libnm-glib-vpn1 (version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3) sera mis à niveau vers la version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
libnm-glib4 (version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3) sera mis à niveau vers la version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
libnm-util2 (version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3) sera mis à niveau vers la version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
network-manager (version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3) sera mis à niveau vers la version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1
network-manager-dbg (version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu3) sera mis à niveau vers la version 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1

*******************************

I noticed there is a new line related to a process needing to be started before network-manager:

******************************

# network-manager - network connection manager
#
# The Network Manager daemon manages the system's network connections,
# automatically switching between the best available.

description "network connection manager"

start on (local-filesystems
   and started dbus
   and static-network-up)
stop on stopping dbus

expect fork
respawn

script
 # set $LANG so that messages appearing on the GUI will be translated. See LP: 875017
 if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
  . /etc/default/locale
  export LANG LANGUAGE LC_MESSAGES LC_ALL
 fi

 exec NetworkManager
end script

******************************

which in the "start on" block text is "and static-network-up". I wonder if the problem of network-manager not being started at boot in my install is not due to this line for some reason ?

To end with, for any network manager tool, why is there always this incredible delay during the boot due to this long network connection attempt going on ?

Here more configuration files, that's bootchart files done with the older network-manager configuation files:

http://meets.free.fr/files/bootchart.tar.gz

Thanks for giving this bug all the necessary care. I think it might be also considered as a regression.

Regards,
Mélodie

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Please make sure you don't have any entries in /etc/network/interfaces that fail to be brought up: any eth*, any wlan*, any bridge configurations that cannot be brought up will have the boot process hang until a timeout. This is expected behavior.

NetworkManager has grown a dependency on static-network-up, which is what brings up the lo interfaces (loopback) also required by NetworkManager and dnsmasq. This dependency is important and may be a cause for network-manager (or at least dnsmasq) failing to start. Since the processes that look at /etc/network/interfaces are the ones responsible for emitting the static-network-up signal, any invalid configuration in that file may be cause for delay or network-manager failing to start.

Please attach the full contents of the file /etc/network/interfaces to this bug report.

As for network-manager and network-manager-gnome, please make sure to run the very latest versions available for your release:

sudo apt-get install network-manager/precise network-manager-gnome/precise libnm-glib4/precise libnm-util2/precise libnm-glib-vpn1/precise libnm-gtk0/precise libnm-gtk-common/precise

For network-manager and libnm-util*, libnm-glib* you should get versions 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu4.1 (or -0ubuntu4.2 if you have proposed enabled), and for network-manager-gnome, libnm-gtk* you should get version 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.

[Mélodie (meets)]

Hi,

I have used your information and now indeed all works fine. I will even remove network-manager and network-manager-gnome and retry wicd.

However, and although I know Ubuntu distributions mostly, I am more an Archlinux user, so editing files from the system don't worry me personnally. But I am very much interested in using Ubuntu once a while, in contributing a little (when I can) and I am even more interested in installing a Ubuntu on the machines of the people I know around me.

So I would have a question regarding this issue. As Ubuntu is meant to be the very easiest distributions for all, and to avoid having to edit some files in the system, which are mostly unknown by the end users, shouldn't there be some kind of process implemented to avoid this "gloubi-glouba" and therefore avoid having to edit /etc/network/interfaces ? :)

Thanks.

[Mélodie (meets)]

Hi,

I just did an Ubuntu Remix to mimic my install in which I use Openbox, and the behavior is the same (in that one install it is wicd-gtk which is installed). I still don't find it very pleasant to see the 60 more seconds message when starting the iso image, in Virtualbox, and again the same after installed is completed.

In Virtualbox also I have extracted the file /etc/network/interface, it is filled with different interfaces (the network configuration is not even performed during the boot time in spite of the large delay).

I attach this new interface to this comment.

I am not sure that the title of my bug report is relevant anymore, but I wouldn't know how to rename it, and especially for what alternative title ?

Regards,
Mélodie

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for network-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]