wireless card disabled in network-manager

[Jane Atkinson]

Using xenial on Asus EeePC 900

Network manager has worked fine with the wireless card on this machine, until the update of 12 April.

Now the wireless card appears greyed out in the nm-applet interface with no SSIDs visible. Ethernet still works.

wicd works on this machine, but I'd prefer not to have to install that.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: network-manager 1.1.93-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-18.34-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-18-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Apr 13 09:55:01 2016
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 # Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
 source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev enp3s0 proto static metric 100
 192.168.1.0/24 dev enp3s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.67 metric 100
IwConfig: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'iwconfig'
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
RfKill: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'rfkill'
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH CONNECTION CON-UUID CON-PATH
 enp3s0 ethernet connected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1 Wired connection 1 745074e0-abba-4f29-8c5d-1bcfbcb13e3a /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/0
 wlp1s0 ethernet unavailable /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/2 -- -- --
 lo loopback unmanaged /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0 -- -- --
nmcli-nm: Error: command ['nmcli', '-f', 'all', 'nm'] failed with exit code 2: Error: Object 'nm' is unknown, try 'nmcli help'.

[Jane Atkinson (irihapeti)]

Additional information:

I ran dpkg from the recovery menu. I'm uncertain whether that's caused the following behaviour or not.

On logging in, network manager shows "[wireless card name] disconnected"

On turning off wireless with the function key, network manager shows "[wireless card name] device not managed"

On turning on the wireless using the function key, network manager shows "Enable wifi" box unchecked.

Checking the box allows the machine to connect to the router.

If I turn the machine off, or reboot, I have to go through the last three steps again.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

This looks like a legit problem in NM's DeviceFactory code. For this ath device, it detects the device as Ethernet rather than wireless.

Apr 13 09:34:20 ja-laptop kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): enp3s0: link becomes ready
Apr 13 09:34:20 ja-laptop NetworkManager[630]: <info> [1460496860.6955] manager: (wlp1s0): new Ethernet device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/2)
Apr 13 09:34:20 ja-laptop NetworkManager[630]: <info> [1460496860.7136] keyfile: add connection in-memory (cb7547d7-4155-4880-adea-c8f5b82b0a39,"Wired connection 2")
Apr 13 09:34:20 ja-laptop NetworkManager[630]: <info> [1460496860.7250] settings: (wlp1s0): created default wired connection 'Wired connection 2'
Apr 13 09:34:20 ja-laptop NetworkManager[630]: <info> [1460496860.7490] device (wlp1s0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed') [10 20 2]

Triaged/High; there are most likely many more ath5 wifi devices around.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

I had a similar situation happen where it thought that my wireless device was an ethernet device shortly after the NM upgrade. Sometimes it's detected properly and I see networks in NM's applet, other times it gets confused and thinks it's an ethernet device.

Snapshot of my kernel log when this happened (notice I don't have ath5)

Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3813] Loaded device plugin: NMWifiFactory (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-wifi.so)
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[1]: Stopping User Manager for UID 0...
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3872] Loaded device plugin: NMWwanFactory (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-wwan.so)
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[879]: Stopped target Default.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[879]: Reached target Shutdown.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[879]: Stopped target Basic System.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 kernel: [ 5.004938] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp58s0: link is not ready
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[879]: Stopped target Paths.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[879]: Stopped target Timers.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 systemd[879]: Stopped target Sockets.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3914] Loaded device plugin: NMBluezManager (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-bluetooth.so)
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3931] Loaded device plugin: NMAtmManager (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-adsl.so)
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: nm_device_get_device_type: assertion 'NM_IS_DEVICE (self)' failed
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3946] device (lo): link connected
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3951] manager: (lo): new Generic device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0)
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3965] manager: startup complete
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3986] urfkill disappeared from the bus
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.3999] device (wlp58s0): driver '(null)' does not support carrier detection.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.4000] device (wlp58s0): driver 'brcmfmac' does not support carrier detection.
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.4005] manager: (wlp58s0): new Ethernet device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1)
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.4012] keyfile: add connection in-memory (5fd0e64b-3ac0-4914-bfa0-fc77b53f5e3c,"Wired connection 1")
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.4016] settings: (wlp58s0): created default wired connection 'Wired connection 1'
Apr 14 12:20:30 t-XPS-13-9350 NetworkManager[746]: <info> [1460650830.4022] device (wlp58s0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed') [10 20...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

[Jane Atkinson (irihapeti)]

Bug has been reported at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765123