Network Manager regularly thinks my wifi is a wired device

[Mario Limonciello]

When I boot up my network doesn't automatically connect. I instead see when I click the network manager applet that it's got no Wifi devices listed. It thinks my wireless card is an ethernet device. This isn't true and I have no ethernet devices in my system.

When this situation happens if I issue /etc/init.d/network-manager restart it comes back up thinking it's a wireless device and happily associates with my saved SSID.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: network-manager 1.1.93-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu Apr 28 09:03:13 2016
DistributionChannelDescriptor:
 # This is a distribution channel descriptor
 # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
 canonical-oem-somerville-xenial-amd64-20160406-0
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-13 (14 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20160406-07:32
IpRoute:

NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH CONNECTION CON-UUID CON-PATH
 wlp58s0 ethernet connecting (getting IP configuration) /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1 Wired connection 1 1c8c4cab-09d7-4a42-bfc4-aed14caf6a46 /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/1
 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'.

[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.

[Jeremy (wa113y3s)]

It seems two similar bugs have been reported to gnome
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765839
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=764803

And the fix seems to be http://cgit.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/?id=dd4d8b24da29abfc786ce0b3030c74559b93d034

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Yes, I confirmed that patch has resolved it for me. Tried it 10 times and didn't hit any failures. This patch is actually part of 1.2.0 which is being SRU'ed right now.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1576726

[lixu (lixuchen01)]

Could somebody specify what you did exactly to fix this issue?

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

I backported that patch and manually tested a build with it applied. It will be fixed also by moving to the 1.2.0 release.

[lixu (lixuchen01)]

I can't seem to install NetworkManager-1.2.0
It keeps generating No package 'xxx' found
some packages simply cannot be installed

[lixu (lixuchen01)]

keeps generating No package 'libnl-3.0' found
but I already installed 3.2.8

[sles (slesru)]

Just reported the same bug, i.e. dup.

Looks like current network manager in 16.04 contains "fix" from above,
but I still have this problem.

[g (ennui-bz)]

did a fresh install of 16.04 updated to NetworkManager 1.2.2 and this bug is definitely still there. restart network manager service fixes it.

[intuiter (vmetsis)]

I started having this problem after a regular package upgrade.
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Current Network Manager version in my system: 1.2.2

I hope it gets fixed in future versions. For now the workaround is to run "systemctl restart network-manager.service" after every reboot.

[Scott Stensland (scottstensland)]

bug still happens in

network-manager 1.2.4-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

[jsass (sass-joel)]

updating: bug still exists with network manager 1.2.6-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

[Said Bakr (said-fox)]

The bug is still exists. When my wifi connection is disconnected from the access point i.e the access point is restarted or its signals channel is changed, the network icon after re connect again turns to the two arrows Up/Down i.e like wired connection through the Ethernet. Also, my wifi link becomes unavailable in the network list in-spite of being connected to it, but other neighbors networks are still listed. i.e I could able to access my access point web interface through 192.168.1.1

I have Ubuntu 16.04.2 and NetWorkManager 1.2.6-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 which is descriped in synaptic like the following:

```
network-manager
network management framework (daemon and userspace tools)
```

[tichaona tembo (mukonda)]

I have the same problem too I have ubuntu 16.04 on a duo boot with Windows 8. Updated my ubuntu on 13/04/18 and now am no longer able to connect to my phone's hotspot which would connect automatically before.
Anytime it tries to connect it keeps asking for the password.
Please help.