Can no longer connect to Ubuntu WPA hotspot after upgrade to 20.04

[Krister Swenson]

I upgraded my Ubuntu client to 20.04 and could continue to connect to my WPA Hotspot running on an Ubuntu server. Upon update of the server to 20.04 I could no longer connect with any of my various client OSs.

After using the updated network-manager from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1870359, I can now connect to the hotspot from all of my machines running many flavors of OS (Windows, MacOS, Android, Ubuntu 19.10), but I cannot connect from my machine running Ubuntu 20.04.

If I turn off the encryption on the hotspot or turn on WEP encryption (using nm-connection-editor), then I can connect.

Seeing that my client running 19.10 can connect, I'm not sure if this is a problem specif to my particular laptop running 20.04, or if it is rather a problem that any client updating to 20.04 will have. I will update my other 19.10 machine, that is currently working with the WPA hotspot, to help differentiate between these two possibilities.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: network-manager 1.22.10-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-29.33-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-29-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu May 21 10:51:00 2020
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
 #dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.0.1 dev wlan0 proto dhcp metric 600
 169.254.0.0/16 dev virbr0 scope link metric 1000 linkdown
 192.168.0.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.17 metric 600
 192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.122.1 linkdown
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
mtime.conffile..etc.NetworkManager.NetworkManager.conf: 2017-10-31T09:47:24.831648
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE STARTUP CONNECTIVITY NETWORKING WIFI-HW WIFI WWAN-HW WWAN
 running 1.22.10 connected started full enabled enabled enabled enabled enabled

[Krister Swenson (thekswenson)]

Here are the relevant lines from jounalctrl:

May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1781] device (wlan0): Activation: starting connection 'Julep-WiFi' (7a3e625d-dfea-4423-aad6-a868b942407e)
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1796] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_LOCAL
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1800] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: completed -> disconnected
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1814] device (wlan0): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1822] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1830] device (wlan0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1836] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) access point 'Julep-WiFi' has security, but secrets are required.
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1836] device (wlan0): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1839] sup-iface[0x55942c627b00,wlan0]: wps: type pbc start...
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1904] device (wlan0): state change: need-auth -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1909] device (wlan0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1919] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) connection 'Julep-WiFi' has security, and secrets exist. No new secrets needed.
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1920] Config: added 'ssid' value 'Julep-WiFi'
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1920] Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1920] Config: added 'bgscan' value 'simple:30:-70:86400'
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1921] Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK WPA-PSK-SHA256'
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1921] Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'
May 21 14:13:03 praxis NetworkManager[1177]: <info> [1590063183.1921] Config: added 'psk' value '<hidden>'
May 21 14:13:03 praxis gsd-sharing[3984]: Failed to StopUnit service: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.NoSuchUnit: Unit gnome-remote-desktop.service not loaded.
May 21 14:13:03 praxis systemd[1]: Starting resolvconf-pull-resolved.service...
May 21 14:13:03 praxis gnome-shell[239188]: An active wireless connection, in infrastructure mode, involves no access point?
May 21 14:13:03 praxis systemd[1]: resolvconf-pull-resolved.service: Succeeded.
May 21 14:13:03 praxis systemd[1]: Finished resolvconf-pull-resolved.service.
May 21 14:13:06 praxis wpa_supplicant[1263]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-REGD...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report

The log has those errors

'kernel: ERROR @wl_set_key_mgmt :
 kernel: invalid cipher group (1027076)
 wpa_supplicant[1263]: wlan0: Association request to the driver failed'

There was a similar error mentioned in that upstream commit
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/commit/2f8a4e90

Could you maybe report it upstream on gitlab? they will probably have a better clue about the issue

[Krister Swenson (thekswenson)]

The upstream report is here:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/commit/2f8a4e90

[Krister Swenson (thekswenson)]

Oops..
  the upstream report is here:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/issues/450

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks