Network icons in status menu disappearing

[Forage]

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/140

---

Ever since the update to Ubuntu 18.04 I'm having issues with the status menu at the top right of the screen.

Normally you'd have a wired network connection icon displayed at the top without opening the menu. In my case it is not displayed half of the time. In the menu list no icon nor label is displayed for the wired connection menu item.
When talking about half of the time it means that I can randomly make it display again when removing the USB network adapter and reconnecting it e.g.
This does not work reliably though.

When connecting to a VPN, normally you'd get an additional icon at the top. This is not the case any more, nor does the switch behind an activated VPN turns change to an active state. The result is that you can activate a VPN using the switch, but you can verify that it is activated, nor can you de-active the VPN through the menu. This does change in settings though.

Wireless settings are no longer displayed in the menu at all. So no way to activate it or connect to a specific network.

I tried reconfiguring (dpkg-reconfigure) gnome-shell as well as network-manager-gnome, to no avail.

Attached you'll find a screenshot illustrating the issue. You'll see two icons missing to the left of the volume icon, as well as the wireless menu missing completely and no icon and text label for the wired connection menu item.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.28.1-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-22.24-generic 4.15.17
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Mon Jun 4 10:47:05 2018
DisplayManager: gdm3
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-10-07 (604 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160720)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-05-31 (3 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Václav Pavlík (pavl-va)]

I have the same problem.

On a newly upgraded Ubuntu 18.04 with Gnome 3.28, the system menu on the right in the top panel is missing entries, if booted with an ethernet connection. If booted without ethernet (with or without wifi) all the entries are there.

Replicable: yes
How to: Boot (or restart Gnome by Alt-F2, r, Enter) with the ethernet cable connected - icons are missing (see screenshot 1).
Workaround: Boot (or restart Gnome by Alt-F2, r, Enter) with the ethernet cable disconnected - all the icons are there (see screenshot 2). Then connect the ethernet cable (see screenshot 3).

This workaround is, however, not a permanent solution...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Upstream bug:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/140

[Lurkars (lurkars)]

I could hot-fix this problem by changing network configuration via nm-connection-editor. In my case the "Connection priority for auto-activation" was set to -999 for one Ethernet configuration. After changing it to 0 and reconnect, the icons re-appeared. So it is maybe an issue of malformed/weird configuration.

[Ahmad Amr (aamr)]

I changed it to 0 as well, fingers crossed.

Kind Regards,

Ahmad Amr

On Wed, Aug 22, 2018, 11:37 AM Lukas Haubaum <email address hidden>
wrote:

> I could hot-fix this problem by changing network configuration via nm-
> connection-editor. In my case the "Connection priority for auto-
> activation" was set to -999 for one Ethernet configuration. After
> changing it to 0 and reconnect, the icons re-appeared. So it is maybe an
> issue of malformed/weird configuration.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1785818).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1774957
>
> Title:
> Network icons in status menu disappearing
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1774957/+subscriptions
>

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

A couple of fixes are being worked on right now in the upstream bug:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/140

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The fix landed upstream in master, but it was _after_ tag 3.30.0. So the fix is either in gnome-shell version 3.32.0 or 3.30.1 ...?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Fix released in gnome-shell 3.30.1 (Ubuntu 18.10 onward).

[javen (jwli)]

the fix released in gnome-shell 3.30.1 only available for Ubuntu 18.10. is right?
if it possible to released patch for Ubuntu 18.04?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Yes, 18.04 has been nominated to receive the fix.

[boris (atomtm)]

Same here! There are times my Wifi icon and the VPN icon when connecting to a VPN service are missing.
When extending the panel you can't use the switches to enable VPN configuration and the VPN is indicating to off although connencted.

[Sasa Batistic (sasa-batistic)]

it's the same in GNOME 3.30 (Ubuntu 18.10).

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sasa,

That doesn't sound right. I thought the fix for this bug was already in Ubuntu 18.10. Can you please check again what version of the 'gnome-shell' package you have installed and also attach a screenshot of what you see?

[Forage (forage)]

For what it's worth, since the update to 18.10 I have not seen the issue again on the two systems I have.

[Diego Foglino (biker84)]

I have Ubuntu mate 18.04.2. I don't have gnome-shell installed.
There is this bug.

[Ian McMichael (ian-sigma-uk)]

According to https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/140 this is fixed in Gnome Shell 3.30.1 & 3.28.4. Any chance of getting 3.28.4 (or the fix) in 18.04 LTS desktop?

[Alexey (alexey-muranov)]

There is no 3.28.4 release yet: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/tags

[javen (jwli)]

When will the fix be included in Ubuntu 18.04？this issue has been bothering me for a long time.
and another issue that the gnome-shell always crash every time wake up the screen.
the user experience couldn't be worse....

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Found the fix is in gnome-shell_3.28.3+git20190124.orig.tar.xz, which means it is in bionic-proposed right now:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

And you can download the .deb files containing the fix for Ubuntu 18.04 amd64 here:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1/+build/16422548

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

javen,

If you experience crashes then please log new bugs for those.

[Andrei (and741)]

Daniel, how do I know which of the three deb-files

gnome-shell-common_3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1_all.deb (179.2 KiB)
gnome-shell-dbgsym_3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1_amd64.ddeb (1.1 MiB)
gnome-shell_3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1_amd64.deb (650.2 KiB)

from that page I should install?

I tried to install the first one and it completely messed up my log in procedure with the error "failed to start session" showing up at log in. I spent half a day fixing that.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

You can safely install all three, but you only need two: *.deb

You don't need *.ddeb

[Marco Ferretti (marco-ferretti)]

I am still experiencing the issue on ubuntu 18.04.4 :

dpkg -s gnome-shell
Package: gnome-shell
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: universe/gnome
Installed-Size: 7350
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 3.28.3-0ubuntu0.18.04.4
Provides: notification-daemon, polkit-1-auth-agent
Depends: libatk-bridge2.0-0 (>= 2.5.3), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4), libc6 (>= 2.14), libcairo2 (>= 1.14.0), libcanberra-gtk3-0 (>= 0.25), libcanberra0 (>= 0.2), libcroco3 (>= 0.6.2), libecal-1.2-19 (>= 3.17), libedataserver-1.2-23 (>= 3.17.2), libgcr-base-3-1 (>= 3.8.0), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libgirepository-1.0-1 (>= 1.35.9), libgjs0-libmozjs-52-0, libgjs0g (>= 1.52.1), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.53.0), libgstreamer1.0-0 (>= 1.4.0), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.21.6), libical3 (>= 3.0.0), libjson-glib-1.0-0 (>= 0.13.2), libmutter-2-0 (>= 3.28.3), libnm0 (>= 1.0.0), libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libpangocairo-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libpolkit-agent-1-0 (>= 0.99), libpolkit-gobject-1-0 (>= 0.94), libpulse-mainloop-glib0 (>= 0.99.1), libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1), libsecret-1-0 (>= 0.7), libstartup-notification0 (>= 0.11), libsystemd0, libx11-6, libxfixes3, evolution-data-server (>= 3.17.2), gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0, gir1.2-atspi-2.0 (>= 2.9.91), gir1.2-freedesktop, gir1.2-gdesktopenums-3.0 (>= 3.12), gir1.2-geoclue-2.0, gir1.2-gcr-3 (>= 3.7.5), gir1.2-gdm-1.0 (>= 3.18.2), gir1.2-glib-2.0 (>= 1.45.3), gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 (>= 3.12.0), gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0 (>= 3.12.0), gir1.2-gtk-3.0 (>= 3.16), gir1.2-gweather-3.0, gir1.2-ibus-1.0 (>= 1.5.2), gir1.2-mutter-2 (>= 3.27.91), gir1.2-nm-1.0, gir1.2-nma-1.0, gir1.2-pango-1.0, gir1.2-polkit-1.0, gir1.2-rsvg-2.0, gir1.2-soup-2.4 (>= 2.40.1), gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0 (>= 0.99), gjs (>= 1.47.90), gnome-settings-daemon (>= 3.16.0), gnome-shell-common (= 3.28.3-0ubuntu0.18.04.4), ubuntu-wallpapers, gsettings-desktop-schemas (>= 3.21.3), mutter (>= 3.27.91), python3, libglib2.0-bin (>= 2.53.0)
Recommends: xserver-xorg-legacy, bolt (>= 0.2), gkbd-capplet, gnome-control-center, gnome-user-guide, iio-sensor-proxy, unzip, ubuntu-session | gnome-session
Suggests: gir1.2-telepathyglib-0.12, gir1.2-telepathylogger-0.2 (>= 0.8.0), chrome-gnome-shell, gdm3 (>= 3.10.0.1-3~), gnome-themes-standard-data, switcheroo-control
Breaks: gdm3 (<< 3.19.92), gnome-session (<< 3.19)
Conflicts: gnome-screensaver (<< 3.6)
Description: graphical shell for the GNOME desktop
 The GNOME Shell provides core interface functions like switching
 windows, launching applications or see your notifications. It takes
 advantage of the capabilities of modern graphics hardware and
 introduces innovative user interface concepts to provide a
 delightful and easy to use experience. GNOME Shell is the defining
 technology of the GNOME 3 user experience.
Homepage: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell
Original-Maintainer: Debian GNOME Maintainers <email address hidden>

[Marco Ferretti (marco-ferretti)]

p.s.: restarting gnome-shell (with SIGQUIT) works as a temporary patch.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Marco,

You are missing the fix for this bug. See comment #23.

[Marco Ferretti (marco-ferretti)]

Hi Daniel,

will install the patch later today and let you know.

Thanks for pointing me to a possible solution (I completely missed it).

[Ian McMichael (ian-sigma-uk)]

Looking good on 18.04.1 LTS Desktop. I have installed the patch from comment #23 and the network icon now appears consistently on both the status bar and the status menu.

[Marco Ferretti (marco-ferretti)]

Following up on #30 and #29 I can confirm that ubuntu 18.04.2 is working fine with the patch from comment #23

Thanks a lot for the support !

[javen (jwli)]

Hi

gnome-shell crash when lock the screen, I don't known if it cause by new gnome-shell(3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1), Please confirm.

the syslog attached, lock screen at 'Mar 19 09:37:55'

==========
dpkg -l |grep gnome-shell

ii chrome-gnome-shell 10-1 all GNOME Shell extensions integration for web browsers
ii gnome-shell 3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1 amd64 graphical shell for the GNOME desktop
ii gnome-shell-common 3.28.3+git20190124-0ubuntu18.04.1 all common files for the GNOME graphical shell
ii gnome-shell-extension-appindicator 18.04.1 all App indicators for GNOME Shell
ii gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock 0.9.1ubuntu18.04.3 all Ubuntu Dock for GNOME Shell

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

javen,

Please follow these instructions:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment

and ideally continue any discussion about crashes in a new bug.

[e-fernbach (e-fernbach)]

Ubuntu 18.04.2 Gnome
had the problem described above, followed #23 and now my Xserver doesn't work anymore. I am stuck at a terminal.