Panel network icon - too much latency when network type changes

[Tony Espy]

Testing image #u122 this morning, I ran into two separate scenarios where the panel network icon didn't always accurately reflect the current network technology due to some kind of latency detecting network changes ( ie. WiFi -> 3G -> WiFi ).

Both scenarios were reproduced on mako.

Scenario 1:

3G: online
WiFi: enabled; connected to AP 1

- display network menu
- tap another secure network
- tap cancel when Password dialog is displayed

At this point the indicator shows '3G' whereas the network menu still shows the original AP 1 as connected. After some period of time ( 10s - 1m ), the icon will change back to show that WiFi is connected.

Scenario 2:

3G: online
WiFi: connected to AP 1

- go to System Settings::WiFi
- click "Previous Networks"
- select the currently connected AP/network
- click Forget Network
- go back to WiFi settings

The WiFi settings correctly shows the AP is no longer connected, however again the network icon takes some time ( 10s - 1m ) to reflect the change back to "3G".

[Tony Espy (awe)]

Note, this also occurs when toggling the device in and out of FlightMode. There are certain cases where the icon gets stuck displaying the Wi-Fi disconnected icon, and then never updates to 3G when FlightMode is disabled.

[Tony Espy (awe)]

This bug was reported in July and never confirmed ( hence the New ), so someone should've tried to reproduce with a current image before marking it Critical for RTM.

I just re-ran the original scenarios on RTM image #44.

I can still reproduce the original problem, however the overall latency has come way down ( 10-15s max for state transition vs. almost a minute maximum before ).

In scenario one, we should check the indicator's logic and see when the connect attempt is made to the newly selected network. It seems that a disconnect always happens when a network is selected, even when the user the clicks cancel. My guess is that this may have something to do with the NM agent prompting mechanism used to tell the indicator to collect a password.

Anyways, again in scenario 1, I get a ~10s overlap of the icon showing 2G, and the network-menu showing the connected AP. After the 10s, the icon updates to the appropriate WiFi icon. My guess about the latency is that even though we may be connected, it takes awhile for NM to prepare the connection and maybe it notified the indicator that it's connected prior to the connection being fully setup???

I'm less concerned about scenario 2 as there's no conflicting icons / menu states, it just takes awhile to switch back to 2G.

Maybe this could be marked High instead of Critical?

[Tony Espy (awe)]

Here's a screen shot of the menu contradicting the icon.

[Victor Tuson Palau (vtuson)]

This now seems to be taken 10-15sec, on those basis I am down grading it to high

[Jussi Pakkanen (jpakkane)]

Using i-n-sniffer it can be seen that the icon updates when ofono sends a dbus signal telling that modem connection quality has changed. This probably means that some event has been missed, so either:

1) i-n does not respond properly to some event it is getting
2) either ofono or NetworkManager is not sending a proper change event signal

Looking further...

[Jussi Pakkanen (jpakkane)]

As requested by Antti, here's the i-n-sniffer log. This starts with wifi killswitch enabled and the indicator showing the 3G icon.

Wlan killswitch changed to: 0
NetworkManager properties changed:
  WirelessEnabled false
NetworkManager properties changed:
  WirelessEnabled true
NetworkManager properties changed:
  ActiveConnections (now have 1)
NetworkManager properties changed:
  ActiveConnections (now have 1)
NetworkManager properties changed:
  ActivatingConnection
  ActiveConnections (now have 2)
NetworkManager properties changed:
  ActiveConnections (now have 2)
NetworkManager properties changed:
  ActivatingConnection
  PrimaryConnection
NetworkManager primary connection type changed to 802-11-wireless.
Ofono network registration 1 property Strength changed to 48.
Ofono network registration 1 property LocationAreaCode changed to 1018.
Ofono network registration 1 property CellId changed to 32087.

The icon changes at the exact moment the third lowest line (Strength changed to 48.) gets printed to the console.

[Pete Woods (pete-woods)]

From Jussi's investigation, this sounds like it might be an issue in ofono

[Tony Espy (awe)]

I just hit this again on krillin. Both modems lost signal, and thus were no longer registered to a carrier, yet the data icon still showed 'edge'. That said, I wasn't fast enough to grab a screenshot, nor list-modems output.

Regarding comment #7 and this being an ofono issue, we need some kind of proof. I usually see this when switching enabling WiFi, as I've pointed out, there seems to be different logic that's used for the panel icon vs. the menu item representing the connected AP.

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ system-image-cli -i
current build number: 20
device name: krillin
channel: ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09
last update: 2015-03-26 15:44:56
version version: 20
version ubuntu: 20150312
version device: 20150310-3201c0a
version custom: 20150216-561-29-186

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Marco Graziotti (graziottimarco)]

I have the same problem on Meizu MX4 - Arale r.4 -.

When I'm connected to wi-fi, then I'm going out of the wi-fi range, the system don't switch to carrier connection.
Tell me if you need more details.

Thank you.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

utopic has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the utopic task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".