[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#501492: network-manager: doesn't connect to open wireless network

[Filipus Klutiero]

Package: network-manager
Version: 0.6.6-2
Severity: important

When the Ethernet plug is not connected, network-manager is not 
connected, despite the availabity of a broadcasted unencrypted 802.11g 
network. This happens on 2 machines on 2 tested. Both machines are 
laptops with one Ethernet card for eth0 and one 802.11g card for wlan0.

This happens with the default /etc/network/interfaces, but to eliminate 
problems that could be caused by a conflict between eth0 and wlan0, I 
set eth0 so that it's not managed by n-m. The problem persists.

# nm-tool 

NetworkManager Tool

State: disconnected

- Device: wlan0 
----------------------------------------------------------------
  NM Path:           /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/wlan0
  Type:              802.11 Wireless
  Driver:            iwl3945
  Active:            no
  HW Address:        00:1B:77:A6:BE:04

  Capabilities:
    Supported:       yes

  Wireless Settings
    Scanning:        yes
    WEP Encryption:  yes
    WPA Encryption:  yes
    WPA2 Encryption: yes

  Wireless Networks (* = Current Network)
    dd-wrt:          Infrastructure Mode, Freq 2.437 MHz, Rate 62 Mb/s, 
Strength 67%


vinci:/home/chealer#

As you can see, this network is an easy target, and I can connect to it 
trivially with iwconfig and dhclient, on both machines. This machine 
uses an IPW3945, with the firmware of course installed. The other 
machine uses a Ralink RT2500. Both machines run a standard 
freshly installed lenny, with a stock Linux, 2.6.26-1-686. Both use the 
mainline Linux driver. I shall remember to attach the interfaces file. 
nm-applet shows no clue. When Ethernet is unplugged, I see a X on red 
and no activity. The tooltip reads "No network connection". This 
happens without touching to n-m. "Enable Networking" and "Enable 
Wireless" are checked. This happens despite multiple reboots.

lspci extract on this machine:
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 
Network Connection (rev 02)

/var/log/daemon.log extract when starting n-m:

Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  starting...
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  Found radio killswitch 
/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/ipw_wlan_switch
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  wlan0: Device is 
fully-supported using driver 'iwl3945'.
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  wlan0: driver supports 
SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01).
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): waiting 
for device's worker thread to start
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): device's 
worker thread started, continuing.
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  Now managing wireless 
(802.11) device 'wlan0'.
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  Deactivating device wlan0.
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  Updating allowed wireless 
network lists.
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <WARN>  nm_dbus_get_networks_cb(): 
error received: org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerInfo.NoNetworks - There 
are no wireless networks stored..
Oct  7 14:56:17 vinci NetworkManager: <info>  Wireless now enabled by 
radio killswitch

The warning is suspicious.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_CA.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_CA.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages network-manager depends on:
ii  adduser                       3.110      add and remove users and groups
ii  dbus                          1.2.1-3    simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  dhcdbd                        3.0-4      D-Bus interface to the ISC DHCP cl
ii  hal                           0.5.11-3   Hardware Abstraction Layer
ii  ifupdown                      0.6.8+nmu1 high level tools to configure netw
ii  iproute                       20080725-2 networking and traffic control too
ii  libc6                         2.7-13     GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbus-1-3                   1.2.1-3    simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2              0.76-1     simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgcrypt11                   1.4.1-1    LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglib2.0-0                  2.16.5-1   The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgpg-error0                 1.4-2      library for common error values an
ii  libhal1                       0.5.11-3   Hardware Abstraction Layer - share
ii  libiw29                       29-1.1     Wireless tools - library
ii  libnl1                        1.1-2      library for dealing with netlink s
ii  libnm-util0                   0.6.6-2    network management framework (shar
ii  lsb-base                      3.2-20     Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  wpasupplicant                 0.6.4-2    Client support for WPA and WPA2 (I

Versions of packages network-manager recommends:
ii  network-manager-gnome         0.6.6-2    network management framework (GNOM

network-manager suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug eth0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
iface eth0 inet dhcp