F12: NetworkManager-Firefox: Firefox is currently in offline mode and can't browse the Web

Wed Dec 2 21:48:03 UTC 2009

On 12/02/2009 09:32 PM, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-12-01 at 10:24 +0000, Terry Barnaby wrote:
>> On 12/01/2009 07:50 AM, Dan Williams wrote:
>>> On Mon, 2009-11-30 at 19:52 +0000, Terry Barnaby wrote:
>>>> On 11/30/2009 06:12 PM, Dan Williams wrote:
>>>>> On Mon, 2009-11-30 at 09:55 +0000, Terry Barnaby wrote:
>>>>>> On 11/29/2009 11:30 PM, Dan Williams wrote:
>>>>>>> On Sat, 2009-11-28 at 09:10 +0000, Terry Barnaby wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 11/28/2009 08:35 AM, Rakesh Pandit wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 2009/11/28 Terry Barnaby wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> If the NetworkManager service is running, but not managing the current
>>>>>>>>>> network connection, then Firefox starts up in offline mode.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Is this a bug in NetworkManager or Firefox ?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> This is odd behaviour and needs to be fixed. I would suggest open up a
>>>>>>>>> bug against firefox. I know one can change
>>>>>>>>> toolkit.networkmanager.disable preference, but it is a PITA for our
>>>>>>>>> users. One of use cases is: Sometime network manager does not connect
>>>>>>>>> me via my CDMA usb modem (in case signal is weak), but wvdial does and
>>>>>>>>> once I switch from NM to wvdial, my firefox gets to offline mode,
>>>>>>>>> which I don't expect it to as I am connected.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Ok, filed as: 542078
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> NetworkManager is intended to control the default internet connection.
>>>>>>> If NetworkManager cannot control the default internet connection, then
>>>>>>> you may not want to use NetworkManager.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In your case, you're using a mobile broadband device.  The real bug here
>>>>>>> is that for whatever reason, NM/MM aren't connecting your modem, and we
>>>>>>> should follow up on that bug instead.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Dan
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am not using a mobile broadband device. The network connection my systems
>>>>>
>>>>> My mistake.  I guess it was Rakesh Pandit who was using a CDMA 3G
>>>>> connection.
>>>>>
>>>>>> use is not just the Internet it is a local network LAN connection that also
>>>>>> serves the internet. Most of my systems use a local network server which
>>>>>> provides NIS, /home and /data using NFS and VPN etc. I normally use the
>>>>>> service "network" to bring up wired or wireless networking for this. Fedora,
>>>>>> by default, uses NetworkManager to manage all network devices though. I use
>>>>>> the service "network" as, for some reason, the NetworkManager service is
>>>>>> started after the netfs and other services are started. Is there a reason
>>>>>> for this ??
>>>>>
>>>>> No particular reason, in fact that looks like a bug.  NM no longer
>>>>> depends on HAL, but that dependency is still in the initscript, which
>>>>> looks like it pushes NM later than netfs.
>>>>>
>>>>> But in reality, you're looking for a dependency based initsystem which
>>>>> we don't quite yet have.  There are already scripts that kick netfs to
>>>>> mount stuff when NM brings the network up
>>>>> (/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/05-netfs), so you get asynchronous
>>>>> bootup *and* your mounts.  The rest of the system, if it requires
>>>>> something from the mounted directories, needs to be smart enough to know
>>>>> that.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you need to, you can set NETWORKWAIT=yes in /etc/sysconfig/network,
>>>>> which causes the NetworkManager initscript to block until a network
>>>>> connection is brought up, or 30 seconds have passed.
>>>>>
>>>>>> I can obviously turn of the NetworkManager service, which I have done on the
>>>>>> desktop systems. However, I also have a few Laptops that can roam. In F11 and
>>>>>> before I have used the network and NetworkManager services. When the laptop
>>>>>> boots away from home, the "network" service fails and I can then use the
>>>>>> NetworkManager service to connect to whatever wireless network or G3 network is
>>>>>> available.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It does seem sensible to me that the "system" provides applications with info
>>>>>> on if the network is up (not just the Internet). The NetworkManager service
>>>>>> seems the place to do this and it looks like the applications are starting
>>>>>> to use it for this purpose.
>>>>>> So maybe a generic NM "isNetworkUp()" API call is called for ?
>>>>>
>>>>> See the other mail; the problem with a generic isUp() is that it simply
>>>>> says hey, is there a connection?  It doesn't provide enough information
>>>>> about the networking state of the system for anything to make an
>>>>> intelligent decision about anything.  It's a "hey I'm connected to
>>>>> something" but there's no information about *what* you're connected to;
>>>>> whether it's a secure home network, whether it's a slow 3G network,
>>>>> whether it's billed by the  minute or the hour or unlimited, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dan
>>>>>
>>>> Hi, Thanks for the info.
>>>> I would have thought that a generic isUp() is good enough for the likes
>>>> of Firefox and Pidgen though to decide if to start offline. Being connected to a
>>>> Network is probably all you need, you may be accessing an Intranet as all
>>>> my systems Firefox home pages do ...
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, following your email (And notes in Bugzilla) I thought I'd try and
>>>> use NM properly for my config. However I have a problem, which may be
>>>> a bug. I have turned off the Network services and turned on NetworkManger.
>>>> I have two main network interfaces eth0 (wired) and eth1 (Wifi), both are
>>>> set to be managed by NM and to start at boot. I have also added
>>>> NETWORKWAIT=yes in /etc/sysconfig/network.
>>>>
>>>> When I boot with this the network (eth1 (eth0 is disconnected)) does not
>>>> come up at boot. There is a message stating a failure on the line
>>>> where it is waiting for the network to come up. When I log in as a
>>>> local user the network then comes up ...
>>>>
>>>> I also note that, before the user is logged in, I cannot start the network
>>>> with "service network start" and the WiFi light is off. It looks like
>>>> NM has done something like powered down my WiFi chip ?
>>>> (Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG IBM Thinkpad R52)
>>>>
>>>> Another thing, I would need NETWORKWAIT=yes as I have ypbind enabled.
>>>> Maybe ypbind should be modified to not start when the network is down and
>>>> also added to /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d ?
>>>
>>> NM has two types of connection: system and user (see
>>> http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManagerConfiguration ).  NM treats ifcfg
>>> files as system connections and thus they are available at boot time and
>>> before login.  I had assumed that since your connection was working
>>> correctly with the 'network' service that it was also a system
>>> connection.  What is the result of
>>> 'ls /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*' and what are the contents
>>> of /var/log/messages when the device is not correctly connected on
>>> bootup?
>>>
>>> Before logging in, can you also drop to a VT, log in, and run 'nm-tool'
>>> for me?
>>>
>>> THanks,
>>> Dan
>>>
>>>
>> Hi Dan,
>>
>> As far as I am aware my connections are "system" connections. I have configured
>> the Network interfaces using the system-config-network tool. When I use the
>> "network" service the eth1 wireless network comes up fine at boot. When I use
>> NetworkManager the eth1 wireless network does not come up at boot. There is the
>> error: "Waiting for network...  [FAILED]"
>> If the NetworkManger service is running (eth1 has not come up) and I run
>> "service network start" the eth1 interface still does not come up. If
>> I stop the NetworkManger service and again run "service network start" then
>> the eth1 interface comes up ...
>>
>> The configuration files are:
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* files are there:
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-Vodaphone
>>
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 is:
>> # Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection
>> DEVICE=eth1
>> HWADDR=00:16:6F:8A:E1:95
>> ONBOOT=yes
>> BOOTPROTO=dhcp
>> TYPE=Wireless
>> NM_CONTROLLED=yes
>> USERCTL=yes
>> PEERDNS=yes
>> IPV6INIT=no
>> MODE=Auto
>
> ^^^^ This is the problem.  "Auto" is not a valid mode.
>
> Dec  1 09:59:05 think NetworkManager:    ifcfg-rh:     error: Invalid mode 'auto' (not 'Ad-Hoc' or 'Managed')
>
> you'll probably be seeing something on the console when running "ifup
> eth1" like this:
>
> Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
>      SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
>
> Since all ifup-wireless does is send $MODE to iwconfig, and "auto" is
> not a valid mode.
The "MODE" was set up by system-config-network, it is from
its list of possible options for Mode and I think was the
default.
If I run ifup the error you mention is not reported and the
interface comes up fine.
However, I do get the error:
	domainname: you must be root to change the domain name

Which I assume is due to another F12 bug. Could this cause NM
to abort the connection ?

>
> Dan
>
>> RATE=auto
>> ESSID=beamwifi
>> CHANNEL=
>>
>> Section of /var/log/messages attached.
>> Output of nm-tool attached.
>>
>> nm-tool also outputs the error on stderr:
>> ** (process:1492): WARNING **: error: failed to read connections from
>> org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings:
>>       The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings was not provided by any
>> .service files
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>>
>> Terry
>>
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>