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

Terry Barnaby terry1 at beam.ltd.uk
Mon Nov 30 19:52:00 UTC 2009


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 ?

Cheers


Terry




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