3

on my 64bit installation of lubuntu (lxde) nm-applet has been working fine but since my latest installation of several updates (haven't updated for some weeks) it seems something broke and i can't seem to make use of nm-applet any more.

while i am aware that there are several questions regarding disappeared nm-applet icons (e.g. this askubuntu-question) the proposed solution of manually adding nm-applet to the lxsession-autostart-settings did not help as the icon still won't show (and seems fixed to me as there is a default entry called Ǹetwork` that i believe to have been missing before), so i've reverted that back to no manual entry.

after some more fiddling around i've found a thread (can't find the link any more, sorry) where it was proposed to:

  • remove Indicator applets from the shown/enabled Panel Applets
  • change the line Exec=nm-applet in /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop to Exec=dbus-launch nm-applet.

after doing so the nm-applet icon is indeed back and also does list available networks in range but when trying to connect to an encrypted wifi-network (didn't try non-encrypted) the applet acts as if its about to connect (animated icon) but then fails.

i've removed the saved network-connection and created a fresh one (making sure i got all the settings and password correct) but still none of many tried connection-apptempt succeeds.

any ideas about what i could do to diagnose the problem further or anybody else having the same issues?

Improve this question
2
  • So basically, the only issue you have at this point is with encrypted networks, right ? Otherwise , open wifi should connect fine ? Have you tried connecting not through nm-applet but rather through Network window in System and Settings ? nmcli ?
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Mar 4, 2015 at 14:08
  • @Serg as i am currently travelling i have very limited testing capabilities and could not test with unencrypted wifi (none around). additionally i just learned about the existence of nmcli which i'll try to figure out but for now (see my answer) this seems solved although some mystery remains to me... thanks anyway!
    – antiplex
    Mar 4, 2015 at 16:42

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

well, after further fiddling around with this issue i finally got everything back to work (meaning being able to connect to encrypted wifi-networks using nm-applet) but what led to the success is not entirely clear as i've tried several things some of which i am unaware of how to revert.

there seem to be four factors that (in some combination) lead to a solution for me:

  • changing the corresponding line in /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop to Exec=dbus-launch nm-applet as mentioned in my orig. question
  • disabling the application Network that is listed in the autostart-tab in the Default applications for LXsession dialogue (i had re-enabled this before after it did't seem to help when disabled alone earlier!) and manually adding the entry of nm-applet to autostarted applications-list instead
  • removing the plugin Indicator applets from the LXpanel (right-click on panel -> Add / Remove Panel Items)
  • i then killed the nm-applet process manually after a system-restart and started it manually via terminal. this led me to a dialogue that did never show up before asking me to setup a keyring (-> password). after doing so and further trying with running nm-applet through sudo i ended up restarting my system and afterwards i could eventually connect to wifi-networks (after entering my keyring-password).

i can't recall i've changed any settings that would require the explicit use of the password-protected keyring-storage but i'm thankful things are back to normal for me.

hope this may be of help for some folks who happen to stumble across the same issues...

Improve this answer
1

I had the same problem on Lubuntu 14.04 after an upgrade. I tested parts of antiplex answer:

killall nm-applet
dbus-launch nm-applet

seemed to help. So for me it was enough to

  1. go to Preferences --> Default applications for LX Session --> Autostart,
  2. uncheck Network and
  3. add dbus-launch nm-applet
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .