nm-applet (network-manager) can't find security agent

Question

Under Ubunutu 14.04, when trying to connect to an openvpn server via nm-applet I get the response in /var/log/syslog

NetworkManager[3590]: <error> [1412801125.247964] [nm-vpn-connection.c:1374] get_secrets_cb(): Failed to request VPN secrets #2: (6) No agents were available for this request.

As far as I can tell gnome-keyring is running

% ps -aux | grep keyring
xyz       2129  0.0  0.0 248980  4920 ?        Sl   13:36   0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=ssh

What's up with this? Should there be components other than SSH listed?

If I go to nm-applet > VPN Connections > Edit Configure VPN > Password choosing either "Saved" or "Always ask" causes this problem.

I think I got into this state by installing the headless server distribution of ubunutu and later installing gnome.

Answer 1

This is caused by a corrupt configuration for the network manager applet. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-vpnc/+bug/1297849.

I removed the file ~/.gconf/apps/nm-applet/%gconf.xml, logged out and back in and it worked.

It should also be noticed that the editor for the VPN connection didn't appear to have access to my saved passwords or the ability to save new ones.

Answer 2

I 'seemed' to have fixed this problem in Ubuntu 16.04 by removing the file:

~/.gconf/desktop/%gconf.xml

I did not have a file at:

~/.gconf/apps/nm-applet/%gconf.xml

I don't know why this file needs to be removed. But it works now.