Network Manager does not show Edit connections dialogue

Question

NM applet icon constantly appears and disappears when connected to wireless. When the icon is present it's possible to open Connection information but Edit connections dialogue never opens, even in System Settings - Network - Wireless - Configure.

It's impossible to add / edit connections. Please help if anyone knows how to fix it.

Answer 1

Run gksudo nm-connection-editor to edit your connections with sudo privileges.

Answer 2

can you start a Terminal on your system and gather the content of the file:

/etc/init/network-manager.conf

It should look like this:

(BEGIN - you won't see this)

** network-manager - network connection manager

** The Network Manager daemon manages the system's network connections,

** automatically switching between the best available.**

description "network connection manager"

start on (local-filesystems and started dbus) stop on stopping dbus

expect fork respawn

exec NetworkManager

(END you won't see this)

One thing that could be affecting the issue is the state of your Wireless connection itself - the icon could be sowing that your connection is no longer available (meaning that the icon is changing its state to reveal that the connection is down).

If the connection icon is a bright icon against a dark background and the icon is dimmed when the connection is not available, this may account for the 'disappearance' of the icon, when actually it is there, but the connection may have become unavailable.

A simple test would be to try to connect to any website when the icon has disappeared. If no connections are possible - then the network connection is possibly unavailable. A ping test to a local network resource that allows same would confirm that connection availability and from there an internet ping test would confirm any outside connectivity.

Give that a try and see if this helps explain the mystery of the disappearing icon.

As for opening the Edit connections, you should be able to do this if you provide the sudo credentials as required. Does this not work, or is this not being requested?

Answer 3

@Inna, you can gather /etc/init/network-manager.conf with the following command at the terminal:

Inna@hostname:~$sudo cp -b /etc/init/network-manager.conf /home/$userName/myfile.txt

the command will ask for your password (the sudo command forces this) and then copies the file contents into a file called "myfile.txt" which is a text file that you can open with any text editor. The cp (copy) command makes a backup (-b) of the source file (/etc/init/network-manager.conf) and outputs this to a destination file (/home/$userName/myfile.txt) where the file is stored.

PLEASE NOTE: the name $userName is representative here of your username and actually is the name of your user name's home directory in this case. It is case-sensitive, so if your username in the system is Inna, then the path is: /home/Inna/myfile.txt.

If your user name is inna though, the path is different: /home/inna/myfile.txt

That is important to know, as the command has to be altered before being used. You cannot use the variable $userName as written above as this will not work.

Also, when attempting to Edit Connections, you should be able to see the various types of connections (presuming the Icon is present at all) available. If the icon is present and you left-lick on the icon, what happens?