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Frequently asked questions for Network Manager

General Questions

What is the latest version of Network Manager?

0.6.6 was released in February 2008

0.7 should be released in the next couple of months. Pre-release versions are available in Fedora 8 and Fedora 9.

I don't have NetworkManager yet; how do I install it?

Download NetworkManager packages for your favorite distribution, and install them:

Fedora

sudo yum install NetworkManager NetworkManager-gnome (or use the Applications->System Tools->Software Updater application)

Then you must enable NetworkManager to start as a system service.

• sudo /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManager on (or use System->Administration->Services and turn NetworkManager on for levels 3, 4, and 5)

Then start NetworkManager:

sudo /sbin/service NetworkManager start (or use the Services application to start NetworkManager)

Note: Network Manager is included by default in all recent Debian and Ubuntu Releases.

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

Kubuntu

sudo apt-get install network-manager-kde

Debian Unstable and Testing

For Gnome: sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

For KDE: sudo apt-get install network-manager-kde

Gentoo

See the [NetworkManagerGentoo Gentoo specific NetworkManager notes]

How do I get that nice little applet?

Under the Gnome desktop environment, the 'nm-applet' process should already be started when you log in. If you don't see it, verify that it's running by checking for a process called 'nm-applet'. If it is running, NetworkManager may not be started. The applet hides itself when NM is not running.

(add KDE directions here)

How does NetworkManager select which wireless network to connect to?

NetworkManager only attempts to automatically connect to networks you have previously told it to connect to. If it finds multiple wireless networks that you have connected to in the past, NetworkManager selects the network one you connected to. If NetworkManager isn't connecting to the network you want, try to force it to connect to the network you wish to be connected, and NetworkManager will remember that setting next time. In version 0.6.6 and later there is a profile editor that can be used to add/remove networks.

Why do I have to enter a password when NetworkManager connects to a WEP or WPA network?

To securely store your WEP/WPA keys and EAP information NetworkManager utilizes the Gnome Keyring when using GNOME, and with KDE in the Wallet. Many wireless settings are per-user settings, like WPA and 802.1x certificates and smartcards, and not necessarily system-wide settings for all users of the computer. However, NetworkManager 0.7 will allow users to "publish" settings and make them available for all users. From Gnome 2.20 onward Gnome will automatically unlock the keyring on login if your Keyring password matches your login password. You can use Seahorse to change your password if it does not match.

Why do I receive multiple prompts to login to my keyring?

This is a known issue with 0.6.2, the problem is resolved in 0.6.3.

What card works best with NetworkManager?

Since NetworkManager only requires that a driver properly support the latest Linux Wireless Extensions (WEXT), any card with proper WEXT support should work fine. Intel Pro/Wireless cards (IPW2100, IPW2200, IPW2915, and IPW3945) seem to work the best with NetworkManager. Atheros chipset cards also work well with the latest MadWifi-ng drivers (0.94). Some older Madwifi drivers may experience a signal strength issue as noted elsewhere in this FAQ.

Also, not all cards or drivers support WPA. See the [NetworkManagerHardware] page for more details on what drivers and cards do, and do not, support.

Where do I get help?

Since some distributions make distribution specific changes to NetworkManager a good start might be your distributions support forums. For example http://www.fedoraforum.org or http://www.ubuntuforums.org

If you are unable to find help anywhere please post a message to the Network Manager Mailing list at http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list

When will Network-Manager 0.7.0 be released?

Tenatively the Network Manager development team is targeting May 2008, possibly a little later.

Configuration

How do I remove networks I no longer wish to connect to?

For Version 0.6.5 or earlier From the command line run the following replacing <SSID> with the SSID of the network you wish to remove:

  gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /system/networking/wireless/networks/<SSID>

You can use the "Configuration Editor" (gconf-editor) to browse the networks listed in that configuration directory, but you cannot remove the SSID's folder using the GUI tool.

For version 0.6.6 or later Use the Network Profile editor to remove unwanted networks.

I don't see an option for WPA or WPA2. How do I use WPA with my card?

First, make sure you are running at least version 0.6.0 for WPA support. If you are make sure that the driver for your device fully supports the latest Linux Wireless Extensions (WEXT). At this time a number of drivers have not reached this point, see the NetworkManagerHardware page for a list of drivers and their WEXT status.

There are some patches that will allow NetworkManager to use device specific commands that allow some devices (Prism, NDISWrapper, and Madwifi/Atheros cards) to have WPA support in NetworkManager. To find these patches search the NetworkManager mailing list for the latest posting of them. These patches are not provided by default because the efforts of supporting many different wireless implementations would be too much for anyone handle so the NetworkManager developers chose to only fully support the Wireless Extension standard. Many distributions (SUSE, Ubuntu, and Debian etc..) already include these patches, and drivers are become more standards-compliant at a fairly rapid pace.

See some of the more detailed questions below for some updates on some specific cards.

How do I test if my card will support WPA with Network-Manager?

This is not a perfect test, but if you are able to use wpa_supplicant with the -Dwext switch rather than a switch specific to your hardware then Network-Manager should support it. See your distro's documentation for more details on using wpa_supplicant.

How do I setup a static IP address with NetworkManager?

NetworkManager has limited support for static IP addressing. Configuration of static IPs is distribution specific and should use that distribution's normal network configuration methods.

For example, on Fedora Core, using the system-config-network tool or editing /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 to set a static IP up for the device 'eth1' would result in NetworkManager using that static IP configuration whenever you connect to an access point using eth1. Obviously, since static IP configuration is always a manual task, NetworkManager is not able to automate the process in any way.

Better support of static IP addresses is planned and in-progress for NetworkManager 0.7.

How do I set up VPN connections?

NetworkManager has support for three types of VPN connections; Cisco VPNs (via vpnc), OpenVPN, and PPTP VPNs (The PPTP VPN Plugin is not available yet for 0.7). (Of these, the Cisco/vpnc is the most mature, possibly because it doesn't have so many configuration options to account for )

You must first install the VPN plugin, and then restart NetworkManager so that the plugin is recognized. You may then use the "Configure VPN..." menu item in the desktop applet to set your VPN connection up.

Fedora

sudo yum install NetworkManager-vpnc or use the Software Updater application to install it

We plan to remove the requirement for restarting NetworkManager to recognize new VPN plugins with the 0.7 version. Also, make *sure* you use a VPN plugin that's compatible with your version of NetworkManager. The NM<->VPN interface was changed between NM 0.6 and NM 0.61, which may cause some plugins to fail. If this happens to you, try updating your VPN plugin.

Ubuntu

Older versions of Ubuntu (6.10 or earlier) did not include any VPN Plugins, but all releases since 2007 have all the VPN plugins available. sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn network-manager-vpnc network-manager-pptp

What does the "Fallback Network" Option do?

This tells Network Manager to fall back and try to connect to this network even if it does not see it by scanning, this may help people who have issues connecting to networks with "hidden" SSID's.

How do I tell Network Manager to rescan for wireless networks?

If you click on the Applet Network Manager will initiate a scan request. In general there should be no need to do this since Network Manager scans automatically and attempts to scan in a manner that impacts the card the most.

Hardware

What wireless cards does NetworkManager support?

NetworkManager does not support any specific cards, it is designed to work with any card that supports the latest Linux Wireless Extensions (WEXT) standard. See this link for information on specific cards: NetworkManagerHardware

My Card is not recognized by NetworkManager and I am running Debian or Ubuntu:

Debian and Ubuntu modified NetworkManager so that it would not manage any devices listed in /etc/network/interfaces. If you open this file and comment out the lines for the interfaces you want to manage and reboot NetworkManager will see them. **Do not comment out l0**

I'm using a Broadcom 4xxx-based card, but NetworkManager won't connect to my wireless network. Why?

The Broadcom wireless drivers are under active development and have come a long way, but are not quite as mature as others. It's a good bet that bcm4xxx problems will be solved in furture kernel versions. Until recently, this driver did not support the Shared Key WEP authentication mode, still used by many access points. There are also reported problems connecting to open networks.

A workaround might be to use the NDISWrapper driver instead of the the bcm43xx driver included in the Linux kernel, at least until the kernel driver version fixes these bugs.

Why does my Atheros-based wireless card shows lower than normal wireless strength?

This is a result of the way some older Madwifi drivers reported signal strength. This is reported as fixed in the more recent releases. Robert Love posted this explanation on the NetworkManager list:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2006-January/msg00141.html

Basically, the driver reports a maximum quality of 92, but the quality itself can never reach this. Thus taking the quality as a ratio xx/92 is misleading. A foot from the AP returns numbers like 45/92. Obviously way off. The above email points out that a more accurate maximum value is 60. The madwifi-ng drivers do not appear to follow the WEXT specification for reporting signal strength, and since NetworkManager follows that specification fairly strictly, the strength reported by the driver is inaccurate.

There have been a number of patches that workaround this issue posted to the NetworkManager mailing list and many have been integrated into Distro-specific packages. For example SUSE, Debian, and Ubuntu all have this patch applied. If your distribution does not have these patches you should consider raising a bug with them.

Why does NetworkManager crash with recent versions of dbus?

This probably doesn't apply anymore There is a known bug in dbus that causes NetworkManager to crash in certain rare cases. This bug is being worked on in dbus and a fix should be out shortly. (DBusPendingCall objects are not properly reference counted, and dbus tries to use the DBusConnection object referenced from the pending call structure after it has already been freed, leading to the crash).

Your crashlog (from /var/log/messages) will look like this:

Jun 27 11:25:18 localhost NetworkManager: <WARNING>      nm_signal_handler (): Caught signal 11.  Generating backtrace...
Jun 27 11:25:18 localhost NetworkManager: ******************* START **********************************
...
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: Thread 3 (Thread -1219298400 (LWP 4169)):
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: #0  0x001f4402 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: No symbol table info available.
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: #1  0x001b1bdb in __waitpid_nocancel () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: No symbol table info available.
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: backtrace () at nm-logging.c:72
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:       s = {st_dev = 64768, __pad1 = 0, st_ino = 1343769, st_mode = 33261,
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:   st_nlink = 1, st_uid = 0, st_gid = 0, st_rdev = 0, __pad2 = 0,
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:   st_size = 12110, st_blksize = 4096, st_blocks = 32, st_atim = {
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: 96, tv_nsec = 0}, st_mtim = {tv_sec = 1151086415,
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:     tv_nsec = 0}, st_ctim = {tv_sec = 1151419396, tv_nsec = 0}, __unused4 = 0,
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:   __unused5 = 0}
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: #3  0x0806c941 in nm_signal_handler (signo=11) at nm-logging.c:166
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:       in_fatal = 1
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: _signal_handler"
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: #4  <signal handler called>
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: No symbol table info available.
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: #5  0x007de302 in check_for_reply_and_update_dispatch_unlocked (
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:     pending=0x8f58ae0) at dbus-connection.c:2515
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager:       reply =
...
Jun 27 11:25:19 localhost NetworkManager: ******************* END **********************************

NetworkManager does not list my Realtek Gigabit Network card:

This is a known issue with the r1000 driver not supporting link status detection. This is rumored to be fixed in the 2.6.17 Kernel.

Debuging

How do I debug a connection?

Stop NetworkManager via the appropriate method for your distro:

Fedora

sudo /sbin/service NetworkManager stop

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager stop

or for versions before 0.6.4-8:

• sudo /etc/dbus-1/event.d/25NetworkManager stop

Once NetworkManager is stopped start it again from a terminal with:

sudo NetworkManager --no-daemon

Copying the output of NetworkManager and including that in your bug report (remember to remove any wireless encryption keys that might be in the output!) is a great way to help the NetworkManager developers resolve your problem more quickly.

WPA_Supplicant works but NetworkManager does not.

This is probably out of date First make sure that you are using the -Dwext option and not a driver specific option. Only WEXT is supported by NetworkManager. If you are using wext then please grab the nm-supplicant-test and execute it with you wpa_supplicant.conf and post the output to the NetworkManager mailing list.

Debian/Ubuntu: A precompiled binary is available at http://darrenalbers.com/networkmanager, download this file and use the instructions on the page to run it.

Fedora: Dan Williams has a precompiled binary available at http://people.redhat.com/dcbw/NetworkManager/nm-supplicant-test Download this file, stop the NetworkManager service and then feed the wpa_supplicant.conf to the tool like this: sudo nm-supplicant-test eth1 /path/to/wpa_supplicant.conf (replace eth1 with your interface)

Network Manager 0.6.4 and earlier seem to output a lot of debugging information into syslog. Can this be disabled?

The arguement -dd being passed to wpa_supplicant is hard-coded into Network-Manager. To reduce the amount of debugging open nm-device-802-11-wireless.c and around line 2666 change it from -dd to -d and recompile Network-Manager. This has been changed in 0.6.5 or later.