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

Tue Dec 1 10:24:33 UTC 2009

On 12/01/2009 07:50 AM, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-11-30 at 19:52 +0000, Terry Barnaby wrote:
>> 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 ?
>
> NM has two types of connection: system and user (see
> http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManagerConfiguration ).  NM treats ifcfg
> files as system connections and thus they are available at boot time and
> before login.  I had assumed that since your connection was working
> correctly with the 'network' service that it was also a system
> connection.  What is the result of
> 'ls /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*' and what are the contents
> of /var/log/messages when the device is not correctly connected on
> bootup?
>
> Before logging in, can you also drop to a VT, log in, and run 'nm-tool'
> for me?
>
> THanks,
> Dan
>
>
Hi Dan,

As far as I am aware my connections are "system" connections. I have configured 
the Network interfaces using the system-config-network tool. When I use the
"network" service the eth1 wireless network comes up fine at boot. When I use 
NetworkManager the eth1 wireless network does not come up at boot. There is the 
error: "Waiting for network...  [FAILED]"
If the NetworkManger service is running (eth1 has not come up) and I run
"service network start" the eth1 interface still does not come up. If
I stop the NetworkManger service and again run "service network start" then
the eth1 interface comes up ...

The configuration files are:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* files are there:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-Vodaphone

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 is:
# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection
DEVICE=eth1
HWADDR=00:16:6F:8A:E1:95
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
TYPE=Wireless
NM_CONTROLLED=yes
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=yes
IPV6INIT=no
MODE=Auto
RATE=auto
ESSID=beamwifi
CHANNEL=

Section of /var/log/messages attached.
Output of nm-tool attached.

nm-tool also outputs the error on stderr:
** (process:1492): WARNING **: error: failed to read connections from 
org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings:
     The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings was not provided by any 
.service files

Cheers

Terry

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