NetworkManager is polling every 4 seconds on the Desktop looking for /var/lib/ofono

I've got some stats to show how this is now one of the top wake-up offending processes on the desktop now:

http://ci.ubuntu.com/power/eventstat/image/3105/machine/1/task/NetworkManager/details/

So, I think this could be classed as a regression in Trusty.

Confirmed; I will try to fix this with an upload today.

I can't seem to reproduce this. I've tried with NetworkManager 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu5 with the /var/lib/ofono directory inexistent, with it created, with it created and with subdirectories...

I've also tried another version I was working on; can't see it there either...

And before testing all that I built NM with a patch to not try to bring up a g_file_monitor for that path if it doesn't exist; and that obviously also doesn't show the problem.

Is there any more you can add to this bug report, such as what version of NM is running at the time, and whether ofono is also installed and running (though I expect it's not, since you don't appear to have /var/lib/ofono).

With version of 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu5 I still see one of the threads doing:

inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3997) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3998) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3995) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3996) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3996) = 0 (Timeout)

So a 0.25 Hz timeout and an inotify watch being added each time which seems redundant on the desktop.

This is on a cleanly installed machine as of last week so I'm confident that my laptop is relatively sane when it comes to installed packages.

To track this down I did:

sudo health-check -p NetworkManager

this showed up as:

System calls traced:
  PID Process Syscall Count Rate/Sec Total μSecs % Call Time
   949 NetworkManager recvmsg 211 3.5167 2520 0.0021
   949 NetworkManager sendmsg 108 1.8000 2044 0.0017
   949 NetworkManager poll 97 1.6167 53977531 45.3342
   949 NetworkManager write 77 1.2833 873 0.0007
   949 NetworkManager read 52 0.8667 606 0.0005
   949 NetworkManager restart_syscall 1 0.0167 5542655 4.6551
   952 NetworkManager rt_sigtimedwait 1 0.0167 0 0.0000
   959 NetworkManager inotify_add_watch 15 0.2500 301 0.0003
   959 NetworkManager poll 15 0.2500 56001456 47.0340
   959 NetworkManager restart_syscall 1 0.0167 3537933 2.9714
   963 NetworkManager restart_syscall 1 0.0167 0 0.0000
 Total 579 9.6500 119065919

and also:

Inotify watches added:
  PID Process Rate/Sec File
   959 NetworkManager 0.250 /...

This bug was fixed in the package network-manager - 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu10

---------------
network-manager (0.9.8.8-0ubuntu10) utopic; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/add_ofono_settings_support.patch:
    - don't create a monitor for /var/lib/ofono if the path doesn't exist.
      We'll get another chance to do it if oFono appears on the DBus bus.
      (LP: #1289532)
    - Sort the list of ofono connections before returning them.
  * debian/patches/add_ofono_support.patch:
    - Don't Online the modem, urfkill or telepathy-ofono will take care of it.
    - Further refine how we pick the "best" for mobile data for oFono: we only
      want to consider GSM-type connections, and should try to pick the last
      connection to get successfully activated, defaulting to the first context
      privisioned by oFono (if no connections were ever established).
  * debian/patches/ofono_mms_support.patch: deal with MMS by setting up a host
    route for the mobile data connection if the MessageProxy property is set in
    oFono. (LP: #1302037)
  * debian/patches/dont-check-secrets-for-ofono.patch: refreshed.
  * debian/patches/git_default_route_active_device_9820258.patch: keep the
    default gateway on the currently active device.
 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Wed, 07 May 2014 09:41:26 -0400