After boot, NetworkManager indicator menu only shows four entries

I have noticed the same situation on a installed and up to date version of Ubuntu 12.04 (32bit).

Clicking the NetworkManager icon only four items were available. But after deactivating and then activating the "Enable Wireless" option, all the items were again available.

I tried to log out and start a new session and also to reboot the system. Everything fine in both cases, the NetworkManager was still showing all the items.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

it's the same for me after upgrading to latest beta of 12.04

It's the same for me in the released and updated version of 12.04. Sometimes after 3-4 minutes, I go back to the menu and all items are there without having to first disable/enable wireless.

Compare bug #1011073.

It's the same for me on a fresh 12.04 install.

also affect me after upgrade from 12.04 to 12.10.
it's the same for me on a fresh 12.10 install.

`restart network-manager` fixes this

affects me too on both fresh install 64bit and upgrade 32bit

The easiest workaround for this bug I've found is to uncheck "Enable Networking" on the network dropdown, wait a few seconds, and pick "Enable networking". This seems to reliably toggle the missing entries back onto the menus, both wifi and VPN. I see this on multiple ubuntu boxes, particularly starting with 12.04, but not all of them.

I am seeing a very similar issue with the Dropbox indicator applet, and after much experimentation I believe both issues (network-manager and dropbox) are caused by a race condition within libindicate itself. I have opened a libindicate task for this bug, hopefully someone from that project will take a look.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Hi Kevin, please don't change the status of the bug without providing an explanation, and please don't assign the bug to yourself unless you plan to provide a fix.

Thanks,
Evan

This bug is still there and very annoying for an LTS version. Sometimes one is in the middle of a conf call and you just cannot disable/enable the network to make the missing items appear...

On one side, I noted that the bug shows itself 100% of the times when starting the computer with Wireless disabled (hardware switch), while on some rare occasions, with Wireless enabled it does not show. Lenovo T400 here, with iwlwifi driver.

Restarting nm-applet workaround either doesn't display nm-applet or brings it back with VPN still missing. Command line instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VPNClient do not work for 12.04. This renders 12.04 pretty much useless in our environment.

This bug has been around for a while. Is there any plan to fix it?

there is a workaround:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1027638/comments/5

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 and was not experiencing this problem until I installed the following packages at which time the nm-applet began only showing the stated 4 menu items:

openconnect 3.15-0ubuntu2
libopenconnect1 3.15-0ubuntu2
network-manager-openconnect 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu1
network-manager-openconnect-gnome 0.9.4.0-0ubuntu1

Uninstalling these packages did not return the nm-applet to normal behavior.
The current solution(s) I am using, as described by others, is to either kill/restart nm-applet or toggle the "Enable Networking" menu selection of the applet.

our network-manager-applet doesn't use libindicate.

This is occurring for me on Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 beta (both 32-bit builds).

work around at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1027638

Same issue with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64, with a hardwired desktop. Happens about 50% of the time on startup, but I have actually recently noticed that it might be fine at startup, but appear hours later as well....Created a thread on it on ubuntuforums.org for those interested (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12278500).

Every time I see it, I go to my terminal and "sudo service network-manager restart" and it fixes it....

Linux damir-ubuntu 3.2.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:16:45 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

strange, but I do not see anymore of this problem on my ubuntu 12.10.

This is very easily reprodicble on my netbook, does not happen on my Ultrabook. Confirmed on both 12.04 and 12.10

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/965895

This is no longer happening on my main laptop with a clean install of 12.04 64-bit, but is still happening on my 32-bit netbook that was upgraded from 12.04

I see it often in my upgraded version.

It also happens often on my Netbook that I upgraded to 12.04. Happens rarely on my main desktop that always gets a fresh install.

The similar (identical?) dropbox bug has just been fixed in the latest stable dropbox [1].

Perhaps it's worth pinging them to ask what they changed?

[1] https://www.dropbox.com/release_notes

Same thing is happening to me on fresh Ubuntu 12.10 installation (64bit).

This bug affects me on the v12.10 release. It does show again when I run "sudo service network-manager restart" per Damir Butmir.

12.10 amd64. Sigh...

After being frustrated with NM-Applet not functioning correctly since I upgraded to 12.04, I wondered if it may be part of a larger problem.
I decided to rename the 'panel' directory for xfce4 inside of '/home/<user>/.config/', so that it would reset the defaults of the Panel, and then I rebooted. After that the Indicator Plugin functioned as expected with NM-Applet showing the VPN option.

I did not see any mention within this thread of people trying to reset their Panel to default, so I figured my solution may not be a just a fluke just for my configuration.

Have you compared the old and new config files?

Mathieu, could we please get this SRUed ?

Do we even have a solution to SRU?

I've diff'd the xml files in xfconf and don't see much difference, except in the launcher items on the bottom panel. The behavior first occured when I removed the Indicator Plugin and added it back myself.

If you'd like I can remove the Indicator Plugin and add it back myself and archive the two directories (working & broken).
I'm really sorry I forgot to add the 'xfconf' directory as well in my previous post to the list of directories I renamed; which is pretty important.

I just rebooted this evening and it's back to the same old behavior, so I don't even know what's going on...

I started looking at what files nm-applet uses on startup and decided to delay the autostart of nm-applet to see if that would fix it.
I editted the following file '/etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop' and change the following line from 'Exec=nm-applet' to 'Exec=sh -c "sleep 1; nm-applet" &'.
I have rebooted about a dozen times now and the VPN option has came up everytime.

I have a netbook where I have done the same as my desktop, upgraded from 11.10 to 12.04 to 12.10 and it functions as expected, although I have not removed the Indicator Plugin from the Panel like I did on the desktop.
Is there anything further I can do to replicate the Session from that netbook? I just don't understand why it works there and not on the desktop with what appears to be the same configuration.

Sounds like a classic race condition.
You probably wont see this on your Netbook as they generally have slow single core processors. This type of race condition is more likely to happen on a multi core computer were one process can starts up faster than another process.

I have solved thanks to #5 here
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1027638/comments/5
I edit
sleep 1

The same issue in Xubuntu 12.10 on netbook. "sudo service network-manager restart", https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1027638/comments/5 does no effect.
"nmcli con list" shows 4 connections:
$ nmcli con list
ИМЯ UUID ТИП ДЕЙСТВ. ВРЕМЕННАЯ МЕТКА
Beeline Mobile phone 1 5cdd8fc6-44ca-48f9-949f-da61bb4fe425 gsm никогда
Beeline Mobile phone fd18ef50-3676-4fbe-8ab2-dec0ee78ea93 bluetooth никогда
Yarga b07a0b03-c7a0-4216-a3d8-532b1f82bf1e 802-11-wireless Вс. 09 дек. 2012 21:21:55
Проводное соединение 1 5c86d7a0-5b63-4aac-92e0-72848d77830f 802-3-ethernet Вс. 09 дек. 2012 21:16:54

I also used the hint posted in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1027638/comments/5
tested at first with "sleep 30", then decreased progressively until reached 1, as palimmo did.
Probably the matter is that nm-applet starts up just a bit too early to update/populate correctly its own connection list.

This bug was fixed in the package network-manager-applet - 0.9.6.2+git201211052130.2d666bc-0ubuntu2

---------------
network-manager-applet (0.9.6.2+git201211052130.2d666bc-0ubuntu2) raring; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/rebuild_menu_after_init.patch: Work around issues with
    menu initialization at session start by forcing a first menu update after
    30 seconds. (LP: #965895)
 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:30:28 -0500

Issue reappeared, increased sleep back to 30 seconds while awaiting Precise update release of Mathieu's patch.

30 seconds is still a pretty long delay to be updating a menu...

Veleno; have you tested on raring? If so, does it help?

in my case 5 seconds appear enough

It sounds better to try to find what needs to be coordinated and sync on that instead of trying to try to use a timing between these.

Indeed Marius is right: those sleep are only a mere workaround.
I agree with Mathieu, but any lower setting didn't work so far and I cannot try it in Quantal or Raring due to PAE issues (#930447)
Today I had some spare time to do more tests and actually it's a 15 seconds delay, but with 10 seconds I got a partial change, i.e.:
--------------------------
| Wired Network
| Disconnect
| Auto eth0 (should be "Wired connection 1")
| ----------------------
| Wireless Networks
| wireless is disabled by hardware switch
| ----------------------
| VPN Connections -> Configure VPN
| Disconnect VPN
|(should be <Defined VPN profile(s)>
| Configure VPN
| Disconnect VPN)
| ----------------------
| ✓ Enable Networking
| Enable Wireless
| ----------------------
| Connection Information
| Edit Connections...
--------------------------

30 seconds is definitely too slow on the Nexus 7; and probably is on many other devices too.

Of course it's just a workaround, and I'm still looking into the actual issue, but it's not one that is easy to figure out.

Hi everyone, I've read the comment:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1027638/comments/5

He talks about changing the order of the processes, well I've changed the name from /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop to /etc/xdg/autostart/znm-applet.desktop and it did the trick for me.

My machine were not populating the menu every time I boot, at this moment I've rebooted 5 times and the menu was populated 5/5 times.

Sorry about my English, I hope you solve the problem like me.

I appreciate the workarounds, but I am waiting for an official fix instead of manually adding a delay as a workaround.

My only concern is if we have narrowed down exactly what the problem is caused by and its impact, but why is this bug marked as "fix released"? I believe my Ubuntu install is fully up to date and I have yet to pickup this fix...Anyway I can apply it manually?

Hi Damir,

You can apply my workaround writing on a terminal:

sudo mv /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/znm-applet.desktop

Please if it fix the problem, comment to let us know.

#54
PD: Then you have to reboot

Tried Juan workaround but on Precise didn't work so rolled back to the ol' sleep worakround.

It sound like a problem of the "indicator-application-service".
I tryed to remove the "indicator-application" package, the Network Manager applet is showed as classic style with all items and wireless networks list.

Juan, I tested your workaround on my Ubuntu 12.10 netbook and it corrected the problem. It's certainly doesn't actually fix the problem, but it allows everything to work normally in the meantime. Good work.

Test build for precise.
http://people.canonical.com/~arges/lp965895/

[Impact]

 * NetworkManager's applet loses its menu.
 * User is unable to connect to wifi, and this affects the usability of Ubuntu

[Test Case]

Boot the system from live cd, and click on the NetworkManager icon in the top-right of the screen and it's only showing four items, and no wifi connections available

--------------------------
| ✓ Enable Networking
| ✓ Enable Wireless
| ---------------------- |
| Connection Information
| Edit Connections...
--------------------------

[Regression Potential]

* I dont see any regression potential

[Workaround]

Click "Enable Networking" or "Enable Wireless" option to disable that interface and then re-enable it, then the NetworkManager populates with all the normal menu items (listing of all WiFi SSID, VPN connection, etc.).

Precise update uploaded. Unsubscribing sponsors.

Hello Tomas, or anyone else affected,

Accepted network-manager-applet into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Awesome, thanks Brian. And for reference, how long generally before the package will be distributed/visible to us through Update Manager? I'd rather it update my network-manager automatically versus me downloading the package and overwriting my current install manually.

Thanks in advance.

Please release the fix also in Quantal.
I just updated using fake-pae workaround (issue #930447), and the anomaly is still present. Actually I'm using Gnome and not Unity 2d, which was the WM of choice in Precise and has the issue at first.
Indeed the sleep into autostart script is not quite the solution and sometimes it leads to a strange/inconsistent behavior in VPN connections usage. At first attempt the login box requires both username and group secret. If the window is closed (via Cancel button) and reopened, its behavior is back to normal, asking only for the user secret.
This happens if the VPN connection is invoked "too soon" after the start of nm applet or nm-applet state is not consistent: id est the wired connection appears as "Auto eth0" and not "Wired connection 1" which is the expected text label when the applet is working correctly.

Thanks and Happy Easter to all subscribers :D.

So, have people tried the package currently in -proposed on 12.04 and can confirm that it fixes the problem for them?

Yes, the binary package network-manager-gnome 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2 seems to fix this bug for me.

At least after the first reboot the applet menu is correct, whereas formerly this bug hit me after (almost?) every reboot.

Thanks!

verification-done based on comment #67

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

This bug was fixed in the package network-manager-applet - 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2

---------------
network-manager-applet (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2) precise; urgency=low

  [ Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre ]
  * debian/patches/rebuild_menu_after_init.patch: Work around issues with
    menu initialization at session start by forcing a first menu update
    after 30 seconds. (LP: #965895)
 -- Chris J Arges <email address hidden> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:55:29 -0500

The fix doesn't work for me on Precise. Removing indicator-application and the full menu appears again. Also, somehow starting synaptic causes the full menu to appear again.

Created a new follow up bug here
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1170189

Just experienced this issue for the first time on an up to date 12.04 (32-bit OS, AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor × 4, Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller), so it looks like the latest update is actually *causing* the issue for me.

Killing/restarting the nm-applet works around the issue, but it returns after a reboot.

This does not seem to be a problem with Ubuntu 13.04, but if you've done the fix above where you've renamed /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop to /etc/xdg/autostart/znm-applet.desktop, and then you update from 12.10 to 13.04, you will see two network applets after login. Make sure to remove the znm-applet.desktop file you made to correct this behavior.

I'm experiencing the bug in 13.04 Raring (upgraded from 12.10), with network-manager 0.9.8.0-0ubuntu6 and network-manager-gnome 0.9.8.0-1ubuntu2. I haven't applied any of the above workarounds.
This is just to say that "This does not seem to be a problem with Ubuntu 13.04" in #74 might not be correct...

I second #74.
After 13.04 upgrade (not a fresh install, due to 930447) the issue seems resolved.
Rebooted 2 times since now and nm-applet is behaving quite nicely.
I will keep it monitored anyway and give some feedback after a week use.

This still occurs in 13.04 on a fully updated system at the current date.

Confirmed after a week of intensive use, problem is no longer visible on a standard 13.04 Ubuntu installation.

I've not seen it since 13.04 was releases. Upgraded system.

I have 2 13.04 systems (desktop and a laptop).
This bug is no more showing in the desktop, but it is still there in the laptop.

Just happened to me on 13.04 on a laptop.

Not sure what happened but all of a sudden when I looked a few minutes later all menu items were mysteriously back again?

Support for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal officially ended on May 16, 2014.

Desktop images for nexus 7 is no longer developed.