# What does Networkmanager mean by strictly unmanaged?

## mikb

After a reboot this morning, I have neither networking nor X.

This is the networking problem:

```

# nmcli d set wlan0 managed yes

# nmcli c up myssid ifname wlan0

Error: Connection activation failed: Connection 'myssid' is not available on device wlan0 because device is strictly unmanaged

# lspci -s 00:14.3

00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP PCH CNVi Wifi (rev 30)

# rfkill list wlan

0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN

           Soft blocked: no

           Hard blocked: no

2: phy0: Wireless LAN

           Soft blocked: no

           Hard blocked: no

# dmesg | grep wifi

[   13.930233] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: api flags index 2 larger than supported by driver

[   13.930245] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: TLV_FW_FSEQ_VERSION: FSEQ Version: 89.3.35.37

[   13.930462] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 63.c04f3485.0 Qu-c0-hr-b0-63.ucode op_mode iwlmvm

[   14.138603] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: base HW address: 04:33:c2:67:81:ae

# uname -r

5.13.7-gentoo-x86_64

```

There is no physical wlan switch on this notebook.

There's probably some simple thing I'm missing, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is....

----------

## mike155

Please show us the output of

```
iw dev
```

or

```
iwconfig
```

after you ran "nmcli d set wlan0 managed yes"

----------

## mikb

Thanks for replying, mike! Alas, the output is not helpful.

```
# iw dev

-bash: iw: command not found

# iwconfig

-bash: iwconfig: command not found

```

I'll add - this is not a new installation - it was actually working until yesterday morning's reboot

----------

## mike155

Can you install net-wireless/iw?

```
emerge net-wireless/iw
```

----------

## mikb

Without a network connection?

----------

## Jaglover

Does it have ethernet port? Don't you have some Linux liveCD on USB stick, most computer enthusiasts have one laying around? Do you have another computer and a USB flashdrive to transfer files?

----------

## mikb

Transferring iw-5.9.tar.xz via sneakernet and emerging:

```
# iw dev

phy#0

   Interface wlan0

      ifindex 2

      wdev 0x1

      addr 04:33:c2:67:8a:ae

      type managed

      txpower 0.00 dBm

      multicast TXQ:

         qsz-byt   qsz-pkt   flows   drops   marks   overlmt   hashcol   tx-bytes   tx-packets

         0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0      0

```

And

```
# iw dev wlan0 scan
```

produces a recognizable dump of networks 

Reconfiguring NetworkManager to output to syslog from trace level on all domains yielded a lot of output, but this seems relevant:

```
Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6054] (wlan0) config: backend is "wpa_supplicant" (iwd support enabled)

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6055] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): ifindex: set ifindex 2

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6055] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): constructed (NMDeviceWifi)

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <info>  [1628569235.6055] device (wlan0): driver supports Access Point (AP) mode

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6056] create NMSupplicantManager singleton (ce9c7e94d2cdf25f)

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6056] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): start setup of NMDeviceWifi, kernel ifindex 2

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6056] platform-linux: error reading net:/sys/class/net/wlan0/phys_port_id: error reading 4096 bytes from file descriptor: Operation not supported

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] platform-linux: sysctl: reading 'net:/sys/class/net/wlan0/dev_id': '0x0'

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <trace> [1628569235.6057] ethtool[2]: ETHTOOL_GDRVINFO, wlan0: success

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] platform-linux: error reading net:/sys/class/net/wlan0/device/sriov_numvfs: Failed to open file "device/sriov_numvfs" with openat: No such file or directory

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): hw-addr: hardware address now 04:33:C2:67:8A:AE

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): hw-addr: update initial MAC address 04:33:C2:67:8A:AE

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): unmanaged: flags set to [platform-init,!by-type=0x10/0x18/unmanaged/unrealized], set-managed [by-type=0x8])

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): unmanaged: flags set to [platform-init,!by-type,!user-conf=0x10/0x118/unmanaged/unrealized], set-managed [user-conf=0x100])

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] manager: rfkill: Wi-Fi hw-enabled 1 sw-enabled 1

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): device now enabled

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): (enable): device blocked by UNMANAGED state

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <debug> [1628569235.6057] device[db71e63354938323] (wlan0): unmanaged: flags set to [platform-init,!sleeping,!by-type,!user-conf=0x10/0x119/unmanaged/unrealized], set-managed [sleeping=0x1])

Aug 10 14:20:35 tristen NetworkManager[6158]: <trace> [1628569235.6057] dbus-object[db71e63354938323]: export: "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/2"
```

----------

## mikb

Just as a verification, I can get wpa_supplicant to associate with the access point. It is definitely NOT a radio problem.

I couldn't get dhcpcd working, so I just manually configured the ip address, default route, and resolv.conf (dhcpcd's problem may have been the mode DORMANT on the ip link)

Just for good measure, I did an eix-sync.

This is not a solution, but it does seem to indicate the problem is with Network Manager.

I did find this in a message from Thomas Haller of Redhat on the network-manager list:

 *Quote:*   

> "strictly unmanaged" means that something is preventing the device from
> 
> working. That cannot be overruled via `nmcli device set $DEV managed
> 
> yes`.

 

Which is the problem. I can't determine what the "something" is!

----------

## Goverp

This is no help  :Smile: , but why not just use wpa_supplicant and its GUI rather than NetworkManager?  I tried the latter, and gave it up, as the supplicant is so much simpler, and does everything I need.

----------

## mikb

 *mikb wrote:*   

> After a reboot this morning, I have neither networking nor X.

 

As so often happens, something tangential leads you towards a solution.

I gave up on NM for a while, and started looking at my X problem.

I was wrestling with why I could get windows up using startx, but I had no keyboard or mouse input. I cleaned up INPUT_DEVICES to just libinput", and cleaned up some x11-drivers/* packages that were not relevant to this system. Xorg.0.log showed no sign of libinput being loaded. What gives? I thought.

Then I found this post: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-8141158.html#8141158

 *Jaglover wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> rc-config show all
> ```
> ...

 

Interesting, I thought. I ran the rc-config command, and hey, presto! udev, udev-settle and udev-trigger were all listed as stopped under the sysinit runlevel.

I restarted them and Network manager, and NM instantly worked.

rc-update says all of these services are set to start in sysinit, so I still have a problem, but at least I know how to get around it.

I'm bemused, though. As far as I can tell, the udev* scripts are being run in sysinit - but they seem to be stopping when I transition to default. Again, I'm asking for suggestions - what have I got wrong?

----------

