# NetworkManager appears to work but doesn't - edited

## robinmarlow

Hello,

Not sure if anyone can help troubleshooting this - but I'm stuck.

NetworkManager used to work well but somewhere over a recent update it got broken & I can't seem to get it working again (despite various attempts at roll backs).

It appears to connect to a wired network & even reports that the interface has an IP address,  but ifconfig doesn't show that it has.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

The logs look like it's working until it gets marked inactive.

```
May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...  

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> (eth0): device state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.   

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> (eth0): device state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none') [50 70 0]

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Configure Commit) scheduled...

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Commit) started...

May 15 11:48:42 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <error> [1400150922.433052] [nm-system.c:287] sync_addresses(): (eth0): error -7 returne

Invalid input data or parameter

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> (eth0): device state change: ip-config -> secondaries (reason 'none') [70 90 0]

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Commit) complete.

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> (eth0): device state change: secondaries -> activated (reason 'none') [90 100 0]

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_GLOBAL

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Policy set 'UOB_wired' (eth0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Writing DNS information to /sbin/resolvconf

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad NetworkManager[8371]: <info> Activation (eth0) successful, device activated.

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad /etc/init.d/NetworkManager[8636]: status: inactive

May 15 11:48:43 thinkpad /etc/init.d/NetworkManager[8651]: status: inactive

```

No other services are set to start.

Ideas?

RobinLast edited by robinmarlow on Fri May 16, 2014 9:20 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## szatox

 *Quote:*   

> [nm-system.c:287] sync_addresses(): (eth0): error -7 returned Invalid input data or parameter 

 

NM is marked inactive when it fails to configure network. Like your ethernet wire is unplugged. Or there is no wifi you can connect too. The line from your log might be related to Ip negotiation. Perhaps some  problem with DHCP? Maybe you can check dhcp server log and see if it actually assigned you IP?

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## robinmarlow

Good idea.  I wonder what would prevent NM from being able to configure the adaptor?

for this location the IP is static so no negotiation needed.

wicd works perfectly (but doesn't do vpns as well as NM used to) so I don't think it's a hardware problem.

Robin

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## robinmarlow

I eventually figured this out.

The other diagnostic clues were that I wasn't able to edit connections - I could click on edit but then it would get stuck with the dialogue half open.

Although it wasn't NM reported the adaptor up with an IP etc. If I manually put up the network with the same values through ifconfig it all worked - so was something to do with communication between NM and actually setting it up.

The answer turned out that my user wasn't a member of netdev.  Once I joined this group it all worked.

Despite having something in polkit that I thought was supposed to avoid that.

I really hate all these new complicated xxxkits they just seem to make things needlessly complicated.

R

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## robinmarlow

Rats.  Adding my user to netdev does allow me to edit connections.....  but the connection problems still remain.

Back to wicd i guess.

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