Bug 21212

Summary: Live Gnome cannot connect to WIFI with hidden SSID
Product: Mageia Reporter: Muhammad Tailounie <mageia>
Component: RPM PackagesAssignee: GNOME maintainers <gnome>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: major    
Priority: release_blocker CC: davidwhodgins, isobuild, mageia, marja11, ngompa13, pterjan, shybluenight
Version: 6Keywords: 6final
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Source RPM: CVE:
Status comment:
Attachments: Journalctl log file

Description Muhammad Tailounie 2017-07-09 12:21:37 CEST
Trying to connect to hidden WIFI network in a live Gnome fails.

How reproducible:
Boot Gnome Live DVD. I have booted off USB UEFI, though.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Click on the network settings from the panel.
2. Choose connect to hidden network.
3. Configure the network, SSID, security WPA/WPA2 Personal.
4. Click on connect

Nothing happens. Trying it over and over again shows no configuration of the previous attempt.

Trying to use MCC saves the connection, but the security in Gnome Network Settings always shows none!
Comment 1 Muhammad Tailounie 2017-07-09 12:23:27 CEST
Created attachment 9477 [details]
Journalctl log file

jouralctl > journal.log

Journalctl log file from Gnome Live Session after 2 attempts to connect
Comment 2 Marja Van Waes 2017-07-09 22:35:45 CEST
Current kernel, so this is with Mageia 6 final iso from the QA testing repository

Setting to release blocker.

Assignee: bugsquad => gnome
Component: Release (media or process) => RPM Packages
CC: sysadmin-bugs => isobuild, marja11
Priority: Normal => release_blocker
Keywords: (none) => 6final

Comment 3 Pascal Terjan 2017-07-09 22:46:52 CEST
3 lines I noticed in the log:

Jul 09 12:04:27 localhost.localdomain gnome-control-c[4315]: Settings schema 'org.gnome.nm-applet.eap' is not installed
Jul 09 12:04:27 localhost.localdomain kernel: traps: gnome-control-c[4315] trap int3 ip:7f5390e8d2e1 sp:7ffe6164bfc0 error:0
Jul 09 12:04:27 localhost.localdomain kernel:  in libglib-2.0.so.0.5200.2[7f5390e3e000+111000]

CC: (none) => pterjan

Comment 4 Pascal Terjan 2017-07-09 22:49:02 CEST
That could be due to bug #18797
Comment 5 Martin Whitaker 2017-07-09 23:11:01 CEST
IIRC, NetworkManager stopped working with hidden SSIDs a long time ago. My current router doesn't allow me to hide the SSID, so I can't easily test whether it is still broken.

Two things to try:

1) Unhide your SSID in your router (at least temporarily - it doesn't really provide any extra protection). Does that allow you to connect using the GNOME panel?

2) In MCC, use System->Manage system services to first stop the "NetworkManager" service then start the "network" service. This will disable the NetworkManager applet in the GNOME panel and will allow you to use MCC to configure your network connection.

CC: (none) => mageia

Comment 6 Neal Gompa 2017-07-09 23:15:38 CEST
(In reply to Martin Whitaker from comment #5)
> IIRC, NetworkManager stopped working with hidden SSIDs a long time ago. My
> current router doesn't allow me to hide the SSID, so I can't easily test
> whether it is still broken.
> 

If this is truly the case, then this is an upstream bug, and NetworkManager upstream needs to be notified.

That said, I don't have a way to do a hidden SSID either to verify this.

CC: (none) => ngompa13

Dave Hodgins 2017-07-10 00:08:03 CEST

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins
Summary: Live Gnome cannot connect to WIFI => Live Gnome cannot connect to WIFI with hidden SSID

Comment 7 Muhammad Tailounie 2017-07-10 15:41:23 CEST
(In reply to Martin Whitaker from comment #5)
> IIRC, NetworkManager stopped working with hidden SSIDs a long time ago. My
> current router doesn't allow me to hide the SSID, so I can't easily test
> whether it is still broken.
> 

To my understanding; Openmandriva, Linux mint and others all use NetworkManager. How come that it is working on these distros?!
Comment 8 Martin Whitaker 2017-07-10 15:58:27 CEST
(In reply to Muhammad Tailounie from comment #7)
> To my understanding; Openmandriva, Linux mint and others all use
> NetworkManager. How come that it is working on these distros?!

It may have been a bug that has since been fixed. If you try the things I asked for in comment 5, we'll know more.
Comment 9 Muhammad Tailounie 2017-07-10 16:47:35 CEST
I have just come back home and the first thing I did is trying comment 5.

With the SSID visible, NetworkManager connects easily.

Stopping NetworkManager and disabling it while configuring the hidden SSID in MCC allows me to connect through MCC. I am actually writing this after connecting to the hidden network through MCC.

But, I think there is some problem with the interface of NetworkManager, or Gnome Network Settings, because the application closes, what I would usually consider a crash, the moment I click on connect after keying in all the configurations.

Hope this helps.
Comment 10 Chris B 2017-07-10 18:31:16 CEST
Yes, it crashes indeed, because the package networkmanager-applet is not installed which provides the schema 'org.gnome.nm-applet.eap'.

Reproduced in live mode. Open a terminal, run
gnome-control-center
Click on Network, click on the little gear button, click on 'Apply'.
Terminal:
GLib-GIO-ERROR **: Settings schema 'org.gnome.nm-applet.eap' is not installed
..and something ...  core-dumped.

(The same window you get when using the systray dropdown menu to configure the network)

Then I configured urpmi sources in live mode, installed the package networkmanager-applet, same procedure as mentioned above, or via systray dropdown, no crashes, you can edit, change your network settings, etc. You stay in the network config app. 

I had to do this with a wired connection.

Don't know if this helps with connecting to a hidden ssid, my router does not allow this (non-broadcasting ssid could be more insecure and a privacy concern).

CC: (none) => shybluenight

Comment 11 Chris B 2017-07-10 18:32:56 CEST
Sorry, I forgot:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=845021
Comment 12 Martin Whitaker 2017-07-10 19:49:09 CEST
Thanks Muhammed and Chris. I've managed to get an access point working with a hidden SSID, and can confirm the missing schema is causing a crash when attempting to connect to a hidden network, but not when connecting to a visible network. Installing the networkmanager-applet package fixes the crash and allows connection to the hidden network.
Comment 13 Chris B 2017-07-10 20:18:29 CEST
:)

So it's a missing dependency in one of the gnome packages, gnome-control-center? task-gnome? whatever, I don't know.

Martin: can you include it manually in Gnome Live?
The proper way would be to fix the dependency but just in case that does not happen.
Comment 14 Rémi Verschelde 2017-07-10 21:15:16 CEST
The dependency issue should be fixed by Olav in gnome-control-center-3.24.2-2.mga6, and will thus be fix in the upcoming set of ISOs.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED

Comment 15 Muhammad Tailounie 2017-07-12 09:41:02 CEST
Thanks everybody :)