On a Dell Latitude 6320, using opensuse 12.1 64 bit, this card normally asks for its PIN, as soon as I log into KDE. I can then use the networkmanager to make a UMTS/EDGE/GPRS connection. With opensuse 12.2, the PIN is never requested, and I am also unable to activate “enable mobile broadband”. All regular wifi works as it should, but the broadband just remains dead.
When I start a 12.1 live system, it works as it should, and it also works under windows 7.
When the hardware switch is on, rfkill outputs this:
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: dell-wwan: Wireless WAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
4: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
Any idea what I could do to fix this? I tried to follow various suggestions including a patched network manager, but this all seems to relate to wifi problems anyway, not to the broadband thing. And consequently, none of those suggestions helped.
I earlier posted this under “Hardware” but cannot figure out how to transfer to “Wireless”.
On a Dell Latitude 6320, using opensuse 12.1 64 bit, this card normally asks for its PIN, as soon as I log into KDE. I can then use the networkmanager to make a UMTS/EDGE/GPRS connection. With opensuse 12.2, the PIN is never requested, and I am also unable to activate “enable mobile broadband”.
I don’t profess to know where the regression lies, but my suspicion would be with ModemManager. (It’s easy enough to test anyway). Try downgrading the ModemManager package to the openSUSE 12.1 version.
and select ‘Show other versions’. Download the required package.
As a quick test, I downloaded the 12.1 version and the following ‘dry-run’ indicated no package conflict issues
# zypper in --dry-run --force ModemManager-0.5-3.1.3.x86_64.rpm
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Forcing installation of 'ModemManager-0.5-3.1.3.x86_64' from repository 'Plain RPM files cache'.
Resolving package dependencies...
The following package is going to be downgraded:
ModemManager
1 package to downgrade.
Overall download size: 220.0 KiB. After the operation, 130.9 KiB will be freed.
Continue? [y/n/?] (y): y
You’ll need to restart the network manager
rcnetwork restart
then proceed to testing you broadband connection.
Does it then behave as it did with your 12.1 install?
Well. it’s good to have eliminated it I guess. Does toggling the ‘Enable mobile broadband’ (or starting over with the mobile broadband config) make a difference with the PIN dialogue?
My next guess is a possible regression with the supporting kernel device driver. (This would require a bug report be submitted upstream if it’s proven).
Another thought I just had - The KDE NM config utility allows you to ‘store’ or ‘always ask’ for the PIN. Have you tried experimenting with this? Connection secrets can be stored in kwallet, by the network manager as a plain text file, or asked for each time you connect. This is set in Network Management Settings >> Other
On 12.1, I left it in the default “always ask” and was a little surprised that it always asked during login into kde, no matter what I chose of networking. When this no longer happened (in 12.2) I tried to give it the PIN through the NM, but this did not change anything of its behaviour (probably since NM anyway thinks of it as being disabled).
When you upgraded to 12.2, I assume you kept all your NM connection definitions? That is, you didn’t try making the connection again? I’m just wondering if something might have changed with the newer version of network manager that prevents it from using the older definition…just an idea.
System connections are located in the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ directory. User-defined connections are located in ~/.kde4/share/apps/networkmanagement/connections/
in ~/.kde4/share/apps I do not have anything called networkmanagement. Instead, I find all my defined connections, as you say, under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ in easily readable form.
What would you do to test a totally “fresh” connection for the broadband thing? I am slightly nervous to loose all my predefined wifi connections given under the /etc directory…
Ok, tried that, but it still does not ask for any PIN nor does it allow to enable the mobile broadband. This must be deeper, at the driver level - and it is frustrating to know that it worked with opensuse 12.1 just fine…
As I am still searching for a solution, I first verified that the opensuse 12.1 live system CD still gives me a working connection, and it so does. So now I am looking for workarounds, or other things to try, and I can think of two which - at my skill level - will take some time and also involve some risks. Hence, before trying, I would like to have advice on
installing 12.1 somewhere as an alternative boot option (after all, I don’t need the broadband all the time) -> but I am unsure about how to do that
trying to switch back (in 12.2) to sysvinit, as this seems to be one of the key differences -> but I am unsure whether this is promising at all, and if it is, I am not sure about the proper way of doing it, nor about the risks this poses for my system
Would any one have any suggestions about these ideas? Thanks!
upgrading to kde 4.9 (from 4.8.5) didn’t bring the card alive either, so I am wondering if falling back to 4.7 would do it - but can one do so without falling back to opensuse 12.1?
In fact, this did the trick, thank you! And I only needed the gnome nm ONCE, in order to allow all users to access the card.
It strikes me, as an experienced-linux-user-but-no-hacker, that this is a typical linux problem: some guru must have thought, during the 12.2 upgrade, “ah, we add some security by demanding root to first authorise users to use this connection”, but they found absolutely no reason to
tell the users about it
provide a straightforward way to actually fix this
So I have wasted a couple of evenings on this thing, and I just don’t understand why the path to the solution was not provided by the person who built the “extra security”?
It so turns out that the kde solution is not stable, or rather doesn’t work anymore - while in gnome everything is just fine. Can anyone tell me how I would actually use the gnome networkmanager in kde then?
If you care to search, there has been a number of threads, blogs etc on this. Some will need to be adjusted for 12.2 obviously, but these should give you the idea:
Thank you, I have now looked at those links, and they seem hilariously complicated to me and, most importantly, not easily reversible. I think I do not want to ruin my system trying this out.
Maybe this is a silly question, but surely someone must be maintaining the kde networkmanager and hence be able to bring back the functionality it had only one minor version step ago, in 4.8? This seems to me not like a huge and complicated thing to do?
Maybe this is a silly question, but surely someone must be maintaining the kde networkmanager and hence be able to bring back the functionality it had only one minor version step ago, in 4.8? This seems to me not like a huge and complicated thing to do?
The KDE graphical front-end is actually served by a plasmoid (plasmoid-networkmanagement package). I would recommend filing a bug report.