Fresh installation of Tumbleweed NET 20190402 cannot connect to WiFi

[Jags_FL]

Even though the installation itself went thru just fine using a same USB wireless adapter (and same wireless source), right after the first reboot, the system cannot connect to WiFi, not even once.

This exact same issue has happened twice, first time it was 2 weeks ago, I couldn’t solve the issue. So I formatted the partition, and did clean installation 2 days ago with the same result.

I have gone thru quite a few threads before posting this, especially this thread from openSUSE forum:

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/532966-Strong-wifi-signal-but-cannot-connect

From the opensuse forum thread I have applied following commands but to no avail:

systemctl disable wicked
systemctl disable wicked.service
systemctl disable wickedd-auto4.service
systemctl disable wickedd-dhcp4.service
systemctl disable wickedd-dhcp6.service
systemctl disable wickedd-nanny.service

systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl restart NetworkManager

System info:
NET installation source was: openSUSE-Tumbleweed-NET-x86_64-Snapshot20190402-Media.iso
Desktop Environment: MATE
Wireless source: Hotspot from my personal phone, which has no MAC filtering.
USB wireless adapter: Model: TP-Link TL WN823N RTL8192EU
Selected NetworkManager (instead of wicked) during the installation.

Here are relevant logs from:

(1) journalctl > log.txt

https://pastebin.com/2VC2cv8m


(2) hwinfo | network:

https://pastebin.com/m0BtafSb


(3) wpa_supplicant log:

https://pastebin.com/FU9WWVGj 

Also, when I try to connect to WiFi, every time it asks to assign root permission via GUI, citing “system policy”. Is this normal?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have tried to create paste on paste.opensuse.org and susepaste.org but I kept getting 404 error. Attaching screenshots of the errors.

https://i.imgur.com/RJ0RGFY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2GkXiZ5.jpg

Few other screens:

https://i.imgur.com/AketJB4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2qS1ze9.jpg

[nrickert]

Have you tried using “wicked” (via Yast network settings) for WiFi?

It is less convenient than NetworkManager. However, the NET installer probably used “wicked”. And if it worked during install, you can probably get it to work.

As for needing root password to connect? I don’t use MATE – well, I have it installed, but I didn’t use it to setup WiFi. So I’m guessing. I think it gives you a choice on where to store the network password. One choice was probably to save to a file unencryted. You should use that choice. Any other choice probably gives that root password prompt if the network is set to share with other users.

[Jags_FL]

@nrickert

Have you tried using “wicked” (via Yast network settings) for WiFi?

It is less convenient than NetworkManager. However, the NET installer probably used “wicked”. And if it worked during install, you can probably get it to work.

Thanks a lot for the reply. Wicked never worked through Tumbleweed 4.3GB full ISO during the installation. I tried every combination to setup wicked in Live-DVD (actually live flash drive) installation setup.

Hence I couldn’t get option to install MATE through installation DVD. So I turned to NET installation to get MATE right from the start (As I did not want to install any other desktop first then install MATE through it).

Now Tumbleweed NET installation ask you to connect WiFi (or any network) through text-based screens, before the GUI even starts, and I guess that’s why I was able to connect to WiFi, and successfully install Tumbleweed with MATE. And that’s why I chose “NetworkManager” instead of “wicked” during the installation setup (though apparently this didn’t help either).

Now as you asked, I have tried to use/setup wicked from YaST2. But it still not working.

I would highly appreciate if someone could point out, what am I missing in either Wicked or NetworkManager setup.

Here are 9 Wicked setup screens:

https://imgur.com/a/veepweg

@nrickert

I think it gives you a choice on where to store the network password. One choice was probably to save to a file unencryted. You should use that choice. Any other choice probably gives that root password prompt if the network is set to share with other users.

I don’t recall any option or prompt to save password encrypted or not or sharing with others, right after the first boot, when I tried to connect to WiFi for the first time.

Right now, when I try to connect to WiFi, it ask me to give root permission and then sign-in to keyring. Though even after both, it doesn’t connect anyway.

[Sauerland]

Did you change your Network connection to all Users?

Try a empty Master Password in the keyring.
Keyring should also be opened by User, not root.

[Jags_FL]

@Sauerland

Did you change your Network connection to all Users?

Many thanks for the reply. No, I didn’t change anything. It’s a fresh installation, WiFi never got connected even once.

@Sauerland

Try a empty Master Password in the keyring. Keyring should also be opened by User, not root.

Okay so I deleted keyring. Still cannot connect to WiFi through Wicked.

So switched to NetworkManager from Wicked. Tried different hotspot, this time when I right-click on the network icon, then SSID, there was no window to enter password. But if I right-click on the network icon in system tray, I could edit or create a new connection. I created a new one, but the result was the same. Could not connect to WiFi.

[Sauerland]

Please post:

zypper se -si network

[gogalthorp]

Did you make the connection to the WiFi via the Network Manager widget on desktop?? You must sign in to the hot spot.This is not automatic and does not use the settings from the install phase

Since you apparently only installed Mate it is possible you are missing some things since Mate is not a standard desktop for OpenSUSE :\

Allowing all users is a good idea just enter the root password when asked. This is a system setting not a user setting so requires elevated permissions.

[tsu2]

First, regarding your screenshots…

The susepaste and paste.opensuselorg addresses may not be valid, they would be valid only if a paste had already been created at those addresses that has not expired. Instead, if you’re creating a new paste, you should use only the TLD of the address (nothing after .org in hte address).

The System Policy popup requiring your root password is expected and usual, but elevated permissions (root) is required only to make the change, not for the changed setting itself. So, provide your root password the one time, make your change and if your change doesn’t itself require elevated permissions, you shouldn’t have to provide a root password again for this action.

I’m guess the “Disconnected” is because you declined to provide root permissions when that was required, so is expected.

As others have noted, during the install your Wifi connection used Wicked.
There is ordinarily no need to install Network Manager to use it later, unless something has changed NM is always installed but disabled by default in every installation, after installation if you wish to use NM you have to go into YaST > Network Settings and in the first tab to the left you have to select NM as your preferred connection manager from a dropdown. Of course, after that you will need to click on the NM applet to create your NM connection before you can make a successful connection.

I don’t see that is what you did, so is likely the cause of your problems using NM.

HTH,
tSU

[tsu2]

Additional info about my above post…

There are two network management systems you can choose from on openSUSE, Wicked (an enhanced version of classical ifup/ifdown) and Network Manager.

You can choose to use either, but it’s important to know that you cannot have both enabled at the same time, when you use one you must also disable the other. This is why you should use YaST to switch between the two so that your change is done correctly. If for instance you try to use use NM in a default, newly installed openSUSE, because Wicked is active and not disabled you will experience conflicts, inconsistency and problems.

TSU

[Jags_FL]

@Sauerland

Please post:

zypper se -si network

Thanks you. Here it is:

https://pastebin.com/a9m0CLpf

[Jags_FL]

@gogalthorp

Did you make the connection to the WiFi via the Network Manager widget on desktop?? You must sign in to the hot spot.
This is not automatic and does not use the settings from the install phase.

Yes, I did sign-in or in other word, I did enter WiFi passphrase. Very first time after a reboot, upon right-click on Network icon in taskbar, and then right-click on SSID name, I did get a window asking to enter passphrase. Which I did. It also asked to assign root permission, which I assigned too.

@gogalthorp

Since you apparently only installed Mate it is possible you are missing some things since Mate is not a standard desktop for OpenSUSE :\

**
After spending countless hours after two separate and clean installations (one this one, and other was 2-3 weeks ago), I’m leaning towards this possibility that something is missing because of NET installation. And that is what I am trying to figure out.**

@gogalthorp

Allowing all users is a good idea just enter the root password when asked. This is a system setting not a user setting so requires elevated permissions.

Whenever system asked me for root password, yes I have provided.

[Jags_FL]

@tsu2

First, regarding your screenshots…

The susepaste and paste.opensuselorg addresses may not be valid, they would be valid only if a paste had already been created at those addresses that has not expired. Instead, if you’re creating a new paste, you should use only the TLD of the address (nothing after .org in hte address).

First of all, thanks alot for the reply. How could I show that I was getting errors repeatedly, If I just posted a screenshot of only?

paste.opensuse.org OR susepaste.org

That is why I posted a screenshot with error being displayed. Last time, around a month ago, during a different issue, I was told to use susepaste.org, so I posted the screens with error in my first post in this thread.

@tsu2

The System Policy popup requiring your root password is expected and usual, but elevated permissions (root) is required only to make the change, not for the changed setting itself. So, provide your root password the one time, make your change and if your change doesn’t itself require elevated permissions, you shouldn’t have to provide a root password again for this action.

As I have mentioned in my previous posts in this thread, I have provided/entered root password whenever system asked for it.

@tsu2

I’m guess the “Disconnected” is because you declined to provide root permissions when that was required, so is expected.

As I just mentioned above, and in previous posts, I have provided/entered root password whenever system asked for it.

@tsu2

As others have noted, during the install your Wifi connection used Wicked.
There is ordinarily no need to install Network Manager to use it later, unless something has changed NM is always installed but disabled by default in every installation, after installation if you wish to use NM you have to go into YaST > Network Settings and in the first tab to the left you have to select NM as your preferred connection manager from a dropdown. Of course, after that you will need to click on the NM applet to create your NM connection before you can make a successful connection.

I don’t see that is what you did, so is likely the cause of your problems using NM.

HTH,
tSU

Once again as I have mentioned in my previous posts, Wicked was not working in full 4.3GB or 4.4GB Tumbleweed ISO installation, hence I was not getting the option to install MATE.

And that is why I used 130MB Tumbleweed NET installation ISO, which has text-based options to connect to WiFi or any other network.

Also, after initial brief downloading, NET installation brings a GUI, where I chose MATE, and also chose NetworkManager over Wicked.

[gogalthorp]

Note that most will install one of the normal openSUSE desktops then install MATE after setting things up.

[knurpht]

Hi, please try to install nm-tray and use that.

[Jags_FL]

I almost cannot believe that it’s been solved and posting this from openSUSE Tumbleweed MATE NET install.

Instead of all the usual places, I found this kinda obscure page with a one line solution:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1681513/comments/1

Edit the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file

 
And add:

 
[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

 
Then:

systemctl restart networkmanager

After that I removed USB wireless adapter, reinserted and voila! WiFi is connected

[Jags_FL]

Since I couldn’t edit the previous message because it’s past 10 minutes…

**I thank you all for taking time to reply.

**Also, could any admins/mods pass this onto openSUSE MATE team please (or please let me know how to contact them).

[nrickert]

@Jags_FL

Also, could any admins/mods pass this onto openSUSE MATE team please (or please let me know how to contact them).

That seems to be a new feature of NetworkManager, which I did not notice. Thanks for that.

I doubt that this is specific to MATE. Your problem might depend on your WiFi adapter and on your home router, so it probably affects only relatively few people.

[arvidjaar]

@nrickert

Your problem might depend on your WiFi adapter and on your home router, so it probably affects only relatively few people.

Still Ubuntu disabled MAC randomization exactly due to this bug; so I would open openSUSE bug to at least record this problem and open discussion whether feature should be disabled by default.

network-manager (1.10.6-2ubuntu1) bionic; urgency=medium
  * Merge with Debian (LP: #1758331). Remaining changes:
...
    - NetworkManager.conf: disable MAC randomization feature. There is no
      easy way for desktop users to disable this feature yet. And there are
      reports that it doesn't work well with some systems. (LP: #1681513)

That said, I tested it on my system and it works with random scan MAC, so it is indeed highly hardware-dependent (most likely AP dependent).

Apr 07 07:53:47 bor-Latitude-E5450 NetworkManager[10872]: <info>  [1554612827.6388] device (wlan0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to A2:CB:C9:40:22:2C (scanning)
...
Apr 07 07:53:51 bor-Latitude-E5450 NetworkManager[10872]: <info>  [1554612831.5303] device (wlan0): set-hw-addr: set-cloned MAC address to 5C:E0:C5:XX:XX:XX (permanent)

[Jags_FL]

@nrickert

That seems to be a new feature of NetworkManager, which I did not notice. Thanks for that.

I doubt that this is specific to MATE.

That I don’t know but after I found the solution, I checked NetworkManager.conf in my Ubuntu Mate 18.10 installation on a different partition, and they have applied the solution mentioned in the launchpad.net bug:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

@nrickert

Your problem might depend on your WiFi adapter and on your home router, so it probably affects only relatively few people.

My adapter actually uses Realtek chip RTL8192EU. Since it’s Realtek, I would guess there would be quite a few number of them in use worldwide.

My router is actually either of my two Android phones (Hotspot), with 802.11 AC (Qualcomm SD 821). So far I have used both of them with 5+ laptops and 2 desktops without any issues on Ubuntu Mate 18.10, and Windows 10… for almost 3 years.

@arvidjaar

Still Ubuntu disabled MAC randomization exactly due to this bug; so I would open openSUSE bug to at least record this problem and open discussion whether feature should be disabled by default.

(1) Yes, I would like to file a bug for this issue.

(2) Another one for Wicked, which doesn’t connect to WiFi.

• Not from Tumbleweed Live-DVD, and this is even before software (or MATE) selection, so MATE is not in the picture in this scenario. Actually DVD doesn’t contain MATE, so if you don’t have network, you can’t install it.
• And not even after the system is up and running (though in this case MATE is installed through NET installation).

I guess this would be the place to file bug reports?

https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=openSUSE+Tumbleweed&format=guided

Thanks alot for the help.

[Jags_FL]

@arvidjaar

Still Ubuntu disabled MAC randomization exactly due to this bug; so I would open openSUSE bug to at least record this problem and open discussion whether feature should be disabled by default.

Well, I did file a bug report after all:

https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1131763