Networkmanager asks for authentication and network login sporadically

Sporadically, a root login/authentication dialogue pops up. The “details” in the dialoge say it is related to networkmanager. A second dialogue then later appears asking for login to wifi to my network router which is from our cable company. All keeps running fine but it is annoying and only started recently after decades of openSUSE use.
Hundreds of messages look related to this in /var/log/ messages. An output snippet is presented below.

2024-08-15T14:31:17.435676-05:00 mydesktop dbus-daemon[1413]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
2024-08-15T14:31:17.435974-05:00 mydesktop systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
2024-08-15T14:31:17.454631-05:00 mydesktop dns-dnsmasq.sh[18904]: <debug> NETWORKMANAGER_DNS_FORWARDER is not set to "dnsmasq" in /etc/sysconfig/network/config -> exit
2024-08-15T14:31:17.510514-05:00 mydesktop dbus-daemon[3250]: [session uid=1000 pid=3250] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.Notifications' requested by ':1.31' (uid=1000 pid=4608 comm="nm-applet --indicator ")
2024-08-15T14:31:17.516178-05:00 mydesktop dns-dnsmasq.sh[18921]: <debug> NETWORKMANAGER_DNS_FORWARDER is not set to "dnsmasq" in /etc/sysconfig/network/config -> exit
2024-08-15T14:31:17.517874-05:00 mydesktop dbus-daemon[18926]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
2024-08-15T14:31:17.935109-05:00 mydesktop clock-applet[4732]: Failed to get METAR data: 403 Forbidden.
2024-08-15T14:31:18.982848-05:00 mydesktop charon: 11[KNL] flags changed for fe80::3253:3c22:825b:d44e on wlan1
2024-08-15T14:31:19.224265-05:00 mydesktop charon: 13[KNL] fd00:c8b4:226d:1851:656e:e18f:7f65:c84f appeared on wlan1
2024-08-15T14:31:19.225346-05:00 mydesktop avahi-daemon[1411]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlan1.IPv6 with address fe80::3253:3c22:825b:d44e.
20

The debug message regarding NETWORKMANAGER_DNS_FORWARDER looks significant to me.

Should I make the debug suggested change? How did this parameter get unset?
Anyone else recently started getting this issue?

thanks for any insights, tom kosvic

A follow up.

In file /etc/sysconfig/network pointed out by the message log, the config file now says. But there is no NETWORKMANAGER_DNS_FORWARDER entry.

NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER="resolver"

## Type:        yesno
## Default:     yes
#
# When enabled (default) in forwarder mode ("bind", "dnsmasq"),
# netconfig writes an explicit localhost nameserver address to the
# /etc/resolv.conf, followed by the policy resolved name server list
# as fallback for the moments, when the local forwarder is stopped.

Running Leap this could I think well be:

Looks to me that is solved in later changes.

On NETWORKMANAGER_DNS_FORWARDER in /etc/sysconfig/network/config: There is normally a NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER entry but I do not have a NETWORKMANAGER_DNS_FORWARDER entry either.

Debug messages cannot be significant by definition. Otherwise they were not hidden behind enabling additional debug messages.

Anyway, these messages appear after connection has been activated which is long after your requests for authentication.

Educated guess - you have system connection for which supplicant fails to authenticate with AP and NetworkManager treats it as modification of system connection which by default requires administrative privileges. Start with showing your connection definition. Show the actual messages around the time of password request.

Low hanging fruits - edit connection, change secret and save. May be it got lost somehow.

@arvidjaar,

I do not know the term “connection definition” or where to find it. Need more definition (pun).

thanks, tom kosvic

@marel,

I am not sure what you meant by “solved in later changes”. Changes to what? This is fully updated leap 15.6. This just started in last month or so, likely around upgrade from 15.5.

thanks, tom kosvic

Start with

nmcli connection | cat
base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ nmcli connection | cat
NAME                        UUID                                  TYPE       DEVICE 
eth1                        5eb4da26-5d1d-30a5-8747-80181ed055fa  ethernet   eth1   
lo                          3f0ebf19-c700-4eec-a9ab-8989efb41fa8  loopback   lo     
virbr0                      03cca353-3be2-42ae-95b2-36aad66906f7  bridge     virbr0 
Atlas                       9335c3d1-47fc-4c3f-a62e-b17f2f3fb332  wifi       --     
DIRECT-84-HP M281 LaserJet  50d229f8-cfdb-4bf5-8b7c-9feccb4a92e2  wifi       --     
MotoG3 Network              306bee87-aaf0-4a19-8143-12c7bcfee487  bluetooth  --     
Wi-Fi connection 1          571b8f90-4db8-423d-acf3-65e77702bb96  wifi       --     
Wired connection 1          95df5edb-c3b1-3562-a042-f978c952a131  ethernet   --     
wlan1                       6d8e2f5b-e953-408c-9277-97b95f527bae  wifi       --     
(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ 

Have no idea what Atlas is.
Also, my motog3 cell phone is not even on. My samsung galaxy is on my spectrum network.

tom kosvic

So, for each connection there will be file under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections, usually named after the connection name that contains its definition. Check file for the SSID for which you get password request. Is the secret stored there correct?

Reading the github issue I linked I did read “It appears that starting with v250”

The repository is for systemd so I just checked on Tumbleweed:

> systemctl --version
systemd 256 (256.4+suse.6.g5bba1ebe17)

I know Leap is behind so I guess it could be around v250, can you check?

Clinking a bit further it looks to me the problem, dbus doing something that “require root” which should be done differently and it looks to me it is fixed in dbus so I expect the problem to be also gone with that newer version of dbus.

Getting the dbus version is more difficult, it looks to me it is something like 1.14.10

systemd version is 254 on my leap 15.6 that is updated cto current.

dbus-1 version is 1.12.2.

tom kosvic

Do I get " the SSID for which you get password request" from the system log when the authorization call pops up? The actual authentication popup doesn’t go into much detail as I remember.

Also, I don’t know what “secret” refers to but that looks like it is something searchable.

thanks, tom kosvic

After I get the popup asking for a root authentication, I get a logon request for my spectrum modem. Would that not say the problem is with spectrum wifi?
I use ethernet lan from this modem primarily and don’t see any interruptions on my lan.

Sorry, I think I should have said spectrum router rather than modem.

Following the links on the issue I earlier linked I found:

That issue popped up around dbus 1.12.x and it says Milestone 1.14.x so I would not be surprised that with a dbus update the problem is fixed.

I don’t see any updates for dbus leap 15.6 in repos. In obs, I do see reference to 1.14.

I have tumbleweed in a vm and do see that installed version to be: 1.14

I don’t want to corrupt things on my system to solve a seemingly innocuous problem so I will be cautious about updating dbus.

thanks for assistance, tom kosvic

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