openSuse 13.1
NetworkManager plasmoid lists connections but frequently they are not all populated.
A functional example is that configured vpns are not displayed when there is no active network connection.
The particularly annoying one is that my configured mobile broadband connection is not shown when my phone is tethered, unless I can stop it from making some annoying wired connection attempt over USB to my phone (Nokia N9) as another computer. If I’m quick enough it works, most of the time I’m not.
It would be good to understand either that I can workaround this easily or that I can switch to ifup?
nmcli is worse:
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli c status
NAME UUID DEVICES DEFAULT VPN MASTER-PATH
N/A 5ec2eec9-0e47-41d1-8ae4-766fbd29a1b4 wlp5s0 yes no –
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli dev wifi
SSID BSSID MODE FREQ RATE SIGNAL SECURITY ACTIVE
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli c status
NAME UUID DEVICES DEFAULT VPN MASTER-PATH
N/A 5ec2eec9-0e47-41d1-8ae4-766fbd29a1b4 wlp5s0 yes no –
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli d list iface eth0
Error: Device ‘eth0’ not found.
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli con list
NAME UUID TYPE TIMESTAMP-REAL
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli c status
NAME UUID DEVICES DEFAULT VPN MASTER-PATH
N/A 5ec2eec9-0e47-41d1-8ae4-766fbd29a1b4 wlp5s0 yes no –
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli dev list
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli dev status
DEVICE TYPE STATE
adam@AdamsTecra:~> nmcli d list iface eth0
Error: Device ‘eth0’ not found.
I seem to remember encountering behaviour like this with available wireless APs not being refreshed properly. However, my workaround was to run the following command first
/usr/sbin/iwlist scanning
then the discovered APs would be populated in the NM GUI.
A functional example is that configured vpns are not displayed when there is no active network connection.
Yes, that’s deliberate though. A VPN connection cannot be applied until there is a valid active network connection.
The particularly annoying one is that my configured mobile broadband connection is not shown when my phone is tethered, unless I can stop it from making some annoying wired connection attempt over USB to my phone (Nokia N9) as another computer. If I’m quick enough it works, most of the time I’m not.
It would be good to understand either that I can workaround this easily or that I can switch to ifup?
Not sure what is going on here. Maybe the phone is being discovered as a storage device, rather than as a network device. FWIW, I have tethered via my iPhone using the ipheth (Apple iPhone USB Ethernet) driver successfully in the past. Now I tend to set it up as a wifi hotspot instead.
Maybe /var/log/messages will tell the story when you first connect your phone
sudo tail -f /var/log/messages
For later openSUSE versions the following will do the same
Like Android,
Properly configured, your phone acts as a proxy to the Internet, so you need to set up stuff like the described SOCKS proxy configuration in the applications you use to connect through your phone.
You may also need to use the credentials the blog describes to connect to your phone.
According to the blog author, once the phone is set up, tethering is “always on” so your laptop should not necessarily need to set up a primary connection since it should always be seen if your phone is on… although like I said your applications would probably have to be configured with SOCKS Proxy including auth credentials.
As or connecting a VPN (you haven’t stated your VPN type) through a connection that requires a SOCKS proxy… Hmmmm… I haven’t thought about that before. An http protocol proxy like OpenVPN would probably work, but others like PPTP or L2TP? Probably not. BUT… It’s probably a lot more natural to just configure the VPN on your phone so your phone acts as a VPN beachhead for all the Hosts that might connect through the phone including your tethered machine.
I think you’ve completely misunderstood the OP’s question. The OP was simply querying why NM doesn’t always display the option to connect. The OP has indicated that they already successfully manage to connect this way, but have to be quick to activate the connection. It was more about how NM behaves.
As or connecting a VPN (you haven’t stated your VPN type) through a connection that requires a SOCKS proxy… Hmmmm… I haven’t thought about that before. An http protocol proxy like OpenVPN would probably work, but others like PPTP or L2TP? Probably not. BUT… It’s probably a lot more natural to just configure the VPN on your phone so your phone acts as a VPN beachhead for all the Hosts that might connect through the phone including your tethered machine.
TSU
Again, there is nothing complicated about running a VPN over an internet connection (via tethering or otherwise). I do it all the time as a field engineer during the course of my work, and as I already explained NM will only display available VPN connections, once an active connection exists. That behaviour is as expected.
It’s my impression the OP didn’t understand what was happening when trying to race to make “an annoying wired connection.” Maybe unclearly, my point is that a working network connection of any type is sufficient because the phone is acting as a proxy and not like some dialup serial modem.
Well, actually when a device acts as a proxy, it’s a significant issue to take into account because a proxy does not simply forward packets, it terminates the session on one interface and creates a new session on the other interface on behalf of the network device on the other side. The big question then becomes, is this proxy running on the N9 accepting packets <only> through SOCKS and blocking everything else or is the N9 willing to transparently re-create <any> packet accepted on an interface?
I don’t know that questions about how a Windows Phone works has been asked often enough in these Forums to know for sure how networking works through these devices, you can’t simply apply Android and iOS experiences to a Windows Phone.
Based on the blog article, the only safe assumption is that SOCKS-configurable apps will work. Anything else, YMMV.
I don’t know that questions about how a Windows Phone works has been asked often enough in these Forums to know for sure how networking works through these devices, you can’t simply apply Android and iOS experiences to a Windows Phone.
Based on the blog article, the only safe assumption is that SOCKS-configurable apps will work. Anything else, YMMV.
TSU
I guess that depends on the service provider as to whether other steps are necessary. I’ve seen setups eg
with no mention of SOCKS proxy, and the OP made no mention of such convoluted steps when getting connected, so I assume in this case a ‘standard’ mobile broadband connection was created and is working, as already hinted at in their opening post. The problem is that the interface doesn’t stay displayed (available?) in the NM front-end unless they’re quick to activate it…
The particularly annoying one is that my configured mobile broadband connection is not shown when my phone is tethered, unless I can stop it from making some annoying wired connection attempt over USB to my phone (Nokia N9) as another computer. If I’m quick enough it works, most of the time I’m not.
The article you’re referencing only says “Nokia” so don’t know what specific phones it applies to…
Also, the article was written in 2010 which likely was before Nokia started building MS Windows Phone handsets which was only a few (three?) years before MS actually closed the deal to purchase Nokia’s handsets design and manufacturing (2014).