nm-applet & LEAP 15.1

English Network/Internet
1

Hi,

1st time poster and 1st time SUSE user (been using MINT for years).

Installed LEAP 15.1 4 days ago on +/- 3 yr. old ACER ASPIRE. Gnome desktop (1st time using anything other then Cinamon & Xfce). Generally pleased with LEAP/SUSE, and w/some things very impressed. A few hiccups, most of which I’ve been able to solve w/Google, SUSE documentation and these forum archives.

Not sure about this one, however. After initial installation/setup, I had no wifi connection on this computer. Googled on another one here, found the docs leading me to yaST. Neither ethernet of wireless adapter was configured. I followed doc instructions.

When I 1st set it up, I used Network Settings >> Global Options >> General Network Settings >> NetworkManager Service. After setup I got a pop-up message saying:

> NetworkManager is controlled by desktop applet (KDE plasma widget and nm-applet for GNOME). Be sure it’s running and if not, start it manually. <

I did it again, using “Wicked Service” & “Device Activation | Hotplug” instead. Connected manually in yaST to home wifi, got a connection. Thought it was a little cumbersome, but could live with it. But now last couple days, leaving computer for a few hours and coming back I had no connected and it was a PITA getting connected again.

Got into docs again, seems clear I should be using nm-applet. However, I do not know how to determine if it’s installed, (less desireable) start it manually or (as seems proper) ensure it’s running at boot and stays running.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

2

If your network environment changes frequently, then NetworkManager is a better choice. If however, your network environment doesn’t change then wicked is ok (and that is normally configured via YaST, although it can be done with the appropriate configuration file edits if desired). The nm-applet (NetworkManager front-end) is only applicable if using NetworkManager. AFAIU, it’s normally included as part of the Gnome desktop anyway.

More info here:
https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/reference/html/book.opensuse.reference/cha.nm.html

3

Not sure why you experienced this, but it should be possible to re-establish a working wifi connection with something like

sudo wicked ifdown wlan0 && sudo wicked ifup wlan0

and you can monitor the network connectivity with

sudo journalctl -fu wicked

It may well be a power management issue at play that needs addressing.

However, I’d recommend switching NetworkManager (via the YaST utility) and configure your connection there .

4

Thanks for replies/terminal method for restarting wicked.**

> **If your network environment changes frequently, then NetworkManager is a better choice. If however, your network environment doesn’t change then wicked is ok (and that is normally configured via YaST, although it can be done with the appropriate configuration file edits if desired). The nm-applet (NetworkManager front-end) is only applicable if using NetworkManager. AFAIU, it’s normally included as part of the Gnome desktop anyway.

More info here:
https://doc.opensuse.org/documentati…ce/cha.nm.html <

I read that before I started this thread. I want to use NetworkManager but as I said in 1st post, I’m getting error message:

> NetworkManager is controlled by desktop applet (KDE plasma widget and nm-applet for GNOME). Be sure it’s running and if not, start it manually. <

I did not see instructions for doing this (eg. starting applet and ensuring it starts at boot) in the above doc, and that’s what I’m hoping to get here.

Currently if I choose/save NetworkManager in YaST, I get the above error message and (per docs) the Settings Menu >> Wifi has nothing that doc says should be there, on message: > Please use YaST2 to configure your network<

YaST2 >> Network Settings just takes me back to the YaST interface. (sorry if I’m overly verbose: these utilities are brand new to me).

Thx

5

I did not see instructions for doing this (eg. starting applet and ensuring it starts at boot) in the above doc, and that’s what I’m hoping to get here.

Currently if I choose/save NetworkManager in YaST, I get the above error message and (per docs) the Settings Menu >> Wifi has nothing that doc says should be there, on message: > Please use YaST2 to configure your network<

That suggests that NetworkManager is not running.

Check with

sudo systemctl status network

That will tell us definitively which network service is active.

If you want to use NetworkManager, you can do this from a terminal with

sudo systemctl stop wicked
sudo systemctl disable wicked
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
sudo systemctl start NetworkManager

then you should find that you can configure the network settings via the Gnome desktop.

6

That’s not really an error message. It is more of a notification. I ignore it.

I did not see instructions for doing this (eg. starting applet and ensuring it starts at boot) in the above doc, and that’s what I’m hoping to get here.

That’s normally managed by your desktop environment. So there’s nothing to do.

I normally use KDE. I can tell that the NetworkManager applet is running, if there is a network icon in the tray. However, that icon does not show up when using “wicked”. If I switch to “NetworkManager”, the icon shows in the tray (just after switching).

For Gnome, when I am using “wicked”, there is no network icon in the status bar. But when using “NetworkManager” it is there. Just checking for that icon should be sufficient.

7

Good Morning,

deano_ferrari, Thanks for help.

Oddly, this morning YaST had added a duplicate of my ethernet card, renamed previous entry to wlan1 and changed some settings.

After I got that straightened out…

If you want to use NetworkManager, you can do this from a terminal with
Code:

sudo systemctl stop wicked
sudo systemctl disable wicked
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
sudo systemctl start NetworkManager

That did the trick!!! Exactly what I was looking for in my 1st post. IMO would be worthwhile to put that in the docs where it said:

NetworkManager is controlled by desktop applet (KDE plasma widget and nm-applet for GNOME). Be sure it’s running and if not, start it manually.

Also wondering if I missed enabling NetworkManager in the installation (???). If so, my bad. If it’s not in there (at least for Gnome anyway), IMO would be good idea to add it.

I re-booted a few times, NetworkManager is persistent. Thanks again.

8

Glad to have been of assistance. In your first post you mentioned that you’d switched to using wicked (perhaps you were confused by the YaST notification as Neil mentioned). However, your mention of wanting to control your network via the ‘nm-applet’ requires NetworkManager. The network management choice can be made via YaST, but the systemd CLI commands I gave do the same thing of explicitly setting the desired service.

9

Thanks again.

Just to clarify…

In your first post you mentioned that you’d switched to using wicked (perhaps you were confused by the YaST notification as Neil mentioned).

I didn’t “switch to wicked”, I simply had no wireless whatsoever after installation. My 1st attempt was using NetworkManager as I said:

Not sure about this one, however. After initial installation/setup, I had no wifi connection on this computer. Googled on another one here, found the docs leading me to yaST. Neither Ethernet of wireless adapter was configured. I followed doc instructions.

When I 1st set it up, I used Network Settings >> Global Options >> General Network Settings >> NetworkManager Service. After setup I got a pop-up message saying:

> NetworkManager is controlled by desktop applet (KDE plasma widget and nm-applet for GNOME). Be sure it’s running and if not, start it manually. <

It just didn’t work. The notification (eg. nm-applet) is what LEAP told me do do, and I simply couldn’t find reference to that in the docs. So I took a shot with wicked, got a connection and spent some spare time in folowing few days trying to learn my way around SUSE. Then the wicked connection got pernicious, I went back to the docs, posted here including that “notification” (as Neil corrected me). I spent several hours trying to get my wiifi working with NetworkManager and it simply didn’t work.

However, your mention of wanting to control your network via the ‘nm-applet’ requires NetworkManager. The network management choice can be made via YaST, but the systemd CLI commands I gave do the same thing of explicitly setting the desired service.

When I have some extra time, I’ll make an image of my (now fairly solid, stable) setup and try another install to double check (so I don’t waste other’s time). But I’m pretty sure it was as I said: NetworkManager simply didn’t work on this machine. I did everything Neil suggested (and more, meticulous about following docs), just didn’t work. I needed your terminal instructions.

When I try and replicate this (probably mid-next week), if there is a problem as I’ve described I’ll update here… try and be precise. Happy to file a bug report if that’s the case, just need instructions to do so.

Cheers!!! Have a good weekend.

10

Well, you won’t unless you’ve undertaken some kind of initial configuration specific to your wifi network.

My 1st attempt was using NetworkManager as I said:

It just didn’t work. The notification (eg. nm-applet) is what LEAP told me do do, and I simply couldn’t find reference to that in the docs.

That is a ‘Gnome orientated’ notification, although other desktop environments can use this graphical NM front-end of course. KDE uses it’s own applet (plasma-nm5 package). You can also use NetworkManager’s own ‘nmcli’ CLI utility froma terminal if desired.

11

Here’s some clarification…

In a newly installed 15.1,
There is a big networking change compared to previous openSUSE.
Network Manager is enabled by default.
In previous openSUSE installs (and therefor includes upgrades), Wicked was the default.

There are two ways to manage networking…
Wicked which is the “managed” traditional ifup/ifdown. The advantage of Wicked is its simplicity but the disadvantage is that any time you connect to a different network the previous network connection settings are forgotten.
Network Manager is an application capable of remembering and managing multiple network connections which makes it suitable for mobile machines like laptops which might connect to various Access Points.

With 15.1,
Since you are using Network Manager by default, you cannot use YaST to configure your network connections for much more than to switch between NM and Wicked plus a few more oddball settings I won’t list here.
nm-cli as its name implies is the command line console for Network Manager so it wouldn’t be used for any YaST settings and it wouldn’t be used if you’re using Wicked.

With all openSUSE,
Network Manager is installed by default whether you’re using it or not, it’s available to be used but might be disabled if your’e using Wicked (simply needs to be enabled typically through YaST).

HTH,
TSU