openSUSE 12.2, new install (maintaining an existing 11.4 home) - networkmanager disfunctional

stakanov · September 16, 2012, 9:54am

Hi everybody and welcome to the “puzzle hunt” that happens I guess with every new install of an OS. So I have the brand new 12.2 installed, and as I am not using wireless on this machine, it is a fix PC, but I do use openVPN connections, I need networkmanager.

I did set it as usual in the network settings via Yast. However, neither the network-manager-applet nor the plasmoid (although installed and visible in the yast packages listing) appear to be reachable, be it in the start menu (using search - network-manager) be it in the list of plasmoids.
If I try to set up my openVPN I can reach the KDE networksettings dialog via the systems-setting dialog. It appears to be connected to the networkmanager, (svn version 0.9 looks quite like it) but now trace in the tray, I join an openvpn connection via the foreseen means, and when I try to set up openVPN (just the password, the settings are imported flawlessly) the dialog complains about something like: “no agent to refer to”. There is no complain in the logs … at least a fast look did not find anything, I have Ethernet connection which works flawlessly.

KDE, version 4.8.5 (4.8.5) “release 2”, standard install with all official updates, nvidia proprietary drivers, apparmor enabled and installed. Connection via Ethernet.
Trying to give some (hopefully) useful information:

# /sbin/ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:8F:C7:26:C7  
          inet addr:192.168.178.31  Bcast:192.168.178.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fd00::213:8fff:fec7:26c7/64 Scope:Global
          inet6 addr: fe80::213:8fff:fec7:26c7/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:22892 errors:0 dropped:5 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:13524 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:18408564 (17.5 Mb)  TX bytes:1441832 (1.3 Mb)
          Interrupt:17 Base address:0xc800 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:6103 (5.9 Kb)  TX bytes:6103 (5.9 Kb)

netstat -i
Kernel Interface table
Iface   MTU Met    RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR    TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg
eth0   1500   0    23183      0      0      5    13822      0      0      0 BMRU
lo    16436   0       75      0      0      0       75      0      0      0 LRU

And exported from yast the version of packages installed:

<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-vpnc-kde4" epoch="0" ver="0.9.0.2" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-vpnc" epoch="0" ver="0.9.4.0" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-pptp-kde4" epoch="0" ver="0.9.0.2" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-pptp" epoch="0" ver="0.9.4.0" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-openvpn-kde4" epoch="0" ver="0.9.0.2" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/><entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-openvpn" epoch="0" ver="0.9.4.0" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager-kde4-libs" epoch="0" ver="0.9.0.2" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="NetworkManager" epoch="0" ver="0.9.4.0" rel="5.8.1" arch="i586"/>
<entry kind="package" name="plasmoid-networkmanagement" epoch="0" ver="0.9.0.2" rel="2.1.2" arch="i586"/>

Any suggestion where to start to look this time?
Thank you.

glistwan · September 17, 2012, 9:28am

I would go for creating a new user and see if he has the problems. If not than renaming your current .kde4 directory it’s the easy way out. This will lose all your KDE settings. If you want to keep them you need to see what’s different in the new users’s home and yours.

stakanov · September 17, 2012, 10:07am

Hi, sorry I found out that this is a new feature of KDE. It is able and set to hide neworkmanagerapplet unless you otherwise state in the selection menu. I did so, I have access now, but, the openVPN function is not working at all. The issue is as before: no vpn selection via the applet is offered and when you safe the password and then modify it, the program gives the warning of “no agent found for the request” and …forgets the password previously saved.

glistwan · September 17, 2012, 10:11am

Did you try to reproduce with a brand new user account ?

stakanov · September 17, 2012, 1:59pm

I will have to find what is different. Not that renaming would not be a solution. But it is because I have many machines that I migrate that way. So I do not want to undergo a resetting every time.

A new user account seems to show correctly the connections. However it presents as well the “no agent available for this request” when you try to input the password.
Second:
when you log in in the old account I am getting a cryptic message that it “was not possible to find the backend for this request…” so maybe a renaming at the end will be the only possibility. Is there an error log of kde that I could go through? And do you happen to know where it is situated. Thank you.

glistwan · September 17, 2012, 2:02pm

No unfortunately I don’t know where the KDE logs are. You could try “/var/log/NetworkManager” or “~/.xsession-errors”. I’m sure there is a different solution than renaming the whole .kde4 directory but it may not be that easy to find.