And yes, this is in 5.5.5.
I just fired up the connection editor, and it has a “disk” icon at the right edge of the password field. If you click on that you can choose to store the password for the user only (in kwallet), system-wide (in /etc/NetworkManager/), or not at all.
So the only possible “bad decision” here might be the default…
But nm-connection-editor has the same default.
Oh, I did notice a bug though, with the Oxygen style at least:
When you open the editor, the disk icon is exactly below the show/hide password icon (the “eye”), so you cannot click it. Resizing (or maximizing/unmaximizing) the dialog fixes that.
I’m not sure if this is relevant to this thread but to others find the root password is actually needed when it is requested?
Our (TW) laptop uses a wireless connection shared between 3 specified users. When it came to the kwallet password at set up, I gave a blank one.
Every (KDE) login we get a Network Manager pop up stating something like administrator password needed to modify the network but we just click cancel and the connection is made.
Okay. I’ll have to test that. When I last checked, that was not available in plasma-nm5. But that was before 5.5 was in Tumbleweed. I’ll recheck with my laptop shortly. If that option is available, that makes a big difference.
It turns out that’s not quite right. On another test (with Tumbleweed, so 5.5.5), I maximized the connection editor. But I could not click on that icon. So I unmaximized it, and then I could see it.
The difference is that this time I maximized the connection editor before selecting the security tab. It seems that, after selecting the security tab, one must toggle the maximization to be able to get to that icon.
I was able to set the network key to be stored for all users, even without making it a shared connection. That’s going to be better. It means that if I setup the connection that way in KDE, it will still be available if I login to Gnome or XFCE. And it means that it will connect without requiring me to open kdewallet immediately after login. In my opinion, this should be made the default setup.
Yes, it’s the change of the window size that correctly rearranges the icons. The problem is not that the window is too small.
If you resize without the icons visible, they will not be re-arranged obviously, and you do have the problem when switching to the wireless security tab afterwards.
I was able to set the network key to be stored for all users, even without making it a shared connection. That’s going to be better. It means that if I setup the connection that way in KDE, it will still be available if I login to Gnome or XFCE. And it means that it will connect without requiring me to open kdewallet immediately after login.
Yes.
In my opinion, this should be made the default setup.
The disadvantage is that it’s stored unencrypted, in plain text, though.
Yes, but it is in a file only readable by root. It is also accessable through the network manager applet, but only by the user who setup the connection. If it is made a shared connection (system connection), then it will accessible through the applet only after providing the root password.
I think most folk would find that acceptable. If they use Windows on that network, the key is stored unencrypted there, though perhaps obscured.
Personally I wouldn’t bother, as that’s what I am using anyway.
But that’s probably the reason why the developers (not only plasma-nm’s, but also NetworkManager’s) prefer to store the password encrypted in the user’s store (gnome-keyring, kwallet) by default.
I tested this now with an actual wireless connection on a 13.2 system (with Plasma 5.5.5):
If the password is stored in the wallet, the wireless connection is connected automatically on login without me having to enter anything (my wallet password is empty).
Even if I login to a different account (where the password is not in the wallet yet), I’m only asked for the connection password when trying to connect (which is then stored in kwallet), and not for the root password.
So even with kwallet everything works fine here and as I would expect.
With further testing I noticed though that the root password is indeed asked for when kwallet is protected by a password. As somebody already mentioned, it also continues and successfully connects if you click cancel (and do not enter the root password).
So there does seem to be a glitch here, the upstream developer maybe just didn’t notice this as in his case polkit doesn’t require the root password for modifying a system connection.
Btw, the problem that the disk icon to select where to store the password is not clickable without resizing the window is a bug in Qt 5.5.1, and should be fixed in 5.6: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-48806
I quickly booted an Argon LiveCD (which has Qt 5.6) and can confirm that this issue doesn’t occur there.
An additional note:
The KDE4 version of plasma-nm in 13.2 behaves the same already.
Of course it doesn’t allow to configure where the wireless password should be stored and always does it system-wide for a shared connection, so this won’t happen normally. But if you use nm-applet (or plasma-nm5 ) and setup the connection to store the password per user, you’ll also get the root password request in KDE4 when trying to connect (if kwallet doesn’t have an empty password).
The only difference now in Leap/Plasma5 as mentioned is that plasma-nm5 allows to choose the password storage since 5.5 and defaults to “per-user” like nm-applet does.
I just fired up the connection editor, and it has a “disk” icon at the right edge of the password field. If you click on that you can choose to store the password for the user only (in kwallet), system-wide (in /etc/NetworkManager/), or not at all.
I would say, the option is well hidden, and an average user can hardly decide which the ‘right’ option is.
As you have reopened the bug on kde.org, lets see how things are moving…
Somehow it feels that KDE starts from scratch with each release…sad to see that so many things that worked well, go wrong or are missing in new versions.
I agree, particularly about that “average user” issue. The “not encrypted” comes across as unnecessarily scary. The password is unencrypted, but it is readable only by root. Changing “not encrypted” to “readable only by root” would be clearer, in my opinion.
I know.
But an update to 5.5.5 is on the way, and should be released in the next days I think.
Anyway, this was a change between 5.4 and 5.5, so it doesn’t really matter whether you use 5.5.4 or 5.5.5.
I would say, the option is well hidden, and an average user can hardly decide which the ‘right’ option is.
It’s “hidden” the same as in nm-applet, but the icon is not clickable due to a bug in Qt5 which has been fixed in Qt 5.6.
I’m not sure if that will be released as update for Leap 42.1 though…
As you have reopened the bug on kde.org, lets see how things are moving…
Yeah, but that’s about asking for the root password when connecting.
Not about where to save the wireless password.
Somehow it feels that KDE starts from scratch with each release…sad to see that so many things that worked well, go wrong or are missing in new versions.
That’s not really true. Actually nothing has been “started from scratch” in Plasma5, and in particular not in 5.5.
In this particular case, it’s just about offering more options, that were already offered by NetworkManager and nm-applet.
I am a new user. I am dual booting leap with win 10. When in suse, There are repeated buzzing (alarms I quess) the alarms come in series of three and temporarily interrupt downloading
(torrents) Doesn’t happen in windowss. What is it?
) and setup the connection to store the password per user, you’ll also get the root password request in KDE4 when trying to connect (if kwallet doesn’t have an empty password).
