Xfce Forum

markling

Member

Registered: 2012-01-19

Posts: 37

How to get network-manager back and recover lost internet access?

Network-Manager disappeared off the xfce panel. Now I can't get it back. This also means I have lost my ability to connect to the internet.

The problem occured after I added some apps to the panel using <right-click><add-items>. The network manager disappeared. I tried a number of things to get it back, without success.

None of these worked - but if any of them were available as an option this bug would not be a problem for me as a user:

* Network manager was not listed in the xfce app menu

   - if it was, I could simply drag and drop it onto the panel, and get back on with my work

* Network manager was not listed in the xfce panel preferences

  - if it was, I could simply select it with <right-click><add-items>, and get back on with my work

* Restarting the computer did not restore the lost applet

  - if even preferences had 'restore defaults', it would allow you to quickly get back on with your work

* Notification Area does not allow network manager to be added

  - if this panel area's preferences had 'add app' or 'restore all' etc, I could quickly get back to work

* Running nm-applet from command line does not restore panel icon

  - if it did, I could just get back to work

What has happened instead is I've spent three hours trying to get this working without any success. This is an all-too familiar linux experience. nm-applet has had this problem for years: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1074132&page=2

I hope this report helps. I hope you are able to tell me how to get the app back quickly as well.

Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: How to get network-manager back and recover lost internet access?

What is the output when you open a terminal and enter

nm-tool

and (if you have it installed)

inxi -F

We use NM in MX-14 with no problems reported after months of testing and 16,000 downloads since release, so I would suspect the problems are likely distro-based.

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MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

markling

Member

Registered: 2012-01-19

Posts: 37

Re: How to get network-manager back and recover lost internet access?

Thanks for stepping in to help, Jerry. The network was connected and the applet was present on the panel. It disappeared after I changed the panel settings.

My problem, like I say above, is that my xfce desktop offers me no way of restoring the lost item.

It is interesting to have learned about MX-14.

inxi is not installed.

Here's the output of nm-tool:

NetworkManager Tool

State: disconnected

- Device: wlan0 ----------------------------------------------------------------
  Type:              802.11 WiFi
  Driver:            ath9k
  State:             disconnected
  Default:           no
  HW Address:        A0:...

  Capabilities:

  Wireless Properties
    WEP Encryption:  yes
    WPA Encryption:  yes
    WPA2 Encryption: yes

  Wireless Access Points
    BTHub3....

- Device: eth0 -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Type:              Wired
  Driver:            tg3
  State:             unavailable
  Default:           no
  HW Address:        00:...

  Capabilities:
    Carrier Detect:  yes

  Wired Properties
    Carrier:         off

Last edited by markling (2014-05-11 16:21:29)

markling

Member

Registered: 2012-01-19

Posts: 37

Re: How to get network-manager back and recover lost internet access?

The solution to this bug has been posted here:

http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=32961#p32961

The fix involves, counter-intuitively, adding an Indicator Plugin for Unity.

The problem is that the xfce panel preferences is populated with apps that are incompatible/broken.

It makes no difference to me whether this is a problem with xfce or Xubuntu. It is the same to me.

Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: How to get network-manager back and recover lost internet access?

The wifi is "disconnected" ...  I see that most often with HP laptops--is this one of those by any chance?  If yes, try rebooting and entering the BIOS, then see if you can restore system defaults.

Otherwise (a hack...): if you create a new user, does NM show up? If yes, you could copy the xml for that panel and use it on your current desktop.

Even without NM, as you probably know, you have CLI options such as this as root or sudo that usually work:

iwconfig wlan0 essid <name of AP>
dhclient wlan0

You can set a key or other info as well, see man iwconfig.

EDIT: just saw your post, glad it is working for you.

Last edited by Jerry3904 (2014-05-11 16:42:25)

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MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

BozoMcFarlane

Member

Registered: 2011-05-27

Posts: 4

Re: How to get network-manager back and recover lost internet access?

Adding the Unity Indicator Plugin (see markling's post above) worked for me. Adding the Indicator Plugin does reveal the network manager applet--but it displays lots of other stuff as well. Is there a way to add >>only<< the network manager applet to an XFCE panel? This applet is a bit easier to use compared to WICD, but unfortunately it seems to disappear every time after upgrading to a new version of ubuntu.