Bug 440696 – net-misc/networkmanager-0.9.6.0/0.9.6.4 does not establish mobile broadband connection

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Martux 2012-11-01 05:33:19 UTC]

networkmanager-0.9.6.0/0.9.6.4 won't establish mobile broadband connection, which perfectly works with networkmanager-0.9.4.0-r7 and below.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge networkmanager-0.9.6.0 or 0.9.6.4
2. plugin USB broadband modem
3. in KDE, use the icon in the tray to establish a connection
Actual Results:  
connection immediately turns into "not connected", stays that way.

Expected Results:  
internet connection

USE flags used:
net-misc/networkmanager-0.9.6.4 [0.9.4.0-r7] USE="avahi bluetooth dhcpcd introspection modemmanager nss ppp wext -connection-sharing -dhclient -doc -gnutls -resolvconf -systemd -vala% -wimax"

emerge --info
Portage 2.2.0_alpha142 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.7.2, glibc-2.16.0, 3.6.4-gentoo x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-3.6.4-gentoo-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7_CPU_M_620_@_2.67GHz-with-gentoo-2.2
Timestamp of tree: Thu, 01 Nov 2012 02:30:01 +0000
ld GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.23
ccache version 3.1.8 [disabled]
app-shells/bash:          4.2_p37
dev-java/java-config:     2.1.12
dev-lang/python:          2.7.3-r2, 3.2.3-r1
dev-util/ccache:          3.1.8
dev-util/cmake:           2.8.9-r1
dev-util/pkgconfig:       0.27.1
sys-apps/baselayout:      2.2
sys-apps/openrc:          0.11.2
sys-apps/sandbox:         2.6
sys-devel/autoconf:       2.13, 2.69
sys-devel/automake:       1.9.6-r3, 1.11.6, 1.12.4
sys-devel/binutils:       2.23
sys-devel/gcc:            4.7.2
sys-devel/gcc-config:     1.7.3
sys-devel/libtool:        2.4.2
sys-devel/make:           3.82-r4
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 3.6 (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:           2.16.0
Repositories: gentoo
Installed sets: @system
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /etc/env.d/43kdepaths /etc/env.d/99skype /usr/share/config /usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="${EPREFIX}/etc/gconf /etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--jobs=5 --load-average=5.0 --with-bdeps=y --keep-going"
FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org/ http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/ http://ftp.ucsb.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/gentoo/"
LANG="[e-mail]-8"
LC_ALL="de_DE.UTF-8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
LINGUAS="de"
MAKEOPTS="-j5"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac acpi alsa amd64 asf avahi berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cli consolekit cracklib css cups cxx dbus dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode fam fbcondecor ffmpeg firefox flac fortran gdbm gif glib gpm gstreamer hddtemp iconv icu id3tag java jpeg jpeg2k kde kipi lame lcms libnotify lzma mad matroska mmx mng modemmanager modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap multilib mysql ncurses networkmanager nls nptl nsplugin ogg opencl opengl openmp pam pango pch pcre pdf pic png policykit ppds pppd python3 qt3support qt4 quicktime readline sdl session sip smp spell sse sse2 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg symlink taglib tcpd theora threads tiff truetype twolame udev udisks unicode upnp upower usb v4l vcd vdpau vorbis wav wavpack wxwidgets x264 xcb xcomposite xinerama xml xv xvid xvmc zeroconf zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LINGUAS="de" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_2 python2_7" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18 ruby19" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, USE_PYTHON


Please note: This also happened BEFORE I updated to gcc-4.7.2. Compiling is not the issue here. I also tried recompiling net-misc/modemmanager-0.6.0.0 to no avail.

[Comment 1 Martux 2012-11-01 05:38:12 UTC]

Created attachment 327902 [details]
output of /var/log/messages when connecting the modem and trying to establish a connection.

[Comment 2 Alexandre Rostovtsev (RETIRED) 2012-11-01 07:23:51 UTC]

These log lines might be pointing to the cause of the error:

>  Oct 31 10:34:28 aumakua pppd[3720]: unrecognized option 'ipv6'
> [..]
> Oct 31 10:34:28 aumakua NetworkManager[2379]: <warn> pppd pid 3720 exited with error: pppd options error 

Do you have the ipv6 USE flag enabled for net-dialup/ppp?


Now, some generic questions: 
You say "works with networkmanager-0.9.4.0-r7". When you were using networkmanager-0.9.4.0-r7, were you using modemmanager-0.6.0.0, or some earlier version of modemmanager (such as 0.5.2?)

What model Huawei modem are you using?

Can you provide some information about your modem connection's IP configuration? (For instance, I believe that networkmanager-0.9.6.x has some bugs with static IP modems.)

[Comment 3 Martux 2012-11-01 07:29:04 UTC]

I am using a Huawei E1750C modem. IPV6 is disabled system wide and also the network managing applet in KDE states "this connection needs IPV4" with v6 completely disabled. networkmanager-0.9.4.0-r7 works very well with modemmanager-0.6.0.0, no change here. Also the same version of usb_modeswitch (sys-apps/usb_modeswitch-1.2.4_p20120815).
What do you mean by "IP configuration"?

[Comment 4 Alexandre Rostovtsev (RETIRED) 2012-11-01 08:00:39 UTC]

(In reply to comment #3)
> IPV6 is disabled system wide

Please re-emerge net-dialup/ppp with the ipv6 USE flag enabled.

Networkmanager-0.9.6 added ipv6cp support. If ppp has ipv6 support and your provider is ipv4-only, ipv6cp will simply time out, and networkmanager will carry on. But if ppp does not have ipv6 support built in, pppd will exit with an error, which might be the reason why networkmanager fails to establish a connection for you.

> What do you mean by "IP configuration"?

Did you need to configure your modem's dns settings, ip address, etc. in any way? Do you know whether your sim card has a static (fixed) ip?

[Comment 5 Martux 2012-11-01 09:01:21 UTC]

Awesome!
That really fixed it :) Thanks man, I would have never come to that on my own.
Btw. My ISP is giving dynamic IPs only. No manual configuration needed.

[Comment 6 Alexandre Rostovtsev (RETIRED) 2012-11-01 16:06:12 UTC]

Good to hear. I've now changed the networkmanager-0.9.6.x ebuilds to depend on ppp[ipv6] when USE=ppp.

>  01 Nov 2012; Alexandre Rostovtsev <[e-mail]>
>  networkmanager-0.9.6.0.ebuild, networkmanager-0.9.6.4.ebuild:
>  Depend on ppp[ipv6] because nm now assumes that pppd allows ipv6cp-related
>  arguments (bug #440696, thanks to Martux).