My computer was sitting idle but on for 2 days. The machine is set to lock the screen after inactivity; the screen was locked for most of this time. When I returned to the machine and unlocked the screen, I had *82* (I counted...) identical "Authorization required...." dialogs onscreen (see attached screenshot). Each dialog contained a request to connect to a network that I had previously connected to. Each request was for the same network - n-m was asking about the same network 82 times, not asking to connect to 82 different networks.
I have observed the same or similar behavior in in 11.10: When roaming to a new network, network-manager finds a new network then asks for permission to connect to it, even if you've already connected to that network in the past. If you do not answer the prompt, network-manager displays a new prompt after a minute or two. I believe this is a result of scanning for networks while not associated - n-m seems to put up a new dialog if (a) it's not associated and (b) it finds a network to connect to. This happens regardless of whether a dialog is already onscreen. network-manager should avoid throwing up an authorization dialog if a dialog is already onscreen.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: network-manager 0.9.2.0+git201201101813.0b30200-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-10.18-generic 3.2.1
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-10-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jan 30 08:55:14 2012
IfupdownConfig:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Beta amd64 (20100901.1)
IpRoute:
default via 10.0.1.1 dev wlan0 proto static
10.0.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.1.22 metric 2
169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
NetworkManager.state:
[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
RfKill:
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-26 (3 days ago)
nmcli-dev:
DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
wlan0 802-11-wireless connected /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0
eth1 802-3-ethernet unavailable /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
nmcli-nm:
RUNNING VERSION STATE NET-ENABLED WIFI-HARDWARE WIFI WWAN-HARDWARE WWAN
running 0.9.3.0 connected enabled enabled enabled enabled enabled
Confirming, I can reproduce this if I leave my system on after changing the wireless password for an AP, and wait > 5 minutes for a rescan to start. This probably just needs a little tweak to force the device as down/failed until the auth is completed, but I'm not certain what would be the best way to tackle this.
Let's file this bug upstream.