[Pkg-kde-extras] Bug#617792: network-manager-kde: always prompts for access credentials when access to AP fails

[Paul Millar]

Package: network-manager-kde
Version: 1:0.9~svn1175124-1
Severity: normal


I use the network-manager framework for managing the WiFi and VPN connections on my laptop and, as I'm 
using KDE as my desktop, I'm using network-manager-kde to provide the interface.

Sometimes, after establishing connectivity with an AP (i.e., AP association, WPA authentication, etc) and 
having used the connection for a little while, the connectivity will fail for external reasons.  This can 
happen if the AP is rebooted (and the AP is the only one serving that ESSID) or if I moved the laptop to 
somewhere out of the AP's range.

When connectivity with the AP fails, it is detected; however, I am prompted with a dialogue box asking 
for credentials for logging into the wireless network.

When the credential dialogue box appears, I click on the Ok button.  I haven't changed any of the 
settings.  Clicking the OK button will trigger an attempt to connect to the AP.  If the cause of the 
problem is now fixed (AP has finished rebooting, laptop now in range of AP, etc) then network 
connectivity will be established and everything is fine again.

The problem here is two-fold:

  1.  the access credentials diague should not be presented as the problem is not with
      access credential.

  2.  relatively common occurances (temporary unavailability of an AP) requires manual
      intervention (pressing the OK button) to recover.  This is made worse because the
      window is sometimes hidden behind other windows.

I suggest that network-manager-kde detects whether a failure is due to access being denied (e.g., wrong 
passphrase) or if it's due to some other kind of failure.  The dialogue box requesting user credentials 
should only be shown if a failure to connect is due to failing authentication.  

The other cases of connectivity failure could be handled by the normal KDE notification framework.

Cheers,

Paul.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers oldstable
  APT policy: (500, 'oldstable'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.37-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages network-manager-kde depends on:
ii  kdebase-runtime         4:4.4.5-1        runtime components from the offici
ii  knm-runtime             0.1~svn1175124-1 KDE NetworkManagement infrastructu
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-11        Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.5.2-5        GCC support library
ii  libkdecore5             4:4.4.5-3        the KDE Platform Core Library
ii  libkdeui5               4:4.4.5-3        the KDE Platform User Interface Li
ii  libqt4-dbus             4:4.6.3-4        Qt 4 D-Bus module
ii  libqt4-network          4:4.6.3-4        Qt 4 network module
ii  libqt4-svg              4:4.6.3-4        Qt 4 SVG module
ii  libqtcore4              4:4.6.3-4        Qt 4 core module
ii  libqtgui4               4:4.6.3-4        Qt 4 GUI module
ii  libsolid4               4:4.4.5-3        Solid Library for KDE Platform
ii  libsolidcontrol4        4:4.4.5-8        library for Solid based network ma
ii  libstdc++6              4.5.2-5          The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

network-manager-kde recommends no packages.

network-manager-kde suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information