Bug 576441

Summary:	Pidgin won't connect when NetworkManager is not running
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Cong Ma <frigoris.ma>
Component:	pidgin	Assignee:	Warren Togami <wtogami>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	12	CC:	fuzz, itamar, stu, wtogami, ytsamy
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2010-04-13 02:08:34 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Cong Ma 2010-03-24 03:17:29 UTC

Description of problem:

Pidgin seems to be deeply hooked into NetworkManager. If NetworkManager service is not running, it fails to connect even in the presence of a valid Internet connection. If all interfaces controlled by NetworkManager are down but connection is available through an interface *not* controlled by NM, Pidgin just sits there "waiting for network connection" which is already there.

I don't know whether this is "the intended" behavior or not. It would be too sad if it is.

Any other Internet application, be it a CLI or desktop one, does not work this way. They determine the availability of Internet by trying, and fail when the attempt times out. I fail to see why Pidgin should be the exception.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

pidgin-2.6.6-2.fc12.i686
(But older versions may also be affected)

How reproducible:

Always

Steps to Reproduce:

There are two ways to reproduce the bug:

I.
1. Stop the NetworkManager service
2. Bring up an interface and get Internet connection going
3. Watch Pidgin failing to connect

II.
1. Bring up an interface not controlled by NM and get Internet connection going
2. Start the NM service, but disable any connection available to NM
3. Watch Pidgin "waiting for network connection" endlessly.

Actual results:

In either case, Pidgin fails/refuses to connect

Expected results:

Pidgin should have used the available connection like everyone else does.

Additional info:

Thanks for your time and patience.

Comment 1 Samuel Thiombiano 2010-04-12 17:31:28 UTC

Maybe Pidgin should have a checkbox (like firefox File->Work Offline) that allows the user to set the off/on-line status regardless of what NetworkManager says.

Comment 2 Stu Tomlinson 2010-04-13 02:08:34 UTC

This is by design. If NetworkManager is running it is assumed to be Managing your Network. If this is not what you want, don't run NetworkManager. If necessary to work around shortcomings in NetworkManager, you can run "pidgin -f" to Force online and ignore what NetworkManager reports.

Comment 3 Cong Ma 2010-04-13 03:18:48 UTC

(In reply to comment #2)
> This is by design. If NetworkManager is running it is assumed to be Managing
> your Network.

Well, I guess this is not what NetworkManager expect from "client" (loosely speaking) programs that use the network, since NetworkManager explicitly allows interfaces to not be managed by it.

But I'm not arguing, because...

> you can run "pidgin -f" to Force online and ignore what
> NetworkManager reports.    

Thanks. I hope this feature won't be removed in future updates ;)