Re: Problem with changing encryption for established connection

[Larry Finger <Larry Finger lwfinger net>]

On 10/24/2009 04:15 AM, Will Stephenson wrote:
> On Saturday 24 October 2009 00:53:16 Dan Williams wrote:
>> On Thu, 2009-10-22 at 10:45 -0500, Larry Finger wrote:
>>> I am using NetworkManager version 0.7.1 and kNM version 0.9. While
>>> testing openSUSE 11.2 RC1, I did the unusual step of changing the
>>> encryption scheme for a previously established ESSID/connection. As
>>> expected, when I clicked on the entry in the kNM applet to connect, I
>>> got the authentication/secrets pop-up. Supplying the new, correct
>>> password and authentication scheme failed. I could connect only by
>>> using the "Manage Connections" item from the applet and by editing the
>>> wireless connection item before trying to connect.
>>>
>>> Is this expected behavior?
>>
>> It might be the case that the AP's old encryption settings were still in
>> the scan list; How long was the AP powered off before it came back up
>> with the new settings?  Can you reproduce the situation and run
>> 'nm-tool' to check what NM thinks the AP's settings are and make sure
>> that NM reflects what they really are?  If not, it's likely a stale
>> entry in NM's scan cache.
>>
>> I'd expect to see the passphrase dialog if you change the passphrase on
>> the AP and not the security settings; if you switch between WEP and WPA
>> for example then you might also see that dialog, but NM might also be a
>> bit confused.
> 
> Agreed, but Larry might also have mis-entered the encryption type on first 
> creating the connection and be trying to edit it in the GetSecrets popup.  I 
> show the whole settings group's UI on GetSecrets because I haven't got round 
> to making a minimal secrets-only UI yet, and I doubt NM is equipped to handle 
> the non-secret parts of 802-11-wireless changing at that point.

I think changing the type after the connection was created would match
the situation you describe, and that is what happened. The original
connection was WPA2, then I used a wired connection to modify the
encryption in the AP. Next I tried to connect using that same
connection. A similar switch was later made to WEP, and finally to no
encryption. As I recall, the problem happened in the WPA2 => WPA
switch, but I'm not completely certain of that. Once I found that I
needed to edit the connection, I did that for the rest of the testing.

As this kind of type changing using the same ESSID is not usual
behavior, I have not filed a bug report, just this question on the ML.

Larry