[SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

tmette · 2013-09-11 14:12:05

Please bare with me, I'm a newb here and wasn't sure if i should post this in the Newbie Center or Networking.

I just got Arch up and running and was messing around with Network Manager. I was going to try and set up a static LAN IP, since I used to have my Raspberry Pi connect to Ubuntu to stream videos. I've now switched to Arch and would like to do the same thing. For the most part, everything is handled from the RPi's end, but I need to have a static IP for my desktop computer.

When I launched the Network settings, everything was greyed out so I did some searching. I found that I needed to enable it with:

systemctl enable NetworkManager

The wired connection (only connection I have) was shown as "off" so I switched it on. Now it shows the symbol of a computer monitor, with 3 dots in front of it in the menu bar up top (I'm on Gnome environment). When I click on it, the wired status always says "Connecting..." but it seems to be connected all the time. Did I screw something up? It kind of bothers me that it says "Connecting.." when it's already connected. It feels now that Network Manager is conflicting with whatever was controlling my network adapters on the base install.

All I would like to achieve is to have 2 network profiles, one that takes a dynamic IP, and one static IP of 192.168.1.123. Having the static IP be the system default. Then I need to get my VPN set up and working. I figured I would post here first before I got any farther to see if there was any way to reset the Network Manager back to default, or if I've screwed something up. I would take a couple of screenshots for you but I'm currently at work and wont' be able to until I get home this evening.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Last edited by tmette (2013-09-11 23:59:40)

cookies · 2013-09-11 15:13:04

How did you connect to the internet before you started playing with network manager? You might still have some service running that tries to manage the network which propably interferes with network manager. What does your journal say (journalctl -xb)?

tmette · 2013-09-11 15:24:43

cookies wrote:

How did you connect to the internet before you started playing with network manager? You might still have some service running that tries to manage the network which propably interferes with network manager. What does your journal say (journalctl -xb)?

This is a brand new fresh install. The only time I've messed with setting up the network was running this from the Arch Beginner's Guide:

systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

So that's how I connected to the Internet before I enabled Network Manager. I'll post the out put of the journal when I get back home in a little while. Thanks for the help!

cookies · 2013-09-11 16:25:09

You have to stop dhpcd.service before you start and try out network manager (you can't have 2 different tools managing your network connection at the same time, those tools will constantly get in each other's way).

If you want to stick with network manager, you can go and disable the dhcpcd.service.

tmette · 2013-09-11 16:28:26

So I should just use the following command to disable it?

systemctl disable dhcpcd.service

Will this prevent it from enabling again on a reboot to?

tmette · 2013-09-11 17:10:53

Just got home and it appears I have disabled the Network Manager service. There is no icon in the upper-right corner and my Internet is working fine. When I go into Network Connections under the Settings, everything is greyed out once again if I try to add a new Ethernet connection. Can someone be kind enough to walk me through the steps of doing this right?

cookies · 2013-09-11 19:57:38

First you have to stop the service that's currently managing your network connection (dhcpcd.service in you case). You will have no network connection now.
I assume that you want to switch to network manager so you should disable dhcpcd.service and then enable the service for network manager (this way, network manager will be started by default on every boot and not dhcpcd.service).
Now you just have to start the network manager service and configure your connection from the network manager applet. Now you should be back online.

Check the wiki at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … sing_units for the necessary commands. You might want to keep the wiki pages for setting up the network connection open in a browser window so you can get the network up and running again in case you run into trouble.

tmette · 2013-09-11 22:54:01

Thanks for the help. I typed in these three commands, and am STILL connected to the Internet. Hmm...this is interesting.

sudo systemctl stop dhcpcd@service

sudo systemctl disable dhcpcd@service

sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager

I tried entering ip link and it gave me this:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT qlen 1000
    link/ether 6c:f0:49:ee:a4:d0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Last edited by tmette (2013-09-11 22:55:14)

cecar · 2013-09-11 23:17:47

Well. Why not enable NetworkManager.service and restart?

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

cfr · 2013-09-11 23:23:39

The @ in the service name indicates that the service file is a template. You need to find out the particular instance(s) configured in order to stop/disable them.

Type

systemctl status dhcpcd

and then press <tab> to see the possibilities or to complete the command (if there's only one possibility). This will show you what you need to disable/stop.

Probably you will need

systemctl disable dhcpcd\@enp3s0.service
systemctl stop dhcpcd\@enp3s0.service

but <tabbing> will show you what's configured for sure.

tmette · 2013-09-11 23:56:37

cfr wrote:

The @ in the service name indicates that the service file is a template. You need to find out the particular instance(s) configured in order to stop/disable them.
Type
systemctl status dhcpcd
and then press <tab> to see the possibilities or to complete the command (if there's only one possibility). This will show you what you need to disable/stop.
Probably you will need
systemctl disable dhcpcd\@enp3s0.service
systemctl stop dhcpcd\@enp3s0.service
but <tabbing> will show you what's configured for sure.

Thank you so much! I was finally able to get it with your help and I also found this wonderful article online. Now the Network Manager applet is appearing in the upper-right corner and shows the "connected" status instead of "connecting..." like before. I guess I didn't fully have dhcpcd disabled.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-11 14:12:05

[SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#2 2013-09-11 15:13:04

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#3 2013-09-11 15:24:43

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#4 2013-09-11 16:25:09

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#5 2013-09-11 16:28:26

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#6 2013-09-11 17:10:53

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#7 2013-09-11 19:57:38

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#8 2013-09-11 22:54:01

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#9 2013-09-11 23:17:47

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#10 2013-09-11 23:23:39

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

#11 2013-09-11 23:56:37

Re: [SOLVED]Have I messed up Network Manager?

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