Arch Linux

ondoho

Member

Registered: 2013-04-30

Posts: 692

Website

netctl: stopping ppp0 service, but connection is still up

Hello,
right after i installed archlinux about half a year ago (with a simple openbox environment), I set up my mobile broadband internet connection with this wiki page.
fortunately the change to netctl was already made then and i integrated my mobile broadband into it. unfortunately i can't exactly remember how (that wiki page does not cover netctl).
it has been working nicely, i could manually start/stop the service (on purpose), and it would bring the interface up/down.
today i noticed that i cannot bring it down anymore. this has been working before.
netctl shows me that the profile is stopped, but the connection is still up. it still works fine with pon/poff or killall pppd.

looking at the various systemd and netctl directories i see nothing i haven't seen earlier, although i'm confused by the multitude of network related services.

some troubleshooting:

$ systemctl list-unit-files | grep netctl
netctl-auto@.service                       disabled
netctl-ifplugd@.service                    disabled
netctl-sleep.service                       disabled
netctl.service                             disabled
netctl@.service                            static

$ systemctl list-unit-files | grep ppp
ppp@.service                               disabled

right now, internet is up but the netctl service is stopped:

$ netctl status ppp0
netctl@ppp0.service - Networking for netctl profile ppp0
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/netctl@.service; static)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:netctl.profile(5)

starting or stopping the profile does not produce any output, no error, exit code 0.
after starting, it looks like this:

$ netctl status ppp0
netctl@ppp0.service - Networking for netctl profile ppp0
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/netctl@.service; static)
   Active: active (exited) since Wed 2014-01-01 22:15:25 EET; 11s ago
     Docs: man:netctl.profile(5)
  Process: 5057 ExecStart=/usr/lib/network/network start %I (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 5057 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

i'm not sure when this started, but i think after the last update.
at first i noticed that netctl was autoconnecting during boot, but i disabled pretty much every network-related systemctl services, and now i can start as usually, connect to internet manually as i've been doing the last half year, but can't bring it down.
fwiw, i also start ntpd.service manually. i also installed tmux recently and started playing with non-x setups, but i don't see how that would have anything to do with it. it is not starting automatically.
i disabled the testing repositories about a month ago (major downgrading, but no problems there) and am using [core] [extra] [community] [multilib] these days.
i'm confused.
any input appreciated.

cheers,

o.

edit: these systemctl outputs might be better:

$ systemctl list-units --all | grep -i netctl
netctl.service                                                            loaded inactive dead      (Re)store the netctl profile state
netctl@ppp0.service                                                  loaded active   exited    Networking for netctl profile ppp0
system-netctl.slice                                                     loaded active   active    system-netctl.slice

$ systemctl list-units --all | grep -i ppp
sys-devices-virtual-net-ppp0.device                            loaded active   plugged   /sys/devices/virtual/net/ppp0
sys-subsystem-net-devices-ppp0.device                      loaded active   plugged   /sys/subsystem/net/devices/ppp0
netctl@ppp0.service                                                  loaded active   exited    Networking for netctl profile ppp0

Last edited by ondoho (2014-01-01 21:53:01)

ondoho

Member

Registered: 2013-04-30

Posts: 692

Website

Re: netctl: stopping ppp0 service, but connection is still up

the contents of /etc/ntctl:

ll /etc/netctl
▕ drwxr-xr-x▏root:root│27 day │   4K│examples
▕ drwxr-xr-x▏root:root│8  mon │   4K│hooks
▕ drwxr-xr-x▏root:root│8  mon │   4K│interfaces
▕ -rw-r--r--▏root:root│7  mon │ 712B│ppp0
▕ -rw-r--r--▏root:root│7  mon │ 712B│ppp1
▕ -rw-r--r--▏root:root│8  mon │ 198B│wlp

the contents of the file ppp0:

Description='Example PPP mobile connection'
Interface=ttyUSB0
Connection=mobile_ppp

# Debug pppd / chat output (separately from netctl)
#PPPDebug=true

# Use default route provided by the peer (default: true)
#DefaultRoute=true
# Use DNS provided by the peer (default: true)
#UsePeerDNS=true

# The user and password are not always required
#User='example@yourprovider.com'
#Password='very secret'

# The access point name you are connecting to
AccessPointName=internet

# If your device has a PIN code, set it here. Defaults to None
#Pin=None

# Mode can be one of 3Gpref, 3Gonly, GPRSpref, GPRSonly, None
# These only work for Huawei USB modems; all other devices should use None
Mode=3Gpref

# vim:ft=dosini

the contents of /etc/systemd/system/*:

ls /etc/systemd/system/*
/etc/systemd/system/autologin@.service  /etc/systemd/system/default.target@

/etc/systemd/system/default.target.wants:
systemd-readahead-collect.service@  systemd-readahead-replay.service@

/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants:
getty@tty1.service@

/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants:
cronie.service@  kwakd.service@

/etc/systemd/system/system-update.target.wants:
systemd-readahead-drop.service@

i see nothing out of the ordinary here.
i also had a look at the files /usr/lib/systemd/system/netctl@.service and /usr/lib/network/network (see first post) - i'm sure i never touched either of them and they look pretty generic to me anyway.

i am really trying to understand if the problem is with netctl, or the setup from that wiki page, i.e. pppd.
i had another look at the methods described, but nothing points to bringing the network down in any particular way.
so, afaiu, the problem is somewhere between netctl and poff --- ?

Last edited by ondoho (2014-01-03 09:49:04)

dizzib

Member

Registered: 2013-12-09

Posts: 7

Re: netctl: stopping ppp0 service, but connection is still up

Same problem here in netctl 1.6.

I'm hoping it's fixed in netctl 1.7 by "Fix pid lookup for killing pppd" at https://projects.archlinux.org/netctl.git/

Last edited by dizzib (2014-05-13 13:15:30)