[SOLVED] NetworkManager statup complete even if not

Naoy · 2026-05-19 14:42:12

I just updated my system, and a lot of services that should run after network-online.target are failing because the network is unavailable.

I investigated a bit and found that NetworkManager-wait-online.service exits too early. Since it relies on the "startup complete" event from NetworkManager, I checked the logs and found this:

...
mai 20 00:53:08 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198788.0305] manager: startup complete
...
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3150] device (enp4s0): carrier: link connected
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3152] device (enp4s0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'carrier-changed', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3159] policy: auto-activating connection 'Wired connection 1' (e254c552-87d0-3bd8-93ed-8220f7c57b6a)
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3163] device (enp4s0): Activation: starting connection 'Wired connection 1' (e254c552-87d0-3bd8-93ed-8220f7c57b6a)
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3163] device (enp4s0): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3165] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3166] device (enp4s0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3194] device (enp4s0): state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3207] dhcp4 (enp4s0): activation: beginning transaction (timeout in 45 seconds)
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.3245] dhcp4 (enp4s0): state changed new lease, address=192.168.10.20, acd pending
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.4863] dhcp4 (enp4s0): state changed new lease, address=192.168.10.20
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.4908] policy: set 'Wired connection 1' (enp4s0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.5156] device (enp4s0): state change: ip-config -> ip-check (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.5482] device (enp4s0): state change: ip-check -> secondaries (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.5485] device (enp4s0): state change: secondaries -> activated (reason 'none', managed-type: 'full')
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.5487] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_SITE
mai 20 00:53:15 ArchLinux NetworkManager[633]:   [1779198795.5489] device (enp4s0): Activation: successful, device activated.
...

❯ sudo systemctl status NetworkManager-wait-online.service
● NetworkManager-wait-online.service - Network Manager Wait Online
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager-wait-online.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Wed 2026-05-20 00:53:08 +11; 46min ago
 Invocation: 3e9d36f073414ce3a130c8b019b54542
       Docs: man:NetworkManager-wait-online.service(8)
   Main PID: 705 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Mem peak: 2.6M
        CPU: 32ms

mai 20 00:53:02 ArchLinux systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Wait Online...
mai 20 00:53:08 ArchLinux systemd[1]: Finished Network Manager Wait Online.

As we can see, startup is considered complete 7 seconds before the network is actually up. I found an issue related to this in the NetworkManager bug tracker, but they seem to imply that udev is to blame here (maybe because it took too much time to initialize the driver of my network interface?).

It worked well a few days/weeks ago.

Could you guys please help me root-cause this behavior so I can fix it?

Last edited by Naoy (Yesterday 13:26:02)

seth · 2026-05-19 14:49:22

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ait-online
The wait-online targets are (by default) all completely useless.

It worked well a few days/weeks ago.

"By luck" (NIC config winning the race)

Naoy · 2026-05-19 15:09:25

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ait-online
The wait-online targets are (by default) all completely useless.
It worked well a few days/weeks ago.
"By luck" (NIC config winning the race)

Thank you for the prompt answer, I'm now using the nm-online without the "-s" which gives me better results.

seth · 2026-05-19 19:03:16

\o/
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

But also notice the linked caveats.
Personally I just have services etc. that require remote access ping-wait for the host.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-05-19 14:42:12

[SOLVED] NetworkManager statup complete even if not

#2 2026-05-19 14:49:22

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager statup complete even if not

#3 2026-05-19 15:09:25

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager statup complete even if not

#4 2026-05-19 19:03:16

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager statup complete even if not

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