Gnome-Network-Manager Config File Migration

Question

I think I have an issue with gnome-network-manager, I used to have a lot of connections configured, Wireless, Wired and VPN. After upgrading to 12.04 (from 11.10) I lost every configuration.

I realized that the configs that used to be saved in $HOME/.gconf/system/networking/connections now are being saved in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/.

I don't know how to migrate my settings to the new config file format

Can anybody help me?

---

jorge@thinky:~$ sudo lshw -C network

*-network

   description: Ethernet interface
   product: 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 19
   bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
   logical name: eth0
   version: 03
   serial: 00:1f:e2:14:5a:9b
   capacity: 1Gbit/s
   width: 32 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
   configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=1.5.1-k firmware=0.3-0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
   resources: irq:46 memory:fe000000-fe01ffff memory:fe025000-fe025fff ioport:1840(size=32)

*-network

   description: Wireless interface
   product: PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
   logical name: wlan0
   version: 61
   serial: 00:21:5c:32:c2:e5
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl4965 driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic-pae firmware=228.61.2.24 ip=192.168.2.103 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
   resources: irq:47 memory:df3fe000-df3fffff

jorge@thinky:~$ lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release:    12.04
Codename:   precise

jorge@thinky:~$ uname -a
Linux thinky 3.2.0-23-generic-pae #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 22:19:09 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

jorge@thinky:~$ dpkg -l  | grep -i firm

ii  linux-firmware                                              1.79                                    Firmware for Linux kernel drivers

Solution 1

The migration is usally done by "nm-applet", meaning it reads the old user config via GConf and writes them in the new format under "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/"

One problem is that this only done once, but you can trigger "nm-applet" to rerun the migration by "gconftool-2 -s /apps/nm-applet/stamp --type=int 2", so on the next start it will rescan GConf. Double entries will get a UUID attached.

But as "nm-applet" search for old config via GConf you should make sure that ".gconf/system/networking/connections" is really listed in it. So verify it with "gconftool-2 --dump /system/networking/connections", that should list all your connections.

In my case ".gconf/system/networking/connections" wasn't available via GConf and therefore "nm-applet" could not migrate it. Therefore i created a new user on the system and copied my ".gconf/system/networking/connections" to the new user's home and migrated it from this new login. To correct the wrong permission i used "sudo sed -i "s/permissions=user:NEWUSER/permissions=user:REALUSER/g" /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*" where REALUSER is obviously your real user and NEWUSER is the temporary migration user.

After all while it's nice to finally have everything migrated to "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/", there are quite a few problems with the new storage location, you should be aware of:

• for reinstallations and backup cases you always need to save/move the new location, where formerly your /home was enough
• your user only connections are no longer secured by your encrypted home directory
• the are some security flaws, where passwords for user only connections are stored in clear text under /etc instead of being stored securely in the encrypted keyring

Solution 2

It should be possible to recreate the gconf configuration on a new install.

mkdir -p ~/.gconf/system/networking/connections

Re-instate all the files from the old system. Remember to create empty %gconf.xml files in each directory. Restart gconfd. Then test by dumping the configuration using gconftool-2.

Once I'd done this, nm-applet could find and migrate the settings.

Comments

[ashutosh]

can you give me the output of sudo lshw -C network; lsb_release -a; uname -a; dpkg -l | grep -i firm?

[Jorge]

Added, It's a ThinkPad T61.thanks for the rapid response

[ashutosh]

so do you want old settings to be saved at new place at where the new files are being saved?

[Jorge]

The place is the same, what really matters is to have my configs working again, /home or /etc is the same for me...

[ashutosh]

since your new conguration is not working out, check your current configuration by iwconfig and check out the older configuration file and check out what are you missing out. Maybe this is not the correct answer but maybe it could help you out.

[Jorge]

hm... I think it has nothing to do with wi-fi, it is the gnome-network-manager, and it is not only the place... look, another difference is that in /etc, configs are arranged in a file per connection and in /home you have a folder per connection and an xml as a database of connections...

[ashutosh]

that kinda enlightened me

[Jorge]

Sorry, I can't understand, or maybe I'm not explaining my problem correctly... I have my old connections in /home, after installing Precise, Network Manager seems to read connections from /etc. what I want to do is to recover my connections by migrating them to /etc or re point the new Net Manager to /home. Sorry for my english... I'm doing my best!

[Jorge]

I thought I'd never solve this, you became a hero! thank you very much... I'd like to know the reason for moving a user's configs to /etc... Thanks again.

[rpax]

You saved my day! +1