KDE Control Center Module for Network Manager missing?

[Cory F. Cohen]

I upgraded from Kubuntu 13.04 to Kubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) several weeks ago. Ever since, I've not had the "usual" network management control center module for configuring network connections such as a VPN.

To be as specific as possible, my problem can be recreated by... Run "systemsettings" from the command line, and select the module/icon for "Network Settings" under the "Network and Connectivity" category. This window that opens has THREE icons in the left panel, one named "Proxy", one named "Connection Preferences", and a third named "Service Discovery". There used to a be a fourth (first?) module here for actually managing the network connections. For example creating a VPN connection, or configuring wireless access.

This module is now completely missing from my system. The solution is probably as easy as installing or re-installing some missing package, but I have no idea what the package is named, or why it wouldn't be there already. Is anyone else having this problem? Can someone else with Kubuntu 13.10 confirm that there's supposed to be a fourth module/icon?

Assuming that other people have this module, does anyone have suggestions on why I do not? Here are a couple of relevant commands and the output they produce on my system.

$ sudo apt-get install network-manager plasma-nm
...
network-manager is already the newest version.
plasma-nm is already the newest version.
$ kcmshell4 --list | grep net
netpref - Configure generic network preferences, like timeout values

In particular, I can issue this command:

$ kcmshell4 netpref

And the "Connection Preferences" module opens in a new window. But what module name am I missing for configuring the actual connections? Further, my network-manager works just fine from the command line, my VPN is still configured and working (mostly), etc. So it appears that all that I'm missing is the GUI configuration component.

Thanks for any help anyone with a working 13.10 system can provide. I have no idea how I lost this module, but my situation seems unusual (rare?).

[richb]

Do you have a network management icon in your system panel? You can configure through that.

[Cory F. Cohen]

Do you have a network management icon in your system panel? You can configure through that.

When I start "systemsettings", I have a "Network Settings" icon, but there's no "System" anything in there except "About System". I think you're encouraging me to look in the place that's missing, or have I misunderstood?

[richb]

Not in System Settings but an icon in the system tray that sits in the panel. It is a network icon, Right clicking on that icon will bring up an info box with a settings button.

[claydoh]

Do you have a network icon on your system tray? It should look like the icon next to the mouse cursor in the image below:




If it is there, you can just click the icon to see your network connections, where you can edit them, etc. If it is not there, click the arrow at the right side of the system tray (just to the right of the mouse cursor in the above image) to see if it is hidden for some reason. If it is not there at all, right-click on that arrow, select "System Tray Settings" and make sure that the Network Management widget is enabled:



I don't remember seeing a place in System Settings to configure connections before, as that can normally be done from the panel widget (which may be why I never noticed it in System Settings.....)

Here is more of what it should look like:

[Cory F. Cohen]

Thanks. I think you showed me what I needed to see. I had found several discussions about this new "network plasma widget", but I kept thinking... "That's not what I need, I want to edit the connections, not just check their status.".

So I was digging around in there before writing back to say "Nope, still no editing." when sure enough, there's a little gray wrench icon. Which of course displays more status information, and then an "Edit Connection" button. And when you press the edit connection button, the control panel I've been looking for all along is there.

Have the KDE developers seriously replaced the Control Settings window with this thing? If they have, that's a pretty obscure place to hide a fairly important network management operation. I would expect it to be accessible from "System Settings" somehow. Do you also have three icons in your network setting control center module as I described? I checked at my office the other day, and the previous version of Kubuntu definitely has four icons there.

Thanks for your help. I at least now have one way to edit network connections. By the way, how would you add a new network connection through this thing?

[richb]

No they are no longer in the network settings in System Settings. I have always had the tendency to click on all icons with left right and middle to see what comes up. So I do not find the settings there that obscure.

[Cory F. Cohen]

Thanks for yet more picture claydoh. They've helped some more. I don't have a button that says "Edit connections" like you do. Or rather I didn't think that I did. Turns out the wrench next to the "Connected" with the with the green dot edits the uhh... "connected" I guess. Once I've clicked on that wrench the "Edit Connections" button appears, which turn opens a window that will allow me to add connections.

Is this how most folks really did this before, or is it new? Because I always did SystemSettings->Network Settings->Connections or something like that and ended up at a window very much like the one I've just found. The old way certainly seems more obvious to me. But again, thanks for helping me figure out what to click on...

[claydoh]

It was a different widget with a different look and layout. Opinion on it is mixed, but I prefer it myself to the previous one as I care more for finding and enabling wifi hotspots over connection info and graphs. However, I can understand why some differ on it. I have always configured wired/wireless connections from the panel, never from System Settings, as far back as I can remember.

[Cory F. Cohen]

Thanks. At least I know where it is now, and that's what really matters. Whether it's an improvement or a regression is for others to decide. :-) Thank you for helping me figure out where this was.