[gutsy] NetworkManager Feature Request - manually trigger ssid scan

This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at [WWW] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in network-manager.

This is known upstream you can track it here: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=465780 ; thanks for your report.

upstream usually says that this is a not required feature. Usually the problems are due to driver issues.

Official gnome documentation says that simply clicking the network manager applet should cause a rescan, but that often does not occur (often after returning from suspend state), so I think that may be a true bug that the upstream developers might actually want to fix.

The prime duplicate upstream bug report is actually here:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=498887

The latest developer comment about slow rescans is as follows:

 Comment #8 from Dan Williams (NetworkManager developer, points: 18)
2008-01-23 22:31 UTC [reply]

r3262 of the stable branch fixes some deficiencies of the scan algorithm. NM
will scan every 20 seconds for 2 minutes, then bump the scan interval up every
120 seconds thereafter. If the device is deactivated, NM will bump the scan
interval back to 20 seconds for 2 minutes, then up to 120 seconds thereafter.
If the user interacts with the NM applet, NM will bump the scan interval back
to 20 seconds, and immediately scan if no scan was done in the past 20 seconds.
 This should fix many of the complaints about the speed of updating.

The other issue might be the driver; some drivers (especially mac80211 based
ones in recent kernels like ipw4965) are still buggy and don't report complete
scan results when asked to scan. You can test this by executing (as root)
"/sbin/iwlist <wlan interface> scan" and seeing how many APs you get back, and
comparing that against how many you expect to get back. If the driver is
broken, then NM certainly isn't going to work very well.

I think that those changes are probably a great solution to the issue, so I've asked which version of NetworkManager includes those changes, and will make note of that here when I get a response.

This isn't adequate. I leave my computer on so it will have no network connection and be at the 120 second interval when I get to work and turn my local AP on. 20 seconds is also a long time. Just try waiting 20 seconds from now before you read the next paragraph.

The only way currently is to right click and disable and reenable wireless. This is inefficient and stupid.

And it isn't a driver problem. "sudo iwlist scan" ALWAYS shows the network, and it is marked auto.

If I knew what the supersecret magic dbus incantation to get it to rescan, I would code it as a launcher, but it would still belong as part of the applet.

This goes back to Gutsy and is not yet fixed in Karmic. Supposedly it is fixed in the Gnome branch but is a wontfix here?

It is still stupid that I have to disable and enable wireless just to see my access point when I can watch windows, two cell phones, Mac OSX and everything else find it in under 2 seconds.

Try holding your breath for 20 seconds (use a stopwatch or a seconds display).

But that is only sometimes and if I activate the applet - it still takes 2 minutes to "automatically" find an AP even when it is completely disconnected.

You don't like or want to put in manual scans? THEN FIX THE AUTOMATIC SCAN!