Bug 209464

This report reminds me the old bug #158710.

*** Bug 223421 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I have the same issue in Kubuntu Karmic. If I enter the details of the connection in knetworkmanager and then use the following the terminal it finds the signal:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan essid HIDDEN_SSID

where HIDDEN_SSID is the nonbroadcasting signal you wish to connect to.

Seems to be broken everywhere in KDE-4...e.g. MEPIS (KDE-4.3.4), sidux (KDE-4.3.4), openSUSE(KDE-4.4.0), etc.

[It has been working well in Windows-XP for at least a decade.  And, it works
in KDE-3.x.  So, all you'll have to do is see if you can get it working
in KDE-4.x, one of these releases.  Don't look now...they're all laughing
at you. One of these years, KDE-4 will be ready for prime-time. ;^) ]

I was having this problem in Kubuntu 9.10 and still see it in 10.04 beta today. I would really like to see this bug resolved as I use two wireless networks with hidden SSIDs (where I'm not allowed to just change router config). So far I've worked around it by installing the network manager from Gnome, but it is not really a satisfying solution.

Now I've voted for the bug but would like to do more (if possible) to get this fixed, and I thought moving the bug from NEW to VERIFIED might be a good start? I have no experience at all, if that isn't already clear :)

I would like this bug to be solved. I moved to gnome nm-client instead.
I am using openSuSE 11.2. I have no problem in implementing this and submitting.
I will try investigating NetworkManager log files and see if I can help.

If someone knows what should be done, I would be more than happy to resolve and submit, after verifying.

The same for me, Lucid Lynx. Please, fix it so we can stop using nm-applet from Gnome...

Thanks a lot.

And, ditto for openSUSE-11.3(milestone 6).

Please fix this, so every distro doesn't need to keep working around it.

(In reply to comment #8)
> Please fix this, so every distro doesn't need to keep working around it.

Is there a known work around please?

Unfortunatly you have to use a different software.

I think the reason could be find here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=158710
I really hope that devs will change idea soon or later :-(

being a bit curious about this old issue I've done some tests (usually I don't use the kde on my laptop so it just works).

I've installed archlinux with the latest kde and networkmanager packages (KDE SC 4.4.3 and networkmanager 0.8)

Knetworkmanager/networkmanager-plasmoid is able to connect to the hidden network. I've only had to manually set up the wlan0  the first time (ifconfig wlan0 up). On the following reboot the connection was automatically activated.

It seems working.

Am 06.05.2010 17:08, schrieb FiNeX:
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=209464
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Comment #11 from FiNeX<finex finex org>   2010-05-06 17:08:51 ---
> being a bit curious about this old issue I've done some tests (usually I don't
> use the kde on my laptop so it just works).
>
> I've installed archlinux with the latest kde and networkmanager packages (KDE
> SC 4.4.3 and networkmanager 0.8)
>
> Knetworkmanager/networkmanager-plasmoid is able to connect to the hidden
> network. I've only had to manually set up the wlan0  the first time (ifconfig
> wlan0 up). On the following reboot the connection was automatically activated.
>
> It seems working.
>
>    
the problem is not hidden networks
the problem is connecting for the _first time_ to a hidden, _secured_ 
network, i.e. no configuration data saved.

This bug is really annoying.
Voting for solution :D!

Waited more than 6 months to try Wubi and Kubuntu with an automatic wireless connection.  Totally disappointed.  This is more frustrating than anything Microsoft has done to me in a year.  The "subo iwlist" did not work. with 10.04. I see my network in the list from the command but it does not appear in the list for the tray.  It does not appear any where I looked.  I have a hidden SSID with WPA2 and a custom passphrase.  Guess the laptop will be a Microsoft only box for a while longer.

There are tens of comments on the downstream Kubuntu bug report for this issue, in case it's not apparent how annoying it is... https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-widget-networkmanagement/+bug/422174

This bug is embarrassing! How is it possible that its severity is "normal"???

(In reply to comment #16)
> How is it possible that its severity is "normal"???

Because users are not allow to change it :/

Upping priority. We really need to fix this one, fully agree.

*** Bug 246422 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I have the same problem within Kubuntu 10.10 (KDE SC 4.5).
I configured a Wireless network with SSID and WPA Personal key.
When the network is not hidden i can connec it just fine!
But, when i hide the wireless network, it doesn't work (i can't connect).

Please, find the issue and correct it as soon as you guys can. I'd like to disconnect the LAN cable to use wireless only connection.

Thanks.

on kubuntu 10.10, out of the box, network manager or nm-applet is unable to apply essid and wpa2 personal password to attach to hidden essid wireless router, playing with /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to contain the line ap_scan=2 as in:

     1  ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
     2  ap_scan=2
       
     3  network={
     4          ssid="myfi"
     5          scan_ssid=1
     6          proto=RSN
     7          key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
     8          pairwise=CCMP TKIP
     9          group=CCMP TKIP
    10          #psk="secret"
    11          psk=[use wpa_passphrase(8)]
    12  }

and then calling:

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd

did cause the hidden essid network to show up in nm-applet

I also adjusted the 'managed=true' option in 
/etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

     1  # This file is installed into /etc/NetworkManager, and is loaded by 
     2  # NetworkManager by default.  To override, specify: '--config file' 
     3  # during NM startup.  This can be done by appending to DAEMON_OPTS in 
     4  # the file:
     5  #
     6  # /etc/default/NetworkManager
     7  #
       
     8  [main]
     9  plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
       
    10  [ifupdown]
    11  managed=false

Perhaps, something needs to change in one or some of the files listed by

# dpkg -L network-manager |nl

or

# dpkg -L wpasupplicant |nl

Hope this helps.

Many thanks to "s" comment #21.

I tested and managed to make it work ! I've been searching the net for almost two weeks and tested not working fixes...

Also, after that successful test I did not re-use the wpa_supplicant command line, and it works fine as well :-)

I guess the only thing we need to adjust is the option 'managed=false' for 'managed=true' in the file /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

Yannick's successful test is confirmed. 

To repeat the test, I set the file to contain the line as follows:

# /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
# managed=true

and I made sure the following file had nothing but:

# /etc/network/interfaces 
     1  auto lo 
     2  iface lo inet loopback

Not knowing which services to restart, I gave the whole system a restart.

After logging on, to get the hidden wireless access point to show-up in nm-applet, I called

# wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd

and configured nm-applet. After some delay, there was a password prompt.
But the connection attempt got no further.

I gave the whole system a restart.

After logon, I was prompted for password and wireless just connected automatically.

It works. Thanks Yannick.

On a Kubuntu 10.10 (KDE 4.5.1) system I was able to connect to a wireless network with the ESSID turned off by first issuing the following command:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan essid <HIDDEN_ESSID_NAME>

This caused the network to show up in the plasma-widget. At this point I could configure the network and connect to it normally.

I can confirm the workaround in comment #24 also works on Kubuntu 10.10 and KDE 4.5.4.

This bug is open for over a year... is anyone working on fixing it? Is there an inherent difficulty that requires help or testing?

To begin to apply the bug fix, naively I can go to:

--- 1. http://www.kubuntu.org/
--- 2. click contribute
--- 3. https://wiki.kubuntu.org/BugSquad

or

1. dlocate /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
2. dpkg -L network-manager | nl
3. nl /usr/share/doc/network-manager/AUTHORS 
     1  Current authors:
     2  Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com>
     3  Tambet Ingo <tambet@gmail.com>
       
     4  Previous authors:
     5  Robert Love <rml@novell.com>
4. and then ask the AUTHORS how best to take the next steps...

[ platform: kubuntu 10.10 amd64 ; OS: Linux ]

<quote comment="contactingAuthors">

Hello Dan & Tambert:

I write to you as you are listed as authors of

- the package "network-manager"
- as listed in "/usr/share/doc/network-manager/AUTHORS"
- on platform linux, kubuntu 10.10, amd64

a bug fix has been found for the problem concerning use of hidden
essid as described at

- https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=209464

would you be the best people to ask to begin to apply bug fix?

Thank you in advance for your time and attention.

</quote>

update: use of ap_scan=2 isn't correct, instead use

ap_scan=1 # at top of wpa_supplicant config
scan_ssid=1 # in known hidden network block, this does a probe-scan

# sudo iwlist wlan0 scan essid <HIDDEN_ESSID_NAME>

I suppose the above does a probe-scan of hidden essid which makes visible the essid
in the network-manager user interface.

<paraphrasing author="Dan">
network-manager (NM) development branch will fix this with support of
wpa_supplicant 0.7.x and higher, earlier wpa_supplicant don't have
probe-scan capability, the probe-scan functionality will go in soon 
</paraphrasing>

update: noticing iwlist belongs to wireless-tools package 

and not wpasupplicant package, in case it helps by avoiding dependency on wpasupplicant, have asked author whether network manager user interface could be made to call

# sudo iwlist wlan0 scan essid <HIDDEN_ESSID_NAME>

As you might have seen, we already added some UI for this case, but haven't gotten around to implementing it in the stack. This lacking feature is also the reason why we've not made a release of the networkmanager thing for KDE yet.

If you'd like to help hacking on it, poke wstephenson on irc, or the networkmanager mailing list.

It's not an omission, or forgotten, just a lack of time.

THanks for coming up with workarounds though, the iwconfig one looks especially easy. :)

*** Bug 259844 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 258978 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I can confirm this bug.
I have the same problem, I can't creating a hidden wifi connection.
A workaround is run this command before creating the connection in NM:
iwlist wlan0 scan essid myessidname

I think this is a huge bug, I hope the bug can be fixed.

Thank you

I can confirm this bug using KDE 4.6 on ArchLinux.
The workaround (command "iwlist wlan0 scan essid myessidname") works for me too.

This bug is embarrassing, I not understand why it wasn't yet fixed or consider.
I stll hope...

As point of reference debian_version 6.0 with NetworkManager Applet 0.8.1 has `Connect to Hidden Wireless Network...' menu option and works out of the box. Although on power suspend then resume, it does not automatically pickup registered details and run. You manually select the entered details. -S

(In reply to comment #36)
> As point of reference debian_version 6.0 with NetworkManager Applet 0.8.1 has
> `Connect to Hidden Wireless Network...' menu option and works out of the box.
> Although on power suspend then resume, it does not automatically pickup
> registered details and run. You manually select the entered details. -S

It also has a problem connecting with the European university wireless network (EDUROAM, which is a hidden network at my campus), in which case the gnome NetworkManager applet works great. It is what I am using currently in KDE to overcome my connection problem,

Hi all,

I encountered other problems that I solved (it took me a long time to find).

1. One day, i was unable to connect to my ESSID with no reason as it used to work everyday. I remembered that Kubuntu had updated packages but nothing else could explain this permanent loss of wireless connection. Hidden or not, my ESSID was undetectable by Networkmanager (iwlist and wpa_supplicant neither).

2. I checked if i could connect with Windows OS but also my gaming console and my phone. It worked for all with a hidden ESSID.

3. Then I had a look at my ISP modem's setup. I could see that there was no default/fixed channel set (good point as it chooses the channel on which the connection is best). In the list i could see new channels :
- Channel 12 : 2,467 Mhz
- Channel 13 : 2,472 Mhz
- Channel 14 : 2,477 Mhz
The setup indicated that the channel in use was #12.

4. Back into Kubuntu, i typed the command "sudo iwlist wlan0 channel", I got these lines :
wlan0     11 channels in total; available frequencies :
          Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
          Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
          Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
          Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
          Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
          Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
          Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
          Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
          Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
          Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
          Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
          Current Frequency:2.432 GHz (Channel 5)

=> Conclusion : my problem was just a question of channel's detection (my essid was on channel #12 but iwlist was showing only 11 available channels) and then the problem was about finding a fixed channel on which the traffic is okay to avoid loss of connections every minute!

=> This experience is not to mention a bug, but to advice people that can't connect while using commandline "wlist wlan0 scan essid <hidden_essid>" to check the channel on which their ESSID is set (wireless point) and the available channels iwlist lists.

=> Also, I'd like someone to explain me why i can only scan 11 channels instead of 14 under Linux, though i can connect to channel 12 when i'm using Windows OS ? Is it a device driver issue or something else ?

*** Bug 227529 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 256219 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 133900 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I should thank Yannick for the details provided in comment #38. 

My case is: "iwlist wlan0 channel" gives the right channel of 13, but the wrong empty essid name "". After a few failed tries, I specified a fixed channel in the modem setup page instead of auto-detection. After that, everything just works as expected.

Considering the fact that other devices such as android and windows do not run into the same problem, my conclusion is that it is not a software bug, but is more like a specific kernel driver issue (iwl3945 for me).

There are currently different bugs mixed up here.  The original bug was about KDE NM not being able to connect to hidden networks because the GUI was lacking.  This should be fixed in most recent versions according to comment 36.  I saw this menu entry myself but didn't have a chance to try it yet.

Comment 38 is not about hidden ESSIDs anymore.  It might be a limitation introduced by a recent kernel or an updated crda (cf. <http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory/CRDA>).

Anyway, I'm tempted to close this bug as FIXED once I was able to try it out, unless somebody still has trouble connecting to a hidden ESSID with a recent KDE NM.

NO this is not fixed.  I just upgraded to suse 11.4 and had the exact same problem with it as with all the other versions.  Do not close.

Confirm that I can't connect to the hidden network using plasma networkmanager applet. When I type network name and press Enter, nothing happens. Condemned to use gnome nm-applet.

Confirmed. Installed Fedora 15 (with KDE 4.6.3) on a new laptop and couldn't connect to a network with hidden ESSID using KDE networkmanager. After killing it and starting nm-applet, I can connect just fine.

The basic problem of this bug has resurfaced with Fedora 15, kde-plasma-networkmanagement-0.9-0.47.20110323.fc15.1

Also, F15 now has Gnome 3 and I am not interested in testing from that - I trust that it works anyway, as F14 did with kde-plasma-networkmanagement-0.9-0.40.20110323.fc14.

When I try to type in my ESSID in "Enter network name and press <enter>", this shows in .xsession-errors:

Usage: networkmanagement_configshell [Qt-options] [KDE-options] [options] mode 

Create network connections standalone

Generic options:
  --help                    Show help about options
  --help-qt                 Show Qt specific options
  --help-kde                Show KDE specific options
  --help-all                Show all options
  --author                  Show author information
  -v, --version             Show version information
  --license                 Show license information
  --                        End of options

Options:
  --connection <connection-id> Connection ID to edit
  --hiddennetwork <ssid>    Connect to a hidden wireless network
  --type <type>             Connection type to create, must be one of '802-3-ethernet', '802-11-wireless', 'pppoe', 'vpn', 'cellular'
  --specific-args <args>    Space-separated connection type-specific arguments, may be either 'gsm' or 'cdma' for cellular, or 'openvpn' or 'vpnc' for vpn connections, and interface and AP identifiers for wireless connections

Arguments:
  mode                      Operation mode, may be either 'create' or 'edit'

(In reply to comment #47)
> The basic problem of this bug has resurfaced with Fedora 15,
> kde-plasma-networkmanagement-0.9-0.47.20110323.fc15.1
> 
> Also, F15 now has Gnome 3 and I am not interested in testing from that - I
> trust that it works anyway, as F14 did with
> kde-plasma-networkmanagement-0.9-0.40.20110323.fc14.

Easier than I thought - "yum install NetworkManager-gnome", and as I expected nm-applet connected to my wireless just fine. It even saw the Connection Information that was in place from the last time KDE networking was broken and I used nm-applet instead.

I am trying to debug this problem but with NetworkManager-0.9 Plasma NM always shows my hidden AP. Can someone here confirm that this problem does not happen with NM-0.9?

Retested with up-to-date Fedora 15:

kde-plasma-networkmanagement-0.9-0.53.20110616git.nm09.fc15.x86_64
NetworkManager-0.8.9997-5.git20110702.fc15.x86_64
kernel-2.6.38.8-32.fc15.x86_64

On my system it now finds and connects to hidden networks. I'll keep nm-applet off to monitor the situation with other networks.

Some notes for other testers:

 - make sure to delete all existing network connections first. Old connections created by nm-applet seem to confuse kde-plasma-networkmanagement.

 - make sure to delete the folder "Network Management" in your KDE wallet. Old passwords seem to confuse kde-plasma-networkmanagement.

 - (double-)clicking on a new network connection in kde-plasma-networkmanagement doesn't seem to start the connection setup editor. I had to use "Add..." in the Network Management Settings (BUG?)

 - After creating a network connection and entering the password, make sure to toggle the "System Connection" switch in the connection editor ON and then OFF. This makes sure that the password is transferred to your KDE wallet (This seems to be a problem/bug with NetworkManager. Also with nm-applet the passwords are first stored to /etc/system-config/network-scripts and after disabling the "available to all users" switch they are transferred to the GNOME keyring)

(In reply to comment #48)

I'm having the same problem as comment #48. I'm using Kubuntu 11.04 with the KDE Backports PPA - KDE SC 4.6.5. I'm using the package 0.9~svngit20110408-0ubuntu2. I've been having the same issue for a few versions back (KDE's network manager has never been able to connect to a hidden network for me). Gnome's nm-applet is able to connect fine.

Currently, when I click the network manager's icon I have a "<hidden network>" entry. I click on that and it turns into a textbox, where I type in the name of my hidden network and press enter. When I hit enter, nothing happens. The textbox just stays there. I can click away from the popup, and when I open the popup again it is still a textbox. After reading comment 48 I found that I'm getting the same message in my .xsession-errors file at the precise moment that I hit enter (and each subsequent time I try to hit enter).

Another note, I feel it would be very useful if I there were a checkbox in the config for manually adding a hidden network, in which checking the box would make it always available in the connection list.

Thanks for your work!

I was having the same issue reported in this bug and using the iwlist trick worked to allow me to connect using plasma network manager however I had to do this after every reboot which was annoying.  I discovered that the reason was it required the BSSID (obtained once connected by clicking on "Copy current AP's MAC to BSSID).  I use "System Connection" and noticed this was written to the config file at /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/hiddenssid.  Perhaps this should be a mandatory step that the applet does when connecting?

Further to my last comment.  I was playing around with configs and found that it automatically added band=a to the config file mentioned in my last comment, which then broke it again.  At one point just after I had deleted and re-added the config it set this to band=bg which did work.  I changed a setting on the connection and it set it back to band=a which failed again???  I deleted the band option all together after looking at a config gnome nm-applet wrote and it works fine (it doesn't use band) - is this config option even necessary considering it seems to get it wrong and not having it works fine anyway?

James Robertson, do you use NM-0.8 or 0.9?

"Copy current AP's MAC to BSSID", which in current code is called only "Select" binds the connection to that MAC address. If the MAC address changes for any reason (for instance your current AP router broke and you bought a new one) you must manually change that setting again or NetworkManager will refuse to connect. That setting must be used only in special cases, such as in crowed wifi environments with WDS. WDS is a configuration where several AP routers uses the same essid, in that case you may want to fix the connection to a specified AP (the one with strongest signal) instead of roaming between all the access points in the WDS network.

In hidden essid case it seems NetworkManager needs to bind to a specified BSSID to connect.

My NM-0.9's configuration files do not contain the "band" setting. I think that setting is not necessary anymore.

Git commit d119e72811b25d167ee646d831b0aa4bb48f2a15 by Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 07/09/2011 at 10:33.
Pushed by lvsouza into branch 'nm09'.

Make hidden wifi networks work.

BUG: 209464
FIXED-IN: nm09

M  +1    -1    applet/CMakeLists.txt
M  +36   -6    applet/activatablelistwidget.cpp
M  +5    -4    applet/hiddenwirelessnetworkitem.cpp
M  +2    -0    libs/ui/wirelesspreferences.cpp
M  +1    -1    plasma_nm_version.h
M  +3    -8    settings/configshell/main.cpp
M  +25   -1    settings/configshell/manageconnection.cpp
M  +4    -0    settings/configshell/manageconnection.h

http://commits.kde.org/networkmanagement/d119e72811b25d167ee646d831b0aa4bb48f2a15

this solution may work for Fedora however it does not for suse.

You have to recreate the connection by clicking on the <hidden network> item in the connection list.

Git commit 75ed3fbb062a03fa7acaee37ce7d1ccc4745aa2a by Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 09/09/2011 at 05:32.
Pushed by lvsouza into branch 'nm09'.

Fix <hidden network> not responding when entering the ssid.

CCBUG: 209464
CCBUG: 281659

M  +3    -3    applet/hiddenwirelessnetworkitem.cpp
M  +1    -1    plasma_nm_version.h

http://commits.kde.org/networkmanagement/75ed3fbb062a03fa7acaee37ce7d1ccc4745aa2a

I confirm that I have the same problem. Let's see if the update will arrive and work.

This issue is still present on Kubuntu 11.10, please fix it....

Regards,
Jorge

Git commit 39726abaaf3e78390149bedb560fd452fbc74161 by Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 04/02/2012 at 04:40.
Pushed by lvsouza into branch 'nm09'.

Fix wifi hidden network support.

M  +1    -1    plasma_nm_version.h
M  +3    -5    settings/configshell/manageconnection.cpp
M  +2    -2    settings/configshell/manageconnection.h

http://commits.kde.org/networkmanagement/39726abaaf3e78390149bedb560fd452fbc74161

Git commit 8fa2cf50cd9cf9c3a4818c9845660bb5c66a610c by Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 04/02/2012 at 04:35.
Pushed by lvsouza into branch 'master'.

Fix wifi hidden network support. A new QtNetworkManager/libnm-qt snapshot
is also required.

M  +1    -1    plasma_nm_version.h
M  +1    -0    settings/configshell/main.cpp
M  +4    -6    settings/configshell/manageconnection.cpp
M  +2    -2    settings/configshell/manageconnection.h

http://commits.kde.org/networkmanagement/8fa2cf50cd9cf9c3a4818c9845660bb5c66a610c

Many of the mentioned commits here (that claims to fix this issue), in particular d119e72811b25d167ee646d831b0aa4bb48f2a15 can only be found in the nm09 branch of
the networkmanagement repository.

To put an end to this I think the commits (maybe the whole nm09 branch) needs to be merge to master for the fix to reach the distributions (such as kubuntu)

d119e72811b25d167ee646d831b0aa4bb48f2a15 is incorporated into master already, it is just not in the git history. master and nm09 branches work the same way reggarding hidden wifi networks. Anway, master is in development and not for general mainly because libnm-qt and libmm-qt do *not* keep binary compatibility. I am also about to bump the mininal KDE SC version to 4.9.0 in master branch (it is 4.6.0 in nm09 branch).

Doesn't look so to me:

$ git remote -v
origin  git://anongit.kde.org/networkmanagement (fetch)
origin  git://anongit.kde.org/networkmanagement (push)
$ git remote update
Fetching origin
$ git branch -ra --contains d119e72811b25d167ee646d831b0aa4bb48f2a15
  remotes/origin/nm09

If d119e72811b25d167ee646d831b0aa4bb48f2a15 is in master, why is it then not listed then?

Seems like 405c1563 and cdd98456 are the commits that fixes this bug...

opensuse 12.2 kde 4.9.5 nm 0.9.0.7

i create a connection to a hidden wifi network
then
i activate wifi network
then
the hidden wifi network does not appear in the list of the wifi networks

if i set to "automa

if i set to "automaticaly connection"
then
i reboot
then the wifi connection is activated and i can use it

i can't switch from an ethernet or a visible wifi network to a hidden wifi network

the hidden wifi network is well registered

i must be clear.

creating a connection to a hidden wifi network works well.
but
after this connection does not appear in the list of the wifi networks in nm plasmoid.

then you can't switch to it because you can't select it.

I have this problem with Linux Mint 16 KDE Live DVD, using KDE 4.11.2. Is it expected? I had to do "sudo iwlist wlan0 scan essid <my ssid>" to make the system connect to the hidden network once added to the "Connection editor" window, otherwise I could not find any way to do it (there's no "connect" command in the "Connection editor" window and the just added hidden network was not shown in the tray panel for wireless connections).

(In reply to comment #72)
> I have this problem with Linux Mint 16 KDE Live DVD, using KDE 4.11.2. Is it
> expected? I had to do "sudo iwlist wlan0 scan essid <my ssid>" to make the
> system connect to the hidden network once added to the "Connection editor"
> window, otherwise I could not find any way to do it (there's no "connect"
> command in the "Connection editor" window and the just added hidden network
> was not shown in the tray panel for wireless connections).

by "Connectino editor" I am assuming you are using Plasma NM 0.9.8.x. If so then you should check the "hidden" checkbox in the edit connection dialog.

(In reply to comment #73)
> by "Connectino editor" I am assuming you are using Plasma NM 0.9.8.x. If so

Yes, it is NM 0.9.8.0. The window title is "Connectino editor".

> then you should check the "hidden" checkbox in the edit connection dialog.

That did the trick (after some seconds, the new network appeared in the available network list in the tray icon and connection was estabilished), thank you! However, IMHO it's not very intuitive. In fact, I thought that the "Hidden" checkbox were referring to some sort of visibility constraint to the network configuration I was editing, rather than to the SSID of the network itself. After all:
1) if I'm there to configure a new wireless network it's because I need a hidden network which is not listed in the network tray icon (otherwise I would have simply clicked on it from there)
2) isn't the system smart enough to determine whether that network SSID is hidden or not?

Maybe the original intent was to mimic the checkbox "connect even if the SSID is not broadcast" that is in Windows?

I tried to set the "hidden"-checkbox. But although NM said the connection was updated, it always reverted back to unset. Connecting to a hidden network didn't succeed. Also restarting NM didn't help.

Git commit 2abb222f201d481c007e032b4266e6ca4db4249c by Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 04/04/2014 at 21:36.
Pushed by lvsouza into branch '0.9.3'.

Be more informative about what option 'Hidden' do in create wifi connection
dialog.

M  +7    -1    libs/editor/settings/ui/wificonnectionwidget.ui

http://commits.kde.org/plasma-nm/2abb222f201d481c007e032b4266e6ca4db4249c

Git commit d8ea094e60a4fc80fb828b5ca80e5f8b3d97130c by Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 04/04/2014 at 21:36.
Pushed by lvsouza into branch 'master'.

Be more informative about what option 'Hidden' do in create wifi connection
dialog.

M  +7    -1    libs/editor/settings/ui/wificonnectionwidget.ui

http://commits.kde.org/plasma-nm/d8ea094e60a4fc80fb828b5ca80e5f8b3d97130c

(In reply to comment #74)
> (In reply to comment #73)
> > by "Connectino editor" I am assuming you are using Plasma NM 0.9.8.x. If so
> 
> Yes, it is NM 0.9.8.0. The window title is "Connectino editor".
> 
> > then you should check the "hidden" checkbox in the edit connection dialog.
> 
> That did the trick (after some seconds, the new network appeared in the
> available network list in the tray icon and connection was estabilished),
> thank you! However, IMHO it's not very intuitive. In fact, I thought that
> the "Hidden" checkbox were referring to some sort of visibility constraint
> to the network configuration I was editing, rather than to the SSID of the
> network itself. After all:
> 1) if I'm there to configure a new wireless network it's because I need a
> hidden network which is not listed in the network tray icon (otherwise I
> would have simply clicked on it from there)

It is not listed because those kind of network does not broadcast their presence (they are  "hidden"). It is not easy to figure out they are in the neighborhood and doing so is slow and requires more power to the wifi card, which can harm battery time for notebook users.

> 2) isn't the system smart enough to determine whether that network SSID is
> hidden or not?

kind of yes (the algorithm is not reliable). However, as I wrote above enabling the special scan type used to search for them requires more time and power to scan, therefor it is enabled only on demand.
 
> Maybe the original intent was to mimic the checkbox "connect even if the
> SSID is not broadcast" that is in Windows?

I do not know. I, for one, did not add the "Hidden" option to the create wifi dialo. I have just pushed a commit to make it clearer what that option does. I hope that helps.

(In reply to comment #75)
> I tried to set the "hidden"-checkbox. But although NM said the connection
> was updated, it always reverted back to unset. Connecting to a hidden
> network didn't succeed. Also restarting NM didn't help.

Denpending on the wifi card scanning for hidden networks can be tricky. What is your wifi card? Anyway, a NetworkManager log would also be helpfull to figure out what is wrong.

(In reply to comment #78)
> It is not listed because those kind of network does not broadcast their
> presence (they are  "hidden"). It is not easy to figure out they are in the
> neighborhood and doing so is slow and requires more power to the wifi card,
> which can harm battery time for notebook users.

I did not mean that the tray icon should scan for hidden networks, but that I would have expected a behaviour like the one is in Windows or Android (or even in iOS, if I remember well): once I manually add a new network, by specifying its SSID and protection parameters, it is always visible in that tray icon, with just an indication whether it is in range or out of range. If it is in range, I can choose to connect to it (unless auto-connection is enabled for it, in this case it's automatic), otherwise of course I cannot, but the network is still visible for future reference.
 
> > 2) isn't the system smart enough to determine whether that network SSID is
> > hidden or not?
> 
> kind of yes (the algorithm is not reliable). However, as I wrote above
> enabling the special scan type used to search for them requires more time
> and power to scan, therefor it is enabled only on demand.

Here I meant this: once I add a new network by manually configure it, why does the system need to know whether its SSID is hidden or not? I mean, if the specified SSID is among the ones that are currently broadcast, it means it's visible and in range, otherwise if it's in range it means that it is in range but hidden, otherwise it is simply out of range (in this case it's not so interesting to know whether it's hidden or not).

> I do not know. I, for one, did not add the "Hidden" option to the creater
> wifi dialo. I have just pushed a commit to make it clearer what that option
> does. I hope that helps.

I don't have seen the details of your commit yet, but I think it surely helps. Thank you!

Git commit fba7187a6280738f6e2608d9620c2ff24e7f7109 by Jan Grulich, on behalf of Lamarque V. Souza.
Committed on 04/04/2014 at 21:36.
Pushed by grulich into branch 'frameworks'.

Be more informative about what option 'Hidden' do in create wifi connection
dialog.

M  +7    -1    libs/editor/settings/ui/wificonnectionwidget.ui

http://commits.kde.org/plasma-nm/fba7187a6280738f6e2608d9620c2ff24e7f7109