Bug 232469

Summary:	connecting to weather data providers unreliable when kded4 is running
Product:	[Unmaintained] plasma4	Reporter:	Martin Steigerwald <Martin>
Component:	widget-weather	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	normal	CC:	aseigo, kralan, lkml, marcus, shawn.starr
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian testing
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Martin Steigerwald 2010-03-28 14:43:31 UTC

Version: (using KDE 4.4.1)
OS: Linux
Installed from: Debian testing/unstable Packages

I separate the finding that killing kded4 "fixes" connecting to weather providers from bug #230429 which is about user feedback regarding building up a connection to a weather provider.

As x545 found out and I confirmed, it seems that the weather applet has trouble connecting to most of the in-built weather providers as long as kded4 is running. Killing kded4 "fixes" this, but is not an option since then other important stuff does not work anymore.

------- Comment #2 From x545 2010-03-28 01:35:10 (-) [reply] -------
I made a startling discovery: when I kill kded4 the applet immediately shows the weather. Maybe there is some kind of race?

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=230429#c2

------- Comment #4 From Martin Steigerwald 2010-03-28 14:10:05 (-) [reply] -------
Yes, that works for me, too. I know was able to find Nürnberg via wetter.com!
Great discovery. Thanks!

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=230429#c4

------- Comment #5 From Martin Steigerwald 2010-03-28 14:33:03 (-) [reply] -------
There is one big problem with the work-around:

Other parts of KDE do not work as expected anymore: KMail doesn't remember to use my outdated self signed SSL certificates anyway anymore, Konqueror doesn't remember that I am logged in to bugs.kde.org...

I thought once I configured the applet, it might work with kded4 too, thus I logged out and in again to have kded4 started again. Well then the applet cannot connect to wetter.com. It says that it ran into a timeout.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=230429#c5

I am using KDE 4.4.2 rc packages from qt-kde.debian.net (experimental-snapshots):

martin@shambhala:~> apt-show-versions | egrep "(plasma-widgets-addons|kdelibs5/)"
kdelibs5/experimental-snapshots uptodate 4:4.4.2-0rc1
plasma-widgets-addons/experimental-snapshots uptodate 4:4.4.2-0rc1

Comment 1 kralan 2010-04-16 02:05:03 UTC

I had the same symptoms (no data for Weather Applet, data appearing after killing kded4).
Occasionally, also the Comic Applet would refuse to connect.

NetworkManager being notorius for problems and not really needed in my setup, I uninstalled it and everything now works just fine with kded4 running.

My system is KDE 4.4.2 from Debian experimental.

Comment 2 Martin Steigerwald 2010-04-16 10:42:48 UTC

Thanks for your hint, Kralan.

Hmmm, I had network-manager running but I did not use it for eth0. For eth0 I just used an "iface eth0 inet dhcp" entry in /etc/network/interfaces together with ifplugd. Thus I doubt that it has to do with Network Manager, except when the weather (and the comic) plasmoid specifically ask Network Manager whether the machine is online or not. Firefox / Iceweasel has such problems when not defining a certain config options:

[Bug 424626] (linux) Firefox is put into offline mode on startup when NetworkManager is running but not controlling the active network interface (e.g. when using PPP)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424626

My oppinion regarding this is: If Network Manager doesn't know the state of an interface it should report "unknown". And then its up to the application to decide.

Just yesterday I also switched eth0 to Network Manager. And indeed this fixes up my weather provider connection problem with weather plasmoid.

Thus I think this is quite similar to the Firefox/Iceweasel issue when Network Manager is running but not controlling *all* interfaces.

As such this probably should be reassigned to some more general component of KDE. I would like to have some setting in KDE as long as Network Manager insists on "offline" when it just doesn't know that cause it knows that it is not controlling all interfaces.

Weather plasmoid could provide such a setting "Use Network Manager for online detection" as well, but I really think this should be put at a more general place.

Comment 3 Martin Steigerwald 2010-04-16 10:43:41 UTC

PS: I am using KDE 4.4.2 from Debian Experimental as well.

Comment 4 Dominik Schulz 2010-05-06 15:06:40 UTC

I'm affected by this bug, too. Uninstalling NetworkManager resolves the issue but please do not rely on NetworkManager to determine if the system if online or not. Any if you do, please give a helpful message informing the user about the fact that NetworkManager thinks that the system is offline!

Comment 5 Aaron J. Seigo 2010-05-08 17:58:01 UTC

this is a system configuration issue; we rely on a well configured system such that Solid can track network status. sorry :(