| Summary: | The "connect" context menu entry in the "WiFi & Networking" section when right-clicking a wifi network is sometimes mysteriously missing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Applications] systemsettings | Reporter: | Ellie <el> |
| Component: | kcm_networkmanagement | Assignee: | Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null> |
| Status: | RESOLVED FIXED | ||
| Severity: | minor | CC: | jgrulich, kdedev, nate |
| Priority: | NOR | Keywords: | usability |
| Version First Reported In: | 6.3.5 | ||
| Target Milestone: | --- | ||
| Platform: | Other | ||
| OS: | Linux | ||
| Latest Commit: | https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-nm/-/commit/e9fd4a4302f27f4f7c429ab345b29503683d1404 | Version Fixed In: | 6.5.0 |
| Sentry Crash Report: | |||
| Attachments: | Screenshot with the context menu open and "Connect" missing. Network names have been blanked out via photo editing | ||
|
Description
Ellie
2025-06-04 12:49:16 UTC
Created attachment 182027 [details]
Screenshot with the context menu open and "Connect" missing. Network names have been blanked out via photo editing
Can confirm. I have "Connect" menu items for thew two wifi networks I regularly connect to, while all others lack it. Reading the code, it looks like the menu item gets hidden for networks that aren't actually detected. Which makes sense; you can't connect to a network that isn't currently available! However this isn't great UX, since it's not clear why it's missing. Let's see if we can come up with something better. Maybe disable it and add a tooltip. It seems like viewing the menu doesn't necessarily trigger a timely scan though, or if it does, it's not clear from the UI how long this would take. There's also no button to force a new scan if I know the network is available but wasn't picked up yet, which happens commonly. Perhaps it might make sense to show "Connect" always, and then just trying to re-scan and detect it, and showing some sort of feedback that it's not available if this process fails? A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-nm/-/merge_requests/434 Those are good ideas, and I can think of some others too: - Group networks in the list by availability - Add a "re-scan" button Unfortunately this KCM is pretty old and crusty so there's only so much we can really do with it. It just needs a modern rewrite. Git commit e9fd4a4302f27f4f7c429ab345b29503683d1404 by Nate Graham. Committed on 09/06/2025 at 14:26. Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'. kcm: explain why the "connect" context menu item can't be used Currently this menu item is hidden for networks that aren't detected, which makes sense. However the pattern may not be clear to the user. Instead, disable the menu item instead of hiding it, and add a tooltip explaining why it's disabled. FIXED-IN: 6.5.0 M +4 -1 kcms/kcm_connections/qml/ConnectionItem.qml https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-nm/-/commit/e9fd4a4302f27f4f7c429ab345b29503683d1404 |