Netowork Manager not running (minimal VM)

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Fabrizio Romano Genovese

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Jan 4, 2018, 6:46:07 AM1/4/18
to qubes-users
I am trying to set up a sys-net based on fedora-26-minimal. I installed all the suggested packages in https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/fedora-minimal/

When I start sys-net I can see the network-manager applet, but if I click on it it says "NetworkManager is not running..."

If I manually give
sudo NetworkManager then I can see all the wireless networks I usually see in my place (hence the network card is recognized) but when I try to connect to one of them I receive the message
(1) Not authorized to control networking.

I suspect there is some service that needs to be started when the VM boots that I haven't specified, but I don't know how to proceed.

Cheers,
Fab

awokd

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Jan 4, 2018, 9:19:29 AM1/4/18
to Fabrizio Romano Genovese, qubes-users
On Thu, January 4, 2018 11:46 am, Fabrizio Romano Genovese wrote:


> I suspect there is some service that needs to be started when the VM
> boots that I haven't specified, but I don't know how to proceed.

Try adding NetworkManager to the Services tab on your sys-net VM?

Fabrizio Romano Genovese

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Jan 5, 2018, 6:17:58 AM1/5/18
to qubes-users
yes, I have network-manager listed in the services tabs for sys-net (I suppose that this what the service you were referring to. adding NetworkManager causes the VM startup to fail).

Moreover, if I try to use the same template for sys-usb and then try to open some usb stick, I get the message:

Not authorized to perform operation (polkit authority not available and caller is not uid0), so again an authorization issue. I suspect this may have something to do with the procedure to make the minimal template passwordless ( https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/vm-sudo/ )

If someone has some insight about this I'd really appreciate it :)

Cheers,
Fab

Fabrizio Romano Genovese

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Jan 5, 2018, 6:57:58 AM1/5/18
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Exciting news: I didn't know that polkit was a package, so even if I followed ( https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/vm-sudo/ ) in detail, nothing worked.

Giving sudo dnf install polkit in the minimal template vm solves the authorization problems, both for sys-usb and sys-net.

Now I am able to use the minimal template as the underlying one for sys-usb, but I still have problems with sys-net.

sys-net keeps telling me that NetworkManager is not running. If I open up a terminal and give sudo NetworkManager then i can see the networks clicking on the wifi tray icon, but I can't connect. If I click on a network nothing happens (no error displayed, of any kind. Just nothing).

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Fab

Fabrizio Romano Genovese

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Jan 5, 2018, 11:56:01 AM1/5/18
to qubes-users
Yo everyone,

For future reference, problem solved. The packages
qubes-core-agent-nautilus
qubes-core-agent-networking
qubes-core-agent-network-manager
qubes-core-agent-passwordless-root
qubes-core-agent-dom0-updates
qubes-input-proxy-sender
qubes-usb-proxy
Are not included by default in the minimal template vm. The first one gives you the cute (send here/move there/open in dispVM) stuff in Nautilus.
The next two are (I suppose) to make networking not a pain in the bum.
The fourth one should do what is done in https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/vm-sudo/ for you.
The fifth one is needed if you are setting up a template you'll use as the underlying one for the vm that takes care of updating dom0.
The last two are to set up a template for sys-usb.

All this information was somewhere between here and the github issues page, but it should really (REALLY) be listed in https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/fedora-minimal/ since nearly always one will end up needing at least one of the packages listed above.
At the moment setting up a template based on a minimal fedora distribution looks like a treasure hunt, and I am pretty sure it would save people a lot of energy and time to have this stuff added to the fedora-minimal reference page.

Cheers,
Fab

Unman

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Jan 5, 2018, 2:52:42 PM1/5/18
to Fabrizio Romano Genovese, qubes-users
Fab,

A good part of this information IS on the fedora-minimal page - use the horizontal
scroll on the Customization table to see it.
I except passwordless-root as that's a recent change.
Perhaps that page need some editing to make the information more
readily obvious, although some of it is also on the Packages
Recommendations page.

unman

Fabrizio Romano Genovese

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Jan 5, 2018, 4:46:10 PM1/5/18
to qubes-users
I obviously checked that page (it is the first thing I did, actually). But qubes-core-agent is not mentioned at all there. After hours of research, I stumbled into this thread
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/2771

From here, dnf search qubes-core-agent gave me what I needed. I'd suggest to mention (at least) the existence of the qubes-core-agent-... packages in
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/software-update-vm/

I'd also suggest to mention qubes-core-agent-passwordless-root in
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/vm-sudo/

I am aware that building an entire operating system is a lot of work and there are literally thousands of packages, always changing, to consider. But pages like these should be kept up to date. I wouldn't suggest to edit them (some information that is still useful for previous qubes versions may be lost), but just to index them according to qubes new versions: I'd propose to have a qubes 3.1, a qubes 3.2 and a qubes 4.0 section, for each page.

Cheers,
Fab

awokd

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Jan 5, 2018, 6:28:14 PM1/5/18
to Fabrizio Romano Genovese, qubes-users
On Fri, January 5, 2018 9:46 pm, Fabrizio Romano Genovese wrote:
> I obviously checked that page (it is the first thing I did, actually).
> But qubes-core-agent is not mentioned at all there.

If you have the time, check out
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/doc-guidelines/. I'm sure they'd be happy to
review your changes! I can suggest edits too the same way but coming
straight from someone who did it might be most accurate.


Fabrizio Romano Genovese

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Jan 5, 2018, 8:56:58 PM1/5/18
to qubes-users
Great! I just proposed some changes ^_^
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-doc/pull/508
Cheers,
Fab

awokd

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Jan 6, 2018, 8:17:29 AM1/6/18
to Fabrizio Romano Genovese, qubes-users
On Sat, January 6, 2018 1:56 am, Fabrizio Romano Genovese wrote:
> Great! I just proposed some changes ^_^
> https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-doc/pull/508

Thank you! I think that will help a lot of people.

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