#545143 Pidgin doesn't connect, says "Waiting for network connection"

Package:
pidgin
Source:
pidgin
Description:
graphical multi-protocol instant messaging client
Submitter:
Guy Roussin
Date:
2011-10-18 22:39:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#545143#5
Date:
2009-09-05 10:24:36 UTC
From:
To:
--- Please enter the report below this line. ---
Hi,

$ cd ~
$ rm -rf .purple
I configure my msn account, and all is fine with pidgin.
But if i quit pidgin i can't connect to the msn serveur anymore:
"Available - Waiting for network connection"

I need to quit pidgin, rm -rf .purple, and configure again
my msn account.
I never had this problem with previous version of pidgin.

Thanks,

Guy

Debian Release: squeeze/sid
500 unstable ftp.fr.debian.org
500 stable x2go.obviously-nice.de
500 stable deb.opera.com
500 sid www.lamaresh.net
500 lenny-wx apt.wxwidgets.org
400 unstable www.debian-multimedia.org
200 unstable debian.o-hand.com
100 stable ftp.fr.debian.org
1 experimental ftp.fr.debian.org
--- Package information. ---
Depends (Version) | Installed
===========================================-+-===============
pidgin-data (>= 2.6.1) | 2.6.1-2
pidgin-data (<< 2.6.1-z) | 2.6.1-2
libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0) | 1.26.0-1
libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6~) | 2.9-26
libcairo2 (>= 1.2.4) | 1.8.8-2
libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.0.2) | 1.2.16-2
libdbus-glib-1-2 (>= 0.78) | 0.82-1
libfontconfig1 (>= 2.4.0) | 2.6.0-4
libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1) | 2.3.9-5
libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.16.0) | 2.20.5-1
libgstreamer0.10-0 (>= 0.10.10) | 0.10.24-1
libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0) | 2.16.6-1
libgtkspell0 (>= 2.0.10) | 2.0.13-2
libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0) | 2:1.0.5-1
libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0) | 1.24.5-1
libpurple0 (>= 2.6.0) | 2.6.1-2
libsm6 | 2:1.1.1-1
libstartup-notification0 (>= 0.10) | 0.10-1
libx11-6 | 2:1.2.2-1
libxss1 | 1:1.1.3-1
zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4) | 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-15
gconf2 (>= 2.10.1-2) | 2.26.2-3
perl (>= 5.10.0-25) | 5.10.0-25
perlapi-5.10.0 |


Recommends (Version) | Installed
=========================================-+-===========
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base | 0.10.24-1
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good | 0.10.16-1


Suggests (Version) | Installed
=====================================-+-============
gnome-panel (>= 2.1) | 2.26.3-1
OR kdebase-workspace-bin | 4:4.3.1-1
OR docker | 1.4-3
evolution-data-server (>= 1.10.0) | 2.26.3-1+b1
libsqlite3-0 (>= 3.6.17) | 3.6.17-2

#545143#10
Date:
2009-09-06 04:16:55 UTC
From:
To:
This problem is not specific to msn.  I have aim and yahoo accounts and
see the same behavior.  Since upgrading my packages today (testing
preference with access to unstable) I must remove ~/.purple dir prior to
any start of pidgin or it just sits in Waiting for available network
connection.

#545143#19
Date:
2009-09-06 05:48:56 UTC
From:
To:
retitle 545143 Pidgin doesn't connect, says "Waiting for network connection"
forwarded 545143 http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/9702
thanks

You can force pidgin to ignore Network Manager's status by starting pidgin with -f.

#545143#24
Date:
2009-09-06 11:25:21 UTC
From:
To:
Thanks.  pidgin -f does indeed work around the issue.
#545143#31
Date:
2009-10-02 09:32:33 UTC
From:
To:
Any news of this bug ? He is really really boring, I have created a local user
pidgin binary that do pidgin -f.

Regards

bastien

#545143#38
Date:
2009-11-23 00:07:01 UTC
From:
To:
One other note about this bug - if you have network-manager installed
but not configured with any interfaces, you should purge it from your
system entirely, since it will cause problems with pidgin unless you use -f.

#545143#43
Date:
2009-12-02 01:59:41 UTC
From:
To:
Just one more note about this... guys, if you hit a problem like this again,
don't dive straight in and delete your config. I found that simply disabling
all the active accounts (in the pidgin Accounts menu), then re-enabling them,
in the Pidgin menu, allows it to connect just fine. I've been merrily using
this workaround for weeks before it occurred to me that it was a bit tedious
and I ought to check for bug reports... can't believe people were hosing
their configs as a first resort!

Ben

#545143#50
Date:
2009-12-12 17:53:43 UTC
From:
To:
disabling network manager didn't seem to make a difference for me.
i'm using debian squeeze with kde 4.2.
The only way I can connect is by un-checking the connect status of the
account and re-checking it again
(after all the other bad connections are un-checked).
And hosing your .purple directory does nothing to help the situation.
And it seems to not matter which protocol I am using (gtalk, aim, or yahoo).

#545143#55
Date:
2009-12-12 19:47:33 UTC
From:
To:
It's not enough to disable Network Manager. As the bug summary says, you
must purge it from your system entirely or run pidgin with -f.

#545143#60
Date:
2009-12-26 22:11:40 UTC
From:
To:
Same issue here. I suspect it's not pidgin's fault per se. Previous
versions 2.4.x, 2.5.x, 2.6.x (updated frequently from sid), and even the
current 2.6.4-1 all worked fine for me until I upgraded some other
libraries from sid last week. I guess a library pidgin depends on are
moving too fast forward to cause this network connection issue. But
sorry I don't have time to track it down.

Have to use "pidgin -f" to work around the problem. Very annoying.

Gordon

#545143#67
Date:
2010-04-01 17:30:00 UTC
From:
To:
Some random thoughts:
a) It is not needed to disable all accounts and reenable all of them again. If you disable and reenable one, that one will connect even if the others are still "Waiting for..."
b) Network Manager is a dependency of a lot of packages, like network-manager-gnome which is a recommendation of gnome package itself. So it is not always a good idea to purge it.
c) Final users do not want to hand-type 'pidgin -f' but to click on the pidgin icon and have it working, or just to have it reconnect when they close session and relogin next day

Just my two cents

Noel

#545143#72
Date:
2010-04-02 18:13:51 UTC
From:
To:
I worked this around with the following steps:
a) mv /usr/bin/pidgin /usr/bin/pidgin.real
b) create new /usr/bin/pidgin with contents:
#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/pidgin.real -f $@
c) chmod a+x /usr/bin/pidgin

It looks as fixed (even if bug is not yet fixed).

Regards

#545143#77
Date:
2010-06-22 16:29:57 UTC
From:
To:
Create a launcher for pidgin and change the
command from 'pidgin' to 'pidgin -f'.

1.  Applications / Internet
2.  Right click on 'Pidgin Internet Messenger'
3.  Select 'Add launcher to panel'
4.  Right click on the newly added Pidgin icon
5.  Select properties
6.  Make the command 'pidgin -f'

#545143#82
Date:
2010-06-30 20:00:44 UTC
From:
To:
I confirm this issue, with both XMPP and GG on a system with a static
(globally routable) IP.  I also confirm that starting pidgin with -f
works around it.

                                        Juliusz

#545143#87
Date:
2010-08-09 18:43:32 UTC
From:
To:
I manage to fix this problem with information from this bug #530024
eth0 Wired interface not managed (on squeeze install/upgrade). I modify
/etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf to
[ifupdown]
managed=true

I do not know if this the right solution but it works for me.

#545143#92
Date:
2010-11-18 06:20:16 UTC
From:
To:
I'm having this problem as well.  Let me give you some details.
To reproduce:

1. Install Debian Squeeze Beta 1.  Configure the system with a static IP address
(that part is important).

2. Boot into new system, apply all updates and fixes (apt-get update, upgrade, etc).

3. Install Pidgin through package management.

4. Open Pidgin, configure a Gmail (or Googletalk) account.  I'm able to send and receive messages
successfully now (verified it works).

5. Close Pidgin.

6. Open Pidgin.  I'm just "Available - Waiting for network connection".  Now if I delete and
fill out the Googletalk account again I _will_ be able to connect.


Some things you might like to know:

nlandys@cecil% ps aux | grep -i network
root      1696  0.0  0.0  70500  4416 ?        Ss   21:56   0:00 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager
nlandys   2636  0.0  0.0   7548   876 pts/4    S+   22:11   0:00 grep -i network



So NetworkManager _is_ running.

nlandys@cecil% cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet static
	address 192.168.0.9
	netmask 255.255.255.0
	network 192.168.0.0
	broadcast 192.168.0.255
	gateway 192.168.0.254
	# dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
	dns-nameservers 192.168.0.254
	dns-search i




Yes, it's a static IP address.


nlandys@cecil% cat /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false




Yes, I don't want NetworkManager to control my statically assigned IP interface.

Note: I _did_not_ alter my /etc/network/interfaces _or_ my NetworkManager.conf after
installing Debian Squeeze Beta 1.

One more thing just to state the obvious.  My NetoworkManager applet (in Gnome)
says:

Wired Network
  device not managed


Now I also reported a similar problem with Empathy earlier but the bug was closed out by
Jonny Lamb.  This was bug 602990.  Please realize that many people will be configuring their
Debian boxes with static IP addresses, and those people will have these problems.  I don't
consider these problems fixed.

#545143#97
Date:
2010-11-18 07:39:59 UTC
From:
To:
By the way I solved my problem by completely nuking anything
NetworkManager-related from my system via package management (-purge or
"remove with configuration files").

However, think about the thousands of users that will be installing Debian.
They might not know how to fix this (unless they're advanced).  They will
get a very bad impression of Linux because of issues like this.

#545143#106
Date:
2011-09-24 23:47:31 UTC
From:
To:
I just got hit by this bug and can confirm that Ben Wheeler's workaround, to
disable all accounts then re-enable them, works. Also, I did not need to
restart pidgin between disabling and re-enabling.

#545143#113
Date:
2011-10-18 22:34:50 UTC
From:
To:
forcemerge 545143 645739
thanks

If you want to run NM for some reason, make sure it's set up to ignore
interfaces that you've set up manually.