Constant network errors: "Connection Failed"

Ask Fedora
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1

Fedora 39 Workstation - Lenovo Yoga 7 16"

I run a VPN 24/7, I use built in VPN option in system tray (top right corner drop down), I dont use any 3rd party VPN apps.

I have 6 or 7 VPN locations to choose from, all of which are Wireguard protocol (downloaded configs from VPN supplier)

I get great speeds and generally it works great, way better than their 3rd party app ran on my Mac (although it was on an unsupported OS).

I get repeated notifications like this:

Screenshot from 2024-02-26 13-19-01

I get them when the machine is locked, and also when it’s unlocked. Once I am busy using the machine they tend to stop, but if it sleeps, they start appearing again for a while.

I have tried all the different connections, they all do it.

But the connection errors seem wrong, as even when I have one hovering at the top of the screen I can get to websites fine, and an IP check confirms I am connected via the chosen VPN connection.

Any ideas what’s causing this? thanks

2

When a machine suspends or sleeps the network is disabled, then re-enabled when the machine wakes up. This includes vpns which depend upon the network interface to be functional.

3

Thanks.

So it’s just detecting those interrupts? If so, understood. Whilst I generally like that feature for privacy/security, i wonder if there will be instances where I’d like network connectivity to remain during sleep, such as to hear Signal calls or Transmission downloads or similar. Is that doable if desired?

Thanks again

4

You could configure the ethernet port with wake-on-lan, but I don’t think that is possible with wifi interfaces.

5

Interesting thanks. I don’t use wifi at all. So that would keep the ethernet connecton live through suspends?

6

Wake-on-Lan should allow the ethernet connection to wake the machine from sleep/suspend.

Note that apps on the suspended system would not be active and could not trigger the wake up, only an external connection could do that.

7

Ah ok, probably of little use to me then, worth knowing about though thanks

8

I should follow up here. These notifications do not come due to sleep/wake. They come fast and furious all day long while I am sat here working

9

Consider upgrading to Fedora 40 as the issue should be solved there.

10

I am using Fedora 40 Workstation and have been since release. Maybe a recent update fixed it, i could try turning notifications back on if so!
thanks

11

I have never tried WoW on my personal systems, but enterprise sites with managed Windows laptops use it to push updates.

WoW (Wake on Wireless) is available with the right hardware in linux, see https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/configure-wireless-wake-on-lan-for-linux-wifi-wowlan-card/ for examples. iw list on my late 2012 iMac (with Apple firmware updates) using akmod-wl.x86_64 the shows:

 WoWLAN support:
                 * wake up on disconnect
                 * wake up on magic packet
                 * can do GTK rekeying
                 * wake up on GTK rekey failure
                 * wake up on EAP identity request
12

You might find some indication for the source and timing of these notifications using journalctl. If the timing follows a regular period there may be some inactivity interval triggering the connection failure. Timeouts with terminal sessions used to monitor processing on remote systems needed a script that pinged the remote periodically. Some VPN software has “keepalive” settings.

13

Sometimes this error / notification may be an indication of a failing adapter, a corrupt driver on your PC (unlikely), or a need to reboot the router/AP.

The router is simply another computer with a specialized purpose and it also sometimes may get a corrupted config or cache that interferes. It only takes a few moments to reboot and might solve the issue entirely.

14

Sorry, double dutch to me.

Not sure how else to say this, but I said I am ‘busy’ on the machine all day, i.e. typing typing typing… and these notifications would pop up while I am busy hitting keys and moving mouse. There’s no inactivity issue here.

That said, I haven’t seen it for a while as i turned on the do not disturb function, i will turn it off and see if it returns
thanks

15

Thanks but no, definitely no!
I work on machine 16+ hours per day 7 days a week. I have about 10 different machines in the home, all using the very same VPN (even same WG configs). I have never ever seen any such problems on any machine, until Fedora using WG via NM. It’s a Gnome issue I am sure, but I am absolutely certain it’s not a router issue.

16

Added f40, gnome-settings

17

Some systems are configured to drop network connections when there has been no traffic for the configured time interval. If your typing is generating traffic on the connections that are being dropped then it is likely not a network activity issue.

1 Like
18

Interesting to learn that thanks. Yes, 99% of my typing is online in active browser tabs, so i don’t think it’s a genuine connection/activity issue, i assumed it’s just a minor bug where WHEN using VPN via NM, it reports as such for some reason.
that said, I turned off DND last night and so far today no notifications, maybe they did ‘fix’ it after all, cool :slight_smile: