From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On 3/21/26 12:58 PM, George Garth wrote:

For several hours today, I was seeing a question mark connection icon at
the top right of the screen instead of the "triangle" (triangle being whatever you want to call it).

I thought maybe my connection was offline (sometimes happens) and so
shut down for a few hours.-a When rebooting, I found the same question mark.-a On a whim, decided to check email and NO message saying their was
no connection and the account checked as normal.-a I then opened the
browser and was able to navigate normally.

Checking, I came across instructions here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1029361/question-mark-icon-instead-of- wifi-icon

I implemented the accepted answer (turning off connectivity checking and rebooting) but only leaving the value OFF is the connection icon back to normal.-a If I turn on connectivity checking, it soon becomes a question mark once again.

Not sure what's going on, so appreciate any help in advance.-a Everything seems normal other than the question mark.

Thank you.

Interesting. It may have something to do with missing update. I did a software check and, low and behold, a network manager update was
available. I did the installation and all seems normal now with the connectivity checking back on.

I did some software updating recently, but sometimes not all updates
arrive simultaneously. I think that's what happened here.
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Sat, 3/21/2026 1:10 PM, George Garth wrote:

On 3/21/26 1:06 PM, George Garth wrote:

On 3/21/26 12:58 PM, George Garth wrote:

For several hours today, I was seeing a question mark connection icon at the top right of the screen instead of the "triangle" (triangle being whatever you want to call it).

I thought maybe my connection was offline (sometimes happens) and so shut down for a few hours.-a When rebooting, I found the same question mark.-a On a whim, decided to check email and NO message saying their was no connection and the account checked as normal.-a I then opened the browser and was able to navigate normally.

Checking, I came across instructions here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1029361/question-mark-icon-instead-of- wifi-icon

I implemented the accepted answer (turning off connectivity checking and rebooting) but only leaving the value OFF is the connection icon back to normal.-a If I turn on connectivity checking, it soon becomes a question mark once again.

Not sure what's going on, so appreciate any help in advance.-a Everything seems normal other than the question mark.

Thank you.

Interesting.-a It may have something to do with missing update.-a I did a software check and, low and behold, a network manager update was available.-a I did the installation and all seems normal now with the connectivity checking back on.

I did some software updating recently, but sometimes not all updates arrive simultaneously.-a I think that's what happened here.

I spoke too soon as the question mark icon has returned.-a Will reboot since I just did a software update and see if the issue is resolved.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NetworkManager

4.17 Checking connectivity

NetworkManager can try to reach a webserver after connecting to a network in order to
determine if it is e.g behind a captive portal. The default host (configured in

/usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity.conf

is ping.archlinux.org (a CNAME alias of redirect.archlinux.org). [Yours will be different]

You can use DownDetector or similar, to see if the node identified in the connectivity.conf
is available at the moment.

Microsoft also uses a "designated node" for connectivity check, so the concept of doing this is implemented in more than one place. The web page delivered when contacting the web server has to be of minimal size -- fitting into one packet
is highly desirable from a performance engineering perspective at the
corporate server they are using. Such a site needs load balancing and multiple hardware instances, to give "good connectivity behavior".

*******

The stage before this is:

4.14 NetworkManager-wait-online

and first the machine becomes as ready as it can, before it advances to
do the 4.17 part. There is a time constant that can be set for 4.14 .

*******

Also note, that with the number of "parallel" pieces of software, a distro doesn't have to use Network Manager. This is purely a guess on my part
as to what your distro uses at the moment.

On the one hand, we "must have innovation", where a new software adds
something to the ecosystem never seen before, something of value. I
do not like the practice of "Xeroxing the shit out of someone elses work"
and then "two clots must be supported in package management",
because the tree-herders decide to support both and then the
users are like "why did you do this ?". That's why at one time,
I would be more confident you would have Network Manager (which
strictly speaking wasn't necessary in the first place, networking
worked just fine thanks before NM, but I'm just being a grouch). But
once I see comments about "well, you could have this or you could
have that and then the solution is this or that", now I'm getting
angry again.

The reason NM got under my skin, is on the very first release,
the underneath layers were UP. But Firefox would not work,
because Firefox asked NM for status and NM said "DOWN". I could
test the network and see it was working, but Firefox would *not*
do a blasted thing, because Firefox trusted NM. Sure, that got
fixed, but that was a "pretty bad smell" at launch. When you pull
a switcheroo, from a Public Relations point of view, it
really really has to work, ya know ?

Paul


--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2