Why does NetworkManger pop up nmcheck.org even when i have correctly set up the configuration with uri set on Fedora 35?

Question

I have been facing problem where a default browser window pops up saying nmcheck.gnome.org and then immediately closes. Also the gnome wifi icon at the top right has a question mark on it. I know that I am connected to the internet because I have verified it. Where is the problem and how do I solve it?

I have created the following changes in the previous attempts to solve it:

A /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/99-conectivity.conf file (Yours might be named differently) and have set the following contents.

[connectivity]
uri=http://nmcheck.gnome.org/check_network_status.txt

also I have added the above to /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

Answer 1

The origin of the problem was that the server was responding with a 302 redirect to the https endpoint instead of 200 with the content. Is already fix (Dec 2022) and it should work with your configuration.

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As of today Dec 13, 2022 the response from the nmcheck.gnome.org servers does not return the header "X-NetworkManager-Status", and that seems to affect the behavior of NetworkManager.

According to the documentation of NetworkManager this is not necessary but it does not work correctly, in comparison the servers of ubuntu return the right header but an empty content which makes NetworkManager happy (at least in version 1.40.6 of NM).

Adding

uri=http://connectivity-check.ubuntu.com/
response=

to the file /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity.conf fixes the problem.

Edit: In closer inspection, the response of nmcheck.gnome.org with http is a redirect to https, simply using uri=https://... would work if you are don't have to sign in a network, but in many cases that first request under https wouldn't work. So, stay with the ubuntu servers for now until gnome fixes the response.

You can also use another site like http://httpbin.org/, http://example.org/ or anything similar with the appropiate content or just an empty response would pass.

Edit: The servers of gnome where fixed today Dec 16, 2022 and it now respondes to http requests with the right content and not a 302 redirect, so using uri=http://nmcheck.gnome.org/check_network_status.txt should work now.

Answer 2

And here is the solution for the problem. It happens due to mixup of your configuration and the system configuration set by fedora. Simple enough delete all the made file that you made because fedora already has its own nmcheck url in the file /lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity-fedora.conf

You can see it for yourself by the command NetworkManager --print-config. It mashes up your and system configuration together. After the changes just restart network manager by sudo systemctl restart NetworkManger or even better restart the system.

Your problem should be gone now and no more popups should appear. You can also disable this network checking behavior but for that you will have to look onto another guide.