WiFi settings are hidden when there is an issue connecting to a WiFi network
Summary
When connecting to a WiFi and something wasn't setup correctly, there is spinner where normally there would be the gear icon which opens the settings for said WiFi. This poor UI design: when it's connecting (but it doesn't actually, because there is an issue with the configuration) then this one of the situations where a user is most likely to desired opening the settings for said wifi. However, as the settings icon is not displayed, the only to go is to deactivate wifi completely and then access the ill-configured networks settings over manage known WiFi menu. Needless to say this is bad UI, one should not hide the configuration of an item in the very moment in which this item doesn't work as intended.
Reproduce
- Open settings/Network
- Add a new WiFi connection but make a mistake, e.g. wrong credentials when usin WPA EAP
- Be in reach for the WiFi, so that actual connection attempts are made
- Observe how the Gears icon disappears once NetworkManager tries to connect, not allowing you to fix the misstake
Proposed fix
My suggestion would be to keep the gear icon at all times, and just make the spinner spin next to it.
My System
I'm running NixOS 21.05:
- system:
"x86_64-linux"
- host os:
Linux 5.12.12, NixOS, 21.05.20210707.c06613c (Okapi)
- multi-user?:
yes
- sandbox:
yes
- version:
nix-env (Nix) 2.4pre20210601_5985b8b
- channels(root):
"nixos-21.05.1268.21b696caf39, nixos-unstable-21.11pre300226.20887e4bbfd"
- channels(wucke13):
"nixos-unstable-21.03pre246062.420f89ceb26, nixpkgs-unstable-19.09pre170896.6e5caa3f8ac, nixos-unstable-small-19.03pre161392.50bb0afa7ce"
- nixpkgs:
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos
With GNOME Shell 40.1
.