Public bug reported:
I repeatedly got this error trying to add a new access point:
```
$ nmcli connection add type wifi ifname wlp128s20f3 con-name Foobar ssid
"Foobar" wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk wifi-sec.psk "hunter2"
Error: Failed to add 'Foobar' connection: Message recipient
```
This access point had English letters in the name. However, I do have
other access points saved. One in particular, `גיזלה אינטרנט פלא` was
recently re-named to have English letters.
After failed many attempts to add the Foobar access point, I connected
to an already-stored access point (my phone) and Claude Code diagnosed
the issue. This is what he said:
You have one broken saved Wi-Fi profile with a Hebrew SSID: גיזלה
אינטרנט פלא
It's stored by netplan at
/etc/netplan/90-NM-487ad2c4-0092-479a-b761-3611b9bf062c.yaml. When
NetworkManager tries to materialize its runtime copy under
/run/NetworkManager/system-connections/, it builds a filename by escaping every
byte of that Hebrew name (215;146;215;153;…, then escaping each ; again as
%3B). That balloons the filename past the 255-byte filesystem limit → File name
too long → NM's keyfile writer hits an assertion and aborts instead of handling
the error gracefully:
```
Failed to create file
"…netplan-NM-487ad2c4-…-215%3B146%3B215%3B153%3B….nmconnection.RS2OS3": File
name too long
nm:ERROR:…/nms-keyfile-writer.c:551: assertion failed
Main process exited, code=dumped, status=6/ABRT
```
Tellingly, nmcli connection show 487ad2c4… says "no such connection
profile" — NM literally can't load it, yet netplan re-feeds it on every
reload, so it re-crashes forever.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 25.10
Package: network-manager 1.52.0-1ubuntu3.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.17.0-35.35-generic 6.17.13
Uname: Linux 6.17.0-35-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.33.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Thu Jul 16 17:34:00 2026
IpRoute:
default via 10.250.58.254 dev wlp128s20f3 proto dhcp src 10.250.58.34 metric
600
10.250.58.0/24 dev wlp128s20f3 proto kernel scope link src 10.250.58.34 metric
600
172.17.0.0/16 dev docker0 proto kernel scope link src 172.17.0.1 linkdown
172.18.0.0/16 dev br-276497e9eedb proto kernel scope link src 172.18.0.1
172.19.0.0/16 dev br-38e16af38107 proto kernel scope link src 172.19.0.1
linkdown
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-nm:
RUNNING VERSION STATE STARTUP CONNECTIVITY NETWORKING WIFI-HW WIFI
WWAN-HW WWAN METERED
running 1.52.0 connected started full enabled enabled
enabled missing enabled no (guessed)
** Affects: network-manager (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug questing wayland-session
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2160998
Title:
Crash loop on long non-English SSID name.
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