Last upgrade crashes network manager (no internet connection, no applet)

The system network services are not compatible with this version??

Cause

This is caused by a regression introduced with a fix for libnl3 bug #1511735.
Resulting network-manager crash has been reported in network-manager bug #1539513 or network-manager bug #1539634


Solution

Downgrade libnl packages and wait for an upgrade of network-manager package


Step 1

Try to downgrade libnl with apt-get as in @Max answer:

sudo apt-get install libnl-3-200=3.2.21-1 libnl-route-3-200=3.2.21-1 libnl-genl-3-200=3.2.21-1

Step 2

If Step 1 fails,
because the packages aren’t anymore in your cache and obviously cannot be downloaded by package manager, you need to downgrade libnl packages manually (download + install):

  • Download and copy them to your system
    [ from booting a live distrib/rescue cd or from another computer + usb stick ]
    Download links for amd64: libnl libnl-genl libnl-route
    Download links for i386: libnl libnl-genl libnl-route
  • Back to your system, where you saved these .deb files, install them with dpkg:
    sudo dpkg -i libnl-*.deb
    

Step 3

Now you should be able to (re)start NetworkManager and bring back networking:

sudo service network-manager restart

Notice

These bugs hits ubuntu trusty 14.04 with Pre-released updates : trusty-proposed (the third option)
Where last update of libnl packages from version 3.2.21-1 to 3.2.21-1ubuntu1 introduced a regression causing network-manager to crash


An update of network-manager is now available in trusty-proposed
Updated version: 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu7.3
please test proposed package (#1539634 comment n°11)


Thus until an upgrade for it triggers on your package manager you should apply a “hold” – as mentioned in libnl3 bug #1511735 comment n°29:

sudo apt-mark hold libnl-3-200 libnl-genl-3-200 libnl-route-3-200

Once the future upgrade from trusty-proposed is installed you can remove that hold with:

sudo apt-mark unhold libnl-3-200 libnl-genl-3-200 libnl-route-3-200

Which then will allow you to upgrade again libnl