nixos/networkmanager: wireless autoconnect not working on boot with ensureProfiles

Nixpkgs version

• Stable (26.05)

Describe the bug

When I use plain Network Manager to connect to my wifi it autoconnects on boot with no issues. When I enable the networking.networkmanager.ensureProfiles option, the autoconnect on boot is no longer working. I couldn't find anything relevant in my system log, so I create this issue here. Connecting manually works fine.

My full config can be found here, but the relevant part is this:

      networking.networkmanager.ensureProfiles = {
        environmentFiles = [ "/secret/wifi.txt" ];
        profiles = {
          home-2 = {
            connection = {
              autoconnect-priority = 0;
              id = "home-2";
              type = "wifi";
            };
            ipv4 = {
              method = "auto";
            };
            ipv6 = {
              addr-gen-mode = "eui64";
              method = "auto";
            };
            wifi = {
              mode = "infrastructure";
              ssid = "home-6";
            };
            wifi-security = {
              key-mgmt = "wpa-psk";
              psk = "$home";
            };
          };
...

Steps to reproduce

1. Use the ensureProfiles config with an environmentFiles option
2. Reboot
3. Wireless not connected on boot

Expected behaviour

Autoconnect working on boot, just like when using NetworkManager without ensureProfiles.

Screenshots

No response

Relevant log output

Additional context

No response

System metadata

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 6.18.38, NixOS, 26.05 (Yarara), 26.05.20260707.0ad6f47
• multi-user?: no
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.34.7
• nixpkgs: /nix/store/7blcfay1hap81n2bc9j4d8b1cxrvng50-source

Notify maintainers

@Janik-Haag

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The relevant configuration is shown in module/network.nix, lines 27–75, using networking.networkmanager.ensureProfiles with environmentFiles. Start by reproducing the reboot failure and tracing ensureProfiles through the generated NetworkManager profiles and boot behavior. Done means the configured wireless profile autoconnects on boot while retaining the existing manual connection behavior.