Cinnamon crashes into fallback mode when reloading extensions while offline

Distribution

Mint 22.3

Package version

6.6.9

Graphics hardware in use

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

Frequency

Always

Bug description

When the system is offline (no internet connection), attempting to reload an extension (and potentially applets/desklets) causes the Cinnamon desktop to crash entirely and switch to fallback mode. This seems to be caused by an unhandled network exception when the extension or the Spices API tries to fetch data upon reload.

Steps to reproduce

1. Disconnect your computer from the internet (turn off Wi-Fi or unplug Ethernet).
2. Open Cinnamon Troubleshoot tool or right-click an extension to reload it.
3. Click "Reload".
4. Cinnamon crashes instantly into fallback mode.

Expected behavior

The extension should either fail gracefully with a "Network unreachable" warning or reload using local cached files, without crashing the entire single-threaded Cinnamon desktop environment.

Additional information

System Information:

• OS: Linux Mint 22.3 (Cinnamon)
• Cinnamon Version: 6.6.9
• Connection state: Offline during the crash.

Start with the Cinnamon Troubleshoot tool and the extension reload path, reproducing the failure while offline. Trace the network request that raises the unhandled exception and verify the reload fails gracefully or uses cached files without switching Cinnamon to fallback mode.