Problems with WiFi connectivity

tamalguha · 03-24-2017, 10:37 PM

Hello,

I am a completely new Linux user and I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this issue. But I hope I am doing this correctly.

My issue is that ever since I installed Ubuntu 16.10, my WiFi connection is not stable. Every few minutes, pages will stop loading and I have to manually disconnect and reconnect to get them working again.

Any leads or help will be appreciated.

My Wireless adapter details are as follows.

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: RT5390 [802.11 b/g/n 1T1R G-band PCI Express Single Chip]
vendor: Ralink corp.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0d:00.0
logical name: wlo1
version: 00
serial: 90:00:4e:65:74:7e
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800pci driverversion=4.8.0-41-generic firmware=0.40 ip=192.168.0.2 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
resources: irq:17 memory:c4500000-c450ffff

Regards

ferrari · 03-25-2017, 12:01 AM

Your wifi hardware could well be relevant here. For example, sometimes it's driver power management at play.

Network PCI (class 02) hardware chipset and driver info can be got by filtering the lspci output like this

Code:

/sbin/lspci -nnk|grep '\[02' -A3

Report back with the results

tamalguha · 03-25-2017, 12:08 AM

I think this is the info you are looking for

07:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
DeviceName: Realtek Lan Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [103c:1656]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169
0d:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Ralink corp. RT5390 [802.11 b/g/n 1T1R G-band PCI Express Single Chip] [1814:539f]
DeviceName: Broadcom 4313 802.11b/g/nr
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Pavilion DM1Z-3000 PCIe wireless card [103c:1637]
Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
Kernel modules: rt2800pci

syg00 · 03-25-2017, 12:46 AM

Looks like an unresolved bug - see here. Interestingly people report it was ok in 14.04.
Keep an eye on the bug entry and see if a resolution pops up.

Realtek and Broadcom have a very poor history with Linux support.

ferrari · 03-25-2017, 02:08 AM

Outstanding bugs notwithstanding, this may be helpful...

http://askubuntu.com/questions/78962...-ralink-rt5392

It mentions creating a custom file eg /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf (or add as a section to /etc/NetworkManager.conf)...

Code:

[connection]
# Values are 0 (use default), 1 (ignore/don't touch), 2 (disable) or 3 (enable).
wifi.powersave = 2

After changes are made NM will need to be restarted to take effect

Code:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

References:
https://gist.github.com/jcberthon/ea...c5a95344bc8b55
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...er.conf.5.html

beachboy2 · 03-25-2017, 03:05 AM

tamalguha,

Welcome to LQ.

ferrari is right. You need to disable the wifi-powersave by changing the default setting of 3 to 2.

Open a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run these exact commands separately.

Use Copy and Paste to avoid typing errors!

Code:

sudo sed -i 's/wifi.powersave = 3/wifi.powersave = 2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

Press the Enter key. You will be asked for your user password.

Type it and press Enter once more.

NB Your user password will NOT be displayed for security reasons.

Now copy and paste the following command into Terminal and press the Enter key.

Code:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

That should fix the problem.

tamalguha · 03-25-2017, 03:12 AM

It seems disabling WiFi powersave did the trick. I will observe it for a day to confirm.

Thanks a lot guys.

ferrari · 03-25-2017, 04:17 AM

Good to know that worked for you.

syg00 · 03-25-2017, 04:29 AM

Me too - I hope it is a permanent solution. I saw some threads that suggested it may not be.

conflicker · 03-28-2017, 10:34 AM

I'm having the same problem, however the solution above is not working. Upon checking the log file I see this

Quote:

ieee80211 phy0: rt2800pci_set_device_state: Error - Device failed to enter state 4 (-5)

I don't think that is some NetworkManager issue.

Upon running /sbin/lspci -nnk|grep '\[02' -A3 here's the result:

Quote:

01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Ralink corp. RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe [1814:3290]
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Ralink RT3290LE 802.11bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter [103c:18ec]
Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
Kernel modules: rt2800pci
--
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 05)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:183f]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

Kindly enlighten me with meaning of the log message.

The wifi was working after fresh install of fedora 25, it stop working after dnf update and then reboot. Please help, thanks in advance!

ferrari · 03-28-2017, 02:30 PM

Quote:

The wifi was working after fresh install of fedora 25, it stop working after dnf update and then reboot. Please help, thanks in advance!

Hmmm...related to a possible kernel update perhaps? Does completely shutting down the laptop help with this?

https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/que...-of-fedora-24/