USB wifi interface always dormant until a reboot

MALDATA · 11-01-2022, 01:11 PM

I installed a USB wifi interface (Realtek RTL88x2bu) on a Debian Bullseye machine. The device (wlan1) appears correctly, and reports itself as "dormant:"

Code:

$ ip link show wlan1
4: wlan1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 54:ef:33:eb:81:53 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

If I configure a systemd-networkd file like this:

Code:

[Match]
Name=wlan1

[Network]
DHCP=yes
IgnoreCarrierLoss=3s

I can then configure wpa_supplicant for my SSID, I can reboot, and it connects to my network without issue.

However, for various reasons, I need to be able to get this interface configured without rebooting. So, when the device is dormant, I need to be able to configure wpa_supplicant and systemd-networkd, and then somehow get it out of the "dormant" state. I tried the usual stuff, like:

Restarting the systemd-networkd service
Restarting the wpa_supplicant service
ip link set dev wlan1 up
ip link set dev wlan1 mode default
iw dev wlan1 set power_save off

but it always stays dormant until a reboot.

I googled for a while, and found a few threads that suggested some things that are not applicable in my case. For example, I found a few threads in which people had used network-manager, and a few in which people had changed settings in some power management daemon. However, I do not have those services installed on my machine.

It's not clear to me if this is the behavior of the hardware driver, or if the problem is in userspace and I just don't know how to get it out of its "dormant" state.

Let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks!

fatmac · 11-03-2022, 08:14 AM

Maybe try

Code:

rfkill list;rfkill unblock all

MALDATA · 11-03-2022, 09:55 AM

Thanks for the help! I can confirm that rfkill is not blocking any devices:

Code:

$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

colorpurple21859 · 11-03-2022, 11:10 PM

It may be something else, on my system with wireless working I have a similar output

Code:

3: wlo1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether d8:9c:67:22:4a:11 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

what is output of

Code:

 iw dev

maybe

Code:

dhclient wlan1

MALDATA · 11-05-2022, 12:48 PM

Doesn't seem to change anything:

Code:

$ ip link show wlan1
4: wlan1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DORMANT mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 54:ef:33:eb:81:53 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

$ iw dev                                                  
phy#1                                                                                                                                            
        Interface wlan1                                                 
                ifindex 4     
                wdev 0x100000001                                        
                addr 54:ef:33:eb:81:53                                                                                                           
                type managed
                txpower -100.00 dBm                                                                                                              
phy#0                                                                   
        Unnamed/non-netdev interface 
                wdev 0x2                                                
                addr e6:5f:01:90:4e:d1
                type P2P-device                                         
                txpower 31.00 dBm                                                                                                                
        Interface wlan0                                                 
                ifindex 3                                                                                                                        
                wdev 0x1                                                
                addr e4:5f:01:90:4e:d1                               
                type managed                                            
                channel 34 (5170 MHz), width: 20 MHz, center1: 5170 MHz                                                                          
                txpower 31.00 dBm

$ sudo dhclient wlan1

$ ip link show wlan1
4: wlan1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DORMANT mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 54:ef:33:eb:81:53 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

colorpurple21859 · 11-08-2022, 10:33 PM

Code:

ifup wlan1
ip addr

mrapathy · 11-10-2022, 10:30 PM

disable power management wifi/networking settings. check bios for settings. depending on laptop or not you may have hidden/advanced menu for bios with additional settings.

does this command do anything for you? got kde or what desktop?

ip link set wlan1 up
iw dev wlan1 scan
lspci -v
lsmod

dmesg | grep firmware
dmesg | grep real

dmesg plain.

did you try rmod or modprobe -r kerneldriver to remove kernel module if it is kernel module and not built in.