[SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

halasz · 2015-01-17 14:01:16

I have just installed Arch (yesterday) on a rMBP. Actually I moved it from a VirtualBox installation to dual boot following the normal steps described in the wiki. Please excuse me if my question is badly phrased but it is my first post.

All was OK but my Wifi changed this afternoon from wlp3s0 to wlp3s0b1 which I saw on ip link (when it stopped working)

This is OK - I have updated it in my netctl profile but why the change? I've actually no idea what information might me relevant but I'll include this (as it is now).

WiFi is now working but how can I check what changed the name of the adaptor (excuse the terminology)

adam@arch ~$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: wlp3s0b1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 54:26:96:d0:29:ff brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

 netctl@fisher.service - A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/netctl@fisher.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Sat 2015-01-17 14:19:18 CET; 30min ago
     Docs: man:netctl.profile(5)
  Process: 247 ExecStart=/usr/lib/network/network start %I (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 247 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/system-netctl.slice/netctl@fisher.service
           ├─265 wpa_supplicant -B -P /run/wpa_supplicant_wlp3s0b1.pid -i wlp...
           └─399 dhcpcd -4 -q -t 30 -L wlp3s0b1

Jan 17 14:19:12 arch dhcpcd[355]: version 6.6.7 starting
Jan 17 14:19:12 arch dhcpcd[355]: DUID 00:01:00:01:1c:0d:93:4d:08:00:27:34:83:28
Jan 17 14:19:12 arch dhcpcd[355]: wlp3s0b1: IAID 96:d0:29:ff
Jan 17 14:19:13 arch dhcpcd[355]: wlp3s0b1: soliciting a DHCP lease
Jan 17 14:19:13 arch dhcpcd[355]: wlp3s0b1: offered 192.168.1.65 from 192.1....1
Jan 17 14:19:18 arch dhcpcd[355]: wlp3s0b1: leased 192.168.1.65 for 86400 s...ds
Jan 17 14:19:18 arch dhcpcd[355]: wlp3s0b1: adding route to 192.168.1.0/24
Jan 17 14:19:18 arch dhcpcd[355]: wlp3s0b1: adding default route via 192.168.1.1
Jan 17 14:19:18 arch network[247]: Started network profile 'fisher'
Jan 17 14:19:18 arch systemd[1]: Started A simple WPA encrypted wireless co...n.
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

This is my profile -I had to update the interface name with b1

Description='A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection'
Interface=wlp3s0b1
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa

IP=dhcp

ESSID='fisher'

Last edited by halasz (2015-01-18 17:32:06)

Trilby · 2015-01-17 14:51:51

If it changed when you moved from virtual box to a real-hardware install, that is expected. The device names are based on the hardware, and vbox provides a virtual (i.e. fake) hardware.

halasz · 2015-01-17 17:16:04

No, it wasn't migration to real hardware. VirtualBox uses Ethernet and I never had any wireless installed at all.

I have been running directly (via rEFInd) since yesterday. It was a bit of a struggle to install the B43 wireless drivers (as I don't have real ethernet on my macbook) but it was working fine. I rebooted about 50 times trying to get my rEFInd settings not to call the fallback image.

Eventually I got this to work:

menuentry "Arch" {
        icon /EFI/BOOT/icons/os_arch.png
        volume Arch
        loader boot\vmlinuz-linux
        initrd boot\initramfs-linux.img
        options "ro root=UUID=a04c6959-7b7e-43a2-b028-563976da34a3"
}
menuentry "Arch Fallback" {
        icon /EFI/BOOT/icons/os_arch.png
        volume Arch
        loader boot\vmlinuz-linux
        initrd boot\initramfs-linux-fallback.img
        options "ro root=UUID=a04c6959-7b7e-43a2-b028-563976da34a3"
}

This was working fine until lunchtime today when my wireless name decided to change (to add the "b1").

I was adding software through pacman - all of it from official repositories except for the wireless drivers and chromium pepper flash which I installed from the AUR using the makepkg command. (The wireless I had to make while running off the boot disk through chroot).

I've never used Linux before but surely there must be some log that says what changed the name of the wireless? The original one (wlp3s0) doesn't seem to exist any more - at least I can not see it on ip link command.

The wireless was (is) a bit flakey but the name change occurred while I was trying to add 32 bit support and pulse audio to install Skype. I'm not sure which package broke it as I was rebooting repeatedly as wi-fi kept dropping anyway.

If you can recommend a good starting point to look into relevant logs I'd appreciate it.

Last edited by halasz (2015-01-17 17:18:56)

lucke · 2015-01-17 17:23:01

It seems that a kernel patch caused the name to change. https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/1/10/242

In your case the change was induced probably by the move from kernel 3.17 to 3.18 (which left the testing repo not long ago).

draugur · 2015-01-17 17:26:42

I don't have a solid answer for you, but I have heard of this. Heres a couple of links that may be a helpful starting point.

https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/1/10/242
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwar … faceNames/

EDit: Sorry lucke, you beat me to it.

Last edited by draugur (2015-01-17 17:29:31)

draugur · 2015-01-17 17:56:34

From: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/sys … t_id.c#n20

* Type of names:
 *   b<number>                             -- BCMA bus core number
 *   ccw<name>                             -- CCW bus group name
 *   o<index>                              -- on-board device index number
 *   s<slot>[f<function>][d<dev_port>]     -- hotplug slot index number
 *   x<MAC>                                -- MAC address
 *   [P<domain>]p<bus>s<slot>[f<function>][d<dev_port>]
 *                                         -- PCI geographical location
 *   [P<domain>]p<bus>s<slot>[f<function>][u<port>][..][c<config>][i<interface>]
 *                                         -- USB port number chain

halasz · 2015-01-17 18:48:26

Ah-ha, I did indeed upgrade the kernel (I had to run pacman -Syu as part of enabling 32bit before downloading Skype). I have 3.18.2-2 now and it was updated today.

This one that you both quoted https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/1/10/242 exactly looks like the issue.

The problem is caused by the different name that my wireless connection
receives after this patch:
wlp3s0b1 (after the patch)
wlp3s0 (before the patch)

Not an issue - once I get everything working I'll start reading upgrade notes. Touch wood that will be soon as almost everything seems to be working (took me about a week so far).

Thanks both of you.

tomk · 2015-01-17 22:10:54

If you prefer, you can revert to the old style interface name of wlan0 - details on the wiki's network config page.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-17 14:01:16

[SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#2 2015-01-17 14:51:51

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#3 2015-01-17 17:16:04

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#4 2015-01-17 17:23:01

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#5 2015-01-17 17:26:42

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#6 2015-01-17 17:56:34

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#7 2015-01-17 18:48:26

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

#8 2015-01-17 22:10:54

Re: [SOLVED] Newbe WiFi question

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