Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

webbja123 · 2021-04-01 03:08:39

I have installed Arch Linux three times on my Dell XPS13 9310 using the uefi with Encryption method demonstrated in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPLnBPM4DhI&t=997s. In addition to the video I have cross referenced it with the Arch Installation Guide to verify that no steps are missed. During the installation process I used the iwctl command to connect my wireless device (wlan0) to my router and was able to use wireless to download all packages until I had an independently bootable system. During the installation process I also installed systemctl and used it to enable NetworkManager which I thought would re-enable my wireless device every time I boot the system. However, after the installation process is complete I type reboot and as soon as I do reboot I will try a ping command (i.e. pin -c 3 8.8.8.8) can get the message ping: connect: Network is unreachable. I then type ip a and find that wlan0 is no longer shown as an option, I only get `lo` as an option. I also type `ls /sys/class/net` and again, only `lo` is returned as an option. It appears that the bootable installation no longer recognizes that I have a wireless card in my system. Does anyone know how I can fix this issue? Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by webbja123 (2021-04-08 00:19:31)

linuxford · 2021-04-01 05:17:23

Hello fellow noob,
You can use Google and YouTube to help you understand more but you'll probably get more response in following the Official Archlinux instructions from their Wiki and then posting details on where you are having the issue. For instance in the Wireless Wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … n/Wireless, it has some good things to try and do.

First, you can get the kernel driver by doing the command below and looking for the Network controller driver name:

lspci -k

Then use the dmesg command below to see what the interface has been named or renamed to (it may not be wlan0)

dmesg | grep <driver_name>

Then try to bring it up

ip link set <interface> up

Check to see if it is up

ip link show <interface>

Anyway, check out the ArchLinux and try and go through those steps and some experts can weigh in to try and help.

It took me a couple of weeks to go through the documentation and quite a few tries at installations because I was doing it wrong, or missed a step, etc.
The excellent and extensive ArchLinux Wiki documentation plus a few Google searches and lots of time and patience and I was able to install Arch on my new laptop and even on my old Pentium Dual Core laptop (Arch32, lxdm with fluxbox).

AirsoftHamster · 2021-04-01 05:17:29

Hi there! It appears that your laptop does not have the correct driver/kernel module installed/running. See this page: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_(9310) for information pertaining to your laptop specifically. To be able to connect to Wi-Fi while in a TTY, you have to install a connection manager. The one you used in the ISO was iwd (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Iwd) to use it install it with pacman, start/enable the iwd service using systemctl and then run iwctl. USB tethering almost always works without any drivers, so you should be able to use that if you don't want to chroot into your system with the iso. Keep in mind, to use USB tethering, you must install dhcpcd or a similar package. Hope this helps!

loqs · 2021-04-01 05:28:15

@webbja123 your issue is easily explained by a difference between the video you linked and the official installation guide in the section Installation_guide#Install_essential_packages.

webbja123 · 2021-04-01 22:37:11

@loqs, you are probably correct. I remember noting that difference when I went through the install, but so many people reported success from that video that I decided to ignore it. Either tonight or Saturday I will attempt to reinstall the software with that one extra command in the pacstrap command and see if it makes a difference. I will report back after I complete that task, and hopefully mark this issue as solved.

loqs · 2021-04-01 22:40:03

You do not need to reinstall for that. Boot the installation media, configure networking for the instalaltion media if needed. Chroot in as you did during the install.

pacman -S linux-firmware

exit chroot, reboot, check wireless interface appears.
Edit:
Lots of wired network cards do not need firmware and as the installation guide mentions virtual machine installs can in general skip linux-firmware.

Last edited by loqs (2021-04-01 22:42:40)

webbja123 · 2021-04-03 16:23:00

@loqs That definitely moved the needle forwards but id did not get me to the finish line. After rebooting, I installed iwd with the command

[sudo pacman -S iwd]

I then enabled iwctl with the command;

[sudo systemctl enable --now iwd]

Then I entered iwctl and typed

[device list]

which showed my wlan0 device, which was a big step forward, it did recognize that last time I installed the software. I then typed

[station wlan0 scan]
[station wlan0 gget-netowrks]

This command showed my my network which gave me confidence that the card is working. I then connected to my device with the command

[station wlan0 connect my_router]

my_router is a placeholder for my network name since I don't want to type the name here. It asked me for the password and then accepted the password. However, when I exited from iwctl and typed

[ping -c 5 8.8.8.8]

I got an error telling me that the network was ureachable. I then typed the command

[ip add]

which gave me the following output indicating that my wlan0 device was not connected to anything

[4 wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 disc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 9a:f5:0c:eb:33:40 bad ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr fc:44:82:a4:7a:63]

So in summary, Arch now recognizes that I have a wireless card, but it is not connecting to anything, despite the fact that it recognizes the existence of my router and will accept the password to connect to it.

loqs · 2021-04-03 16:57:34

Did you enable Iwd's built-in network_configuration?

webbja123 · 2021-04-03 17:36:12

I did, but upon further inspection I had an error in the DNS value. I believe it works now, thank you!

Arch Linux

#1 2021-04-01 03:08:39

Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#2 2021-04-01 05:17:23

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#3 2021-04-01 05:17:29

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#4 2021-04-01 05:28:15

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#5 2021-04-01 22:37:11

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#6 2021-04-01 22:40:03

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#7 2021-04-03 16:23:00

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#8 2021-04-03 16:57:34

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

#9 2021-04-03 17:36:12

Re: Arch ceases to recognize my wireless router after install [Solved]

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