Arch Linux

Johnystar

Member

Registered: 2021-08-12

Posts: 9

[SOLVED] WiFi doesn't show up sometimes

This happens to me on my ThinkPad T460
My network controller is

Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 (rev 3a)

uname -a:

Linux ocean-laptop-t460 5.13.9-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun, 08 Aug 2021 11:25:35 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

My network manager is NetworkManager because I use Gnome.
The most similar issue I've found is this, the only major difference (to me) being that I only have Arch installed, so the solution given in that thread doesn't solve my problem.

This issue's been bothering me for as long as I've been using Arch on this laptop (a few months) and I didn't use to have this problem on Pop!_OS.
I'm clueless as to what could be the problem.

EDIT:
I don't think I explained clearly enough what I meant by "doesn't show up sometimes". WiFi doesn't at all show up sometimes in Gnome (and all the other places I know of) upon booting up. A restart usually temporarily resolves the issue, but even this "solution"'s been getting less and less reliable for me.

Last edited by Johnystar (2021-08-14 00:54:06)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,042

Re: [SOLVED] WiFi doesn't show up sometimes

The primary cause of this is having multiple network services enabled that steal the interface from each other. Check the output of

systemctl list-unit-files --state enabled

if there's anything network related that isn't networkmanager then that's wrong and the likely cause for your issue.

If that isn't it or your unsure, post the output of that command as well as

sudo journalctl -b

during a faulty boot.

Johnystar

Member

Registered: 2021-08-12

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] WiFi doesn't show up sometimes

So here's the list of enabled services:

UNIT FILE                          STATE   VENDOR PRESET
avahi-daemon.service               enabled disabled     
bluetooth.service                  enabled disabled     
gdm.service                        enabled disabled     
getty@.service                     enabled enabled      
iwd.service                        enabled disabled     
NetworkManager-dispatcher.service  enabled disabled     
NetworkManager-wait-online.service enabled disabled     
NetworkManager.service             enabled disabled     
osspd.service                      enabled disabled     
sshd.service                       enabled disabled     
systemd-timesyncd.service          enabled enabled      
teamviewerd.service                enabled disabled     
thinkfan-sleep.service             enabled disabled     
thinkfan-wakeup.service            enabled disabled     
thinkfan.service                   enabled disabled     
avahi-daemon.socket                enabled disabled     
cups.socket                        enabled disabled     
remote-fs.target                   enabled enabled      

18 unit files listed.

I'm not sure if iwd should be enabled, but everything else seems ok to me.

I unfortunately cannot afford to reboot my laptop rn, might send the journalctl log later if I end up rebooting it.

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [SOLVED] WiFi doesn't show up sometimes

I'm not sure if iwd should be enabled

No, it shouldn't.
NetworkManager and IWD will both be fighting over the interface which is most likely the cause of your problem.

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

Johnystar

Member

Registered: 2021-08-12

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] WiFi doesn't show up sometimes

Thank you so much! This fixed the problem and it even fixed some wifi instability (even when the interface was showing up) that I've been experiencing.