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TheWorstSoftwareEngineer

Member

Registered: 2021-12-29

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] wpa_supplicant service oftens starts BEFORE iwlwifi renames d

I'm having this issue with my Lenovo T440p. I'm running wpa_supplicant through systemd via wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service. More often than not, wpa_supplicant will have failed to execute at startup, and I am forced to run

 systemctl restart wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service 

I dug into it finally, and I see the issue the journal logs:

Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar systemd[1]: Started WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version).
░░ Subject: A start job for unit wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ A start job for unit wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service has finished successfully.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 98.
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar wpa_supplicant[365]: Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0 wlp3s0: renamed from wlan0
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar wpa_supplicant[365]: Could not read interface wlp3s0 flags: No such device
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar systemd-networkd[249]: wlan0: Interface name change detected, renamed to wlp3s0.
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar wpa_supplicant[365]: nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar wpa_supplicant[365]: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlp3s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar wpa_supplicant[365]: wlp3s0: Failed to initialize driver interface
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar systemd[1]: wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/EXCEPTION
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 255.
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar systemd[1]: wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ The unit wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 29 13:00:17 imantar systemd-networkd[249]: wlp3s0: Link UP

You can see, wpa_supplicant is trying to start on wlp3s0, but it cannot find wlp3s0 because it is still named wlan0. I looked around for other examples of this issue but was unsuccessful. I made sure that systemd-networkd-wait-online.service was enabled and it was. I'm really at a loss here.

Last edited by TheWorstSoftwareEngineer (2021-12-29 18:33:42)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,493

Website

Re: [SOLVED] wpa_supplicant service oftens starts BEFORE iwlwifi renames d

Why not just disable that renaming nonsense feature?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

TheWorstSoftwareEngineer

Member

Registered: 2021-12-29

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] wpa_supplicant service oftens starts BEFORE iwlwifi renames d

Why not just disable that renaming nonsense feature?

A perfectly adequate solution. Thank you.

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,320

Re: [SOLVED] wpa_supplicant service oftens starts BEFORE iwlwifi renames d

It might also be possible to add requires/after dependencies for e.g. sys-subsystem-net-devices-wlp3s0.device to the wpa-supplicant service.

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Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,493

Website

Re: [SOLVED] wpa_supplicant service oftens starts BEFORE iwlwifi renames d

Certainly - the problem could be avoided by deliberately slowing down the network connection ... but what's the point?  Making the system slightly less efficient only to cope with a udev service renaming the interface when there is no reason to rename the interface in the first place??

Last edited by Trilby (2021-12-29 18:50:45)

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

TheWorstSoftwareEngineer

Member

Registered: 2021-12-29

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] wpa_supplicant service oftens starts BEFORE iwlwifi renames d

It might also be possible to add requires/after dependencies for e.g. sys-subsystem-net-devices-wlp3s0.device to the wpa-supplicant service.

I suspected as much, but I wasn't sure how. Trilby's solution worked fine, fwiw.