[SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

Sijma · 2025-05-05 20:12:58

I switched to Arch a couple of months ago but ever since then I've been fighting against very odd and very random Wi-Fi "disconnects".
I had no issues on neither Fedora nor windows although my Arch installation did coincide with an ISP and Router change.

Here are the outputs of journalctl -b and dmesg

When I lose internet access NM remains connected to my home wifi but I can't even ping my default gateway.
This issue only happens over Wi-Fi, everything works perfectly fine over eth.

Things I've tried in no particular order:
- Using different kernel (Zen, LTS)
- Using older kernel versions
- disabling MAC Randomization
- Disabling LPS/Deep Sleep/Power Saving (This changed the firmware errors from "Failed to leave LPS state" and "Failed to send h2c command" to the ones seen in the current outputs)
- Using third party dkms drivers
- Updating the laptop UEFI
- Switching between iwd and NM
- Physically uninstalling and installing the network card
- Re-installing Arch

Running

sudo ip link set wlp2s0 down
sleep 2
sudo ip link set wlp2s0 up

Will often buy me a few seconds to minutes of internet access, sometimes it will remain stable until the next boot, but even that is a dice-roll.

There's a chance the amount of things I've tried might have looped around and end up doing more harm than good in the end.
Any help would be very much appreciated :)

Last edited by Sijma (2025-05-09 10:30:45)

seth · 2025-05-06 16:18:51

I had no issues on neither Fedora nor windows although my Arch installation did coincide with an ISP and Router change.

May 05 22:39:51 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:39:51 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:44:11 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:44:12 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:44:20 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:44:21 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:47:03 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:47:04 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:47:10 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:47:11 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:49:26 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:49:26 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:49:31 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:49:31 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:51:23 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:51:24 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with 72:0f:a6:16:62:f2 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=2467 MHz)
May 05 22:51:37 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)
May 05 22:51:37 laptop-arch wpa_supplicant[1142]: wlp2s0: Trying to associate with c4:0f:a6:16:62:f4 (SSID='COSMOTE-852217' freq=5180 MHz)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ts_(Wi-Fi)

Since your signal quality is constantly [65-70] you're running into this.

Sijma · 2025-05-06 23:01:08

I have now edited my router settings to separate 2.4 and 5Ghz into separate SSIDs, as well as locked the BSSID as described in the wiki section that you shared.
Although the messages you highlighted have stopped, I still lose my internet access a few seconds after booting (or after restarting related services/interfaces).

Here is an updated pair of journalctl and dmesg.

seth · 2025-05-07 07:19:13

The boot in the journal ran only for ~1m and there's no indication for any connection loss.
When you "lose internet", can you still

ping _gateway

Also rather try to pin the 2.4GHz connection

Sijma · 2025-05-07 09:52:58

The boot in the journal ran only for ~1m

As soon as I logged in I opened a terminal and ran

 ping google.com

About 2-3 packets went through before they abruptly stopped, despite NetworkManager showing I'm still connected to the AP. That might also be the reason there's no connection loss shown within the journal.

Tried pinging both ipv4 and ipv6 defaults, both return

 Destination Host Unreachable

And this is true for both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz connections.

Interestingly, the 2.4Ghz connection is wildly unstable for all my devices in that it doesn't show on scans half the time, and intermittently, causes full disconnections from the AP when connected through it.

seth · 2025-05-07 15:34:10

ping google.com

seth wrote:

ping _gateway

We want to figure whether you're losing the LAN or only the WAN connection - because that will imply vastly different causes.

Sijma · 2025-05-07 16:10:51

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

Tried pinging both ipv4 and ipv6 defaults, both return
 Destination Host Unreachable 
And this is true for both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz connections.

I can't reach the default gateway either so it's a LAN issue.

seth · 2025-05-07 21:20:50

Shut down the system (for a cold reboot) and add

rtw88_pci.disable_aspm=Y rtw88_pci.disable_msi=Y pcie_aspm=off

to the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters

If that doesn't help, cut out NM, connect manually w/ wpa_supplicant or iwd or "at worst" use wifi-menu from the netctl package (uses wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd) - stop NM first!
Though nothing in the journal really indicates any NM intervention being at cause here (but then: nothing suggest network failure at all)

Can you test the system against a different AP?
(Maybe the problem is the response)

Sijma · 2025-05-08 14:38:29

Bit of a slow reply because I somehow managed to break my system (oops)
All is good now so no need to open a parallel thread

add

 rtw88_pci.disable_aspm=Y rtw88_pci.disable_msi=Y pcie_aspm=off

to the kernel parameters

No change whatsoever. I also re-setup iwd, double checking for conflicting services, exact same issue and nothing particularly enlightening in the journal.

Can you test the system against a different AP?

Best I had was my phone as hotspot using mobile data and connecting the system to it wirelessly (no tethering). No change..

Eventually I got kind of fed up and went out to buy a new network card for 15$. Everything now works flawlessly so... That's a solution I suppose?
At least it tells me something was just wrong with the chip and/or firmware of the previous one.

I'll be marking this thread as Solved unless you have something else to add or suggest first.
And thank you for your time regardless.

seth · 2025-05-08 21:09:02

"rtw88_core.disable_lps_deep=Y"?
Maybe (but not very likely) "rtw88_core.support_bf=Y"

Sijma · 2025-05-09 10:28:21

rtw88_core.disable_lps_deep=Y rtw88_core.support_bf=Y

Neither of these worked unfortunately.

I'll just add that of all the solutions tried, I think the one that worked best was using the out-of-tree drivers from here . There's also an aur package for it.
It made the connection a lot more reliable but still not perfect, and I believe it would also sometimes break during kernel updates.

Just adding this as another potential solution in case someone lands on this thread when troubleshooting in the future.

Thanks a lot for your time again Seth, I will edit the title to mark as solved, as well as include the chipset and driver for better searchability.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-05-05 20:12:58

[SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#2 2025-05-06 16:18:51

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#3 2025-05-06 23:01:08

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#4 2025-05-07 07:19:13

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#5 2025-05-07 09:52:58

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#6 2025-05-07 15:34:10

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#7 2025-05-07 16:10:51

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#8 2025-05-07 21:20:50

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#9 2025-05-08 14:38:29

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#10 2025-05-08 21:09:02

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

#11 2025-05-09 10:28:21

Re: [SOLVED] rtw88 / RTL8822CE Wi-Fi unstable ever since switching to Arch

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