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alba4k

Member

From: Switzerland

Registered: 2021-12-05

Posts: 100

Website

[SOLVED] NetworkManager tries to use iwd even with the default config

Hi,
I was trying to go back from iwd to wpa_supplicant and thought that removing iwd and the configs to set the wireless backend would have been enough, yet networkmanager doesn't seem to be able to find any wifi devices without iwd installed.

Also, installing and starting iwd causes NetworkManager to start using it despite it not being set as the backend anywhere (although, even though this might just be an illusion, connecting to a wifi appears to be slower in this scenario).

wpa_supplicant is installed.

My laptop is an XPS 9320.

Is it possible that only iwd works on my machine? or is there an other explanation?

Last edited by alba4k (2025-05-08 15:20:07)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,799

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager tries to use iwd even with the default config

iwd needs to be not started and disabled on boot, otherwise it can potentially grab the device beforehand after which NetworkManager seems to be doing the smart thing and not touching the device anymore. FWIW to "properly" get rid of any iwd influence, remove it and reboot your system (it'd probably be enough to explicitly bring the network nic down so NM can bring it up again, but rebooting will be the most surefire way)

See similar situation in: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=305388

alba4k

Member

From: Switzerland

Registered: 2021-12-05

Posts: 100

Website

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager tries to use iwd even with the default config

You're right, apparently restarting NetworkManager wasn't enough