[SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

asthelled · 2025-06-22 07:29:47

So yesterday I wanted to dual boot on my laptop so I installed Arch linux and after finish installing Arch, I want to download some packages using Wi-Fi but I realized that the download speed is very slow and it also doesn't say the download speed and then just say timeout error. Initially I thought it was the mirrorlist that were having problem so I updated the mirrorlist using reflector but still, the download speed is very slow. So I booted into archiso again and when I download those packages, the download speed is very fast. So I thought it must be some network problem or something like that. After like 3-4 hours of searching for solution, I could not find anything. So I take a break and continue it next day, at this time I haven't installed any browser so I download it next day using paru first so that I can download it from AUR and it somehow went fine. It says that the package was 300 MiB and it went through without any errors or timeout and it also downloads pretty fast. I didn't check the download speed because I was searching to find a solution to this problem. When I open the browser and just browsing the internet, it also went fine with no connection issue at all. So it came to me that the problem must be a config that I have to edit. So I search again and could not find any solution, people just said "check the mirrorlist and use relfector to update it" in which I already have done it. So I came here to get help. Any ideas on to why this happened?

This is what happen when I enter sudo pacman -Syu:

sudo pacman -Syu

:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (18) ca-certificates-mozilla-3.113-1  iana-etc-20250612-1  kio-extras-25.04.2-2
              libblockdev-3.3.1-1  libblockdev-crypto-3.3.1-1  libblockdev-fs-3.3.1-1
              libblockdev-loop-3.3.1-1  libblockdev-mdraid-3.3.1-1  libblockdev-nvme-3.3.1-1
              libblockdev-part-3.3.1-1  libblockdev-swap-3.3.1-1  linux-6.15.3.arch1-1
              linux-firmware-whence-20250613.12fe085f-5  nss-3.113-1  pkgconf-2.5.0-1
              plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5  qtkeychain-qt6-0.15.0-2  udisks2-2.10.1-6

Total Download Size:   167.76 MiB
Total Installed Size:  229.01 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.13 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
:: Retrieving packages...
 linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 Total ( 5/17)                  167.8 MiB  1143 KiB/s 02:30 [################################] 100%
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from singapore.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from singapore.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from singapore.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from singapore.mirror.pkgbuild.com, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from singapore.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from singapore.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection timed out after 10041 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sydney.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sydney.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sydney.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from sydney.mirror.pkgbuild.com, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sydney.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from sydney.mirror.pkgbuild.com : Connection timed out after 20018 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from au.arch.niranjan.co, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from au.arch.niranjan.co : Connection timed out after 20018 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from sg.arch.niranjan.co, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.arch.niranjan.co : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.arch.niranjan.co : Connection timed out after 20013 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from au.mirrors.cicku.me, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from au.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection timeout after 15025 ms
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from au.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection timed out after 15027 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from sg.mirrors.cicku.me, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection timeout after 10019 ms
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from sg.mirrors.cicku.me : Connection timed out after 10020 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.aarnet.edu.au : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.aarnet.edu.au : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.aarnet.edu.au : Connection timed out after 15013 milliseconds
warning: too many errors from mirror.aarnet.edu.au, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.aarnet.edu.au : Connection timed out after 15013 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.aarnet.edu.au : Connection timed out after 15012 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.freedif.org : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.freedif.org : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.freedif.org : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from mirror.freedif.org, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.freedif.org : Connection timed out after 10020 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.freedif.org : Connection timed out after 10018 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from gsl-syd.mm.fcix.net : Connection timed out after 15028 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-6.15.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.ditatompel.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'kio-extras-25.04.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.ditatompel.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'nss-3.113-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.ditatompel.com : Connection time-out
warning: too many errors from mirror.ditatompel.com, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'iana-etc-20250612-1-any.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.ditatompel.com : Connection time-out
error: failed retrieving file 'plasma-workspace-6.4.0-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.ditatompel.com : Connection timed out after 15019 milliseconds
warning: failed to retrieve some files
error: failed to commit transaction (failed to retrieve some files)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

Update 1: when I run sudo pacman -Syu and while it was doing that, I updated the mirrorlist just to see if it makes any differences or not and when I check back the progress again, it somehow downloading it and then later got the connection timeout error. So I run it again and no success this time, got the same connection timeout error.

Update 2: Change the title (Original title is: Pacman download speed is slow), see post #3.

Potential Solutions:

Install wireless-regdb package and change the config in /etc/conf.d/wireless-regdom, uncomment the appropriate region, and then reboot
Decrease the number of parallel downloads or disable parallel downloads entirely in /etc/pacman.conf
Increase the TCP buffer. Note: it can increase RAM usage (for more info, see post #18)
If you have Windows installed on your system (which means dual boot), disable fast start

Last edited by asthelled (2025-06-27 14:50:53)

airbus777neo · 2025-06-22 08:48:16

How did you update the mirror list?

What PC/laptop are you using? (e.g. mine is known to have a bad wireless interface)

Could you try a speedtest to see if it's not just pacman being the issue (or perhaps the issue is with whatever network manager service you may be using), as well as uploading the journal for the last boot?

Last edited by airbus777neo (2025-06-22 08:49:44)

asthelled · 2025-06-22 10:47:13

I update the mirrorlist using reflector. My laptop is ASUS Vivobook X513EAN. The speedtest result can be around 0.60 Mbit/s to 5 Mbit/s. Also, I don't think pacman causing the problem, it affects other programs too, when I download a game from Steam it's slower than usual when I download a game from Windows. Maybe I should do more testing before posting this, I also gotta change the tittle as well. Anyway here's the journal: https://nopaste.boris.sh/#XQAAAQD/6hEAA … +R///IWhG9
jounalctl -b is the correct command to get the log, right?

airbus777neo · 2025-06-22 11:20:24

Judging by these errors in the journal:

Jun 22 15:36:04 archlinux kernel: platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
Jun 22 15:36:04 archlinux kernel: cfg80211: failed to load regulatory.db

Your connection does not respect the regdomain

See here

To fix such, you can install the wireless-regdb package, reboot, and edit /etc/conf.d/wireless-regdom and uncomment the appropriate domain

asthelled · 2025-06-22 11:36:52

It still doesn't work, I will get the same downlaod speed. I also try to set the regdomain in wpa_supplicant based on the wiki since I use Network Manager to connect to the internet and still doesn't work. Here's the journal: https://nopaste.boris.sh/#XQAAAQCCQAQAA … //3oX0sg==

seth · 2025-06-22 11:49:11

Where do you people find all these crap pastebin services and force-wrap plain text in some editor…

Jun 22 15:36:03 archlinux kernel:  nvme0n1: p1 p2 p3 p4 p5

when I download a game from Windows

Is there a parallel windows installation?
3rd link below. Mandatory.
Disable it (it's NOT the BIOS setting!) and reboot windows and linux twice for voodo reasons.

airbus777neo · 2025-06-22 11:59:52

So it was all much simpler than scouring that journal...

seth · 2025-06-22 12:07:51

We don't know that yet, but there's nothing obvious in the journal to explain wifi issues (the regdomain is usually no big deal) and radio is victim #1 to the hibernation-condition and typically the ACPI is also smart enough to understand that "we're booting from USB, that's not the installed OS"
So the pattern fits, but it could also just be coincidental and the OP used the iso when everyone else in the segment was sleeping and the installed system when everyone else was watching netflix…

asthelled · 2025-06-22 12:31:10

I didn't mention this but when I finish installing Arch, I tried to boot Windows and then realized that the partition was corrupted because of unmovable files. I already deleted the Windows partition, the only leftovers are the Windows Boot Manager on the EFI partition, should I delete that as well? I'm planning on re-installing Windows after fixing this bug.

Where do you people find all these crap pastebin services and force-wrap plain text in some editor…

So I shouldn't use this service? It's my first time posting something here, sorry. I found it here: https://github.com/pluja/awesome-privac … et-sharing

Last edited by asthelled (2025-06-22 12:43:39)

seth · 2025-06-22 13:00:12

/Iff/ it is the hibernating windows what's causing this, there's no clear fix w/o that windows instance.
How does

 wget -nv --show-progress -O /dev/null "http://speedtest.singapore.linode.com/1GB-singapore.bin"

perform?

asthelled · 2025-06-22 14:01:00

/dev/null                100%[=================================>]   1000M   884KB/s    in 19m 36s
2025-06-22 20:36:04 URL:http://speedtest.singapore.linode.com/1GB-singapore.bin [1048576000/1048576000] -> "/dev/null" [1]

I also disable parallel download on the pacman config after executing that command because when I run sudo pacman -Syu it says that it was 2 Mib/s after connection timeout error and then I realized that there might be nothing wrong with the internet speed, so I change that option and it work. It seems like that it couldn't handle downloading 5 packages at once but why? When I was testing Arch on virtual machine and enable parallel download it can handle it. So why on my system it wouldn't? Anyway if there is no fix on this, I'm already happy with this solution.

Edit: I just realized, I think 5-10 Mbit/s is my actual download speed on my router. I did a speedtest but this time it's on a website (https://www.speedtest.net/) and the result are 8 Mbit/s. But the question still remains, why using paralled download doesn't work?

Last edited by asthelled (2025-06-22 14:28:59)

seth · 2025-06-22 19:50:59

Are we sure this isn't just coincidence?
Can you run 2/3/4 parallel downloads?

Another thread claims timeouts being due to a poor dns resolver (though likewise w/ no indication for DNS problems), what if you use 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as you DNS server?

asthelled · 2025-06-23 02:43:06

Can you run 2/3/4 parallel downloads?

Enabling parallel download just makes the connection to the mirrorlist longer

Changing the DNS server to Cloudflare makes no difference, still get the same download speed.

seth · 2025-06-23 06:20:05

Enabling parallel download just makes the connection to the mirrorlist longer

Yes, but does the connection break down and you run into timeouts w/ two parallel downloads?

still get the same download speed.

Which will also not change if you're limited to 8mbps by your ISP.
(I will say that at this connection, parallel downloads probably don't make a whole lot of sense anyway since most mirrors will handily outperform you)

asthelled · 2025-06-23 07:56:07

Yes, but does the connection break down and you run into timeouts w/ two parallel downloads?

I think it's depending on how big the package is. I installed 5 packages with paralleldownloads = 5 and it just installs it without any timeout error. Yesterday when there was a linux-firmware upgrade, that one got a timeout.

seth · 2025-06-23 10:10:21

Maybe increasing the buffers can help a bit, https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-tcp-tuning/
But this smells like a flaky WAN connection ("poor an unreliable internet")

asthelled · 2025-06-23 13:25:04

I did a speedtest and it's literally 8 Mbit/s. Downloading something is still only 1 MiB/s (it's usually 3-4 MiB/s on Windows) but it does help a bit, I can do 5 paralled downloads now. The article said that it can increase RAM usage, should I be worry about this?

Last edited by asthelled (2025-06-23 14:31:35)

seth · 2025-06-23 16:16:32

8Mbit/s == 1 MiB/s
Nether that nor the 24-32Mbit/s is any 802.11 cap, you want to test the local speed (eg. using iperf, but that will require a second host in the LAN)

The article said that it can increase RAM usage, should I be worry about this?

If you're setting the buffer ridiculously large and flood it (because of the poor network) and have little RAM and no swap: yes.
Otherwise not really. Also notice the massive difference suggested by the wiki - the limits are usually some hundred kB, now ramped up to 12MB - I guess 4MB could easily be sufficient, too.

asthelled · 2025-06-24 02:50:49

Nether that nor the 24-32Mbit/s is any 802.11 cap

You mean the cap of 802.11 is 24-32Mbit/s? I'm going to re-install Windows to see the network speed.

If you're setting the buffer ridiculously large and flood it (because of the poor network) and have little RAM and no swap: yes.

Alright then.

seth · 2025-06-24 06:15:28

You mean the cap of 802.11 is 24-32Mbit/s?

No.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11#Generations

asthelled · 2025-06-24 08:21:16

I think it's fixed now. When I was downloading the wine package, it initially starts at 1 MiB/s but it gradually increase to 2 MiB/s. When I reinstalled Windows, I download all of the drivers using a program called SDIO and it says that the download speed is 2 MiB/s. I will not mark it as solved for now and wait a few days to see if it's actually fixed or now but thanks for the help.

Edit: It's been a few days and found no issue at all, going to mark this thread as solved.

Last edited by asthelled (2025-06-27 14:16:59)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-06-22 07:29:47

[SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#2 2025-06-22 08:48:16

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#3 2025-06-22 10:47:13

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#4 2025-06-22 11:20:24

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#5 2025-06-22 11:36:52

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#6 2025-06-22 11:49:11

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#7 2025-06-22 11:59:52

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#8 2025-06-22 12:07:51

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#9 2025-06-22 12:31:10

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#10 2025-06-22 13:00:12

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#11 2025-06-22 14:01:00

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#12 2025-06-22 19:50:59

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#13 2025-06-23 02:43:06

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#14 2025-06-23 06:20:05

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#15 2025-06-23 07:56:07

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#16 2025-06-23 10:10:21

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#17 2025-06-23 13:25:04

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#18 2025-06-23 16:16:32

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#19 2025-06-24 02:50:49

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#20 2025-06-24 06:15:28

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

#21 2025-06-24 08:21:16

Re: [SOLVED] Wi-Fi download speed is slow

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