Arch Linux

Archeux

Member

Registered: 2026-01-24

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] Wifi Dongle not detected

Hello,

I just installed Arch with the help of a Wi-Fi dongle, and everything was working fine. However, while I was downloading ONLYOFFICE, the Wi-Fi suddenly disconnected. I rebooted the system, unplugged and replugged the dongle, but that didn't fix anything. I feel like the "wlan0" device of my dongle is not being detected, and that the "lo" device has taken its place (a Wi-Fi device that is not compatible with Linux). 
I should also point out that when I tried rebooting from my USB stick to attempt a fresh Arch install, everything worked fine, and the dongle was properly recognized and connected to Wi-Fi. However, I would still like to know if it's possible to fix this issue without performing a full system reinstall, especially since it could happen again, and I don’t want to reinstall Arch every day.

Here’s a detail of the commands I executed:

pommeau@archlinux ~]$ nmcli device show
GENERAL.DEVICE:                         lo
GENERAL.TYPE:                           loopback
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         00:00:00:00:00:00
GENERAL.MTU:                            65536
GENERAL.STATE:                          100 (connected (externally))
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     lo
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/1
IP4.ADDRESS[1]:                         127.0.0.1/8
IP4.GATEWAY:                            --
IP6.ADDRESS[1]:                         ::1/128
IP6.GATEWAY:                            --
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ nmcli --overview
lo: connected (externally) to lo
	"lo"
	loopback (unknown), 00:00:00:00:00:00, sw, mtu 65536
	inet4 127.0.0.1/8
	inet6 ::1/128

Use "nmcli device show" to get complete information about known devices and
"nmcli connection show" to get an overview on active connection profiles.

Consult nmcli(1) and nmcli-examples(7) manual pages for complete usage details.
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ nmcli connection show
NAME  UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE
lo    0164051d-a36a-4067-872a-e7f7b2a2acd7  loopback  lo
LaNasa  093083af-35ef-4500-a6f9-523f5724e09f  wifi      --
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ ip link set wlan0 up
Cannot find device "wlan0"
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ sudo dmesg -k -l emerg,crit,err,warn
[    0.507115] i8042: PNP: PS/2 appears to have AUX port disabled, if this is incorrect please boot with i8042.nopnp
[    0.517412] rust_binder: Loaded Rust Binder.
[    5.614617] asus_wmi: fan_curve_get_factory_default (0x00110024) failed: -19
[    5.615198] asus_wmi: fan_curve_get_factory_default (0x00110025) failed: -19
[    5.615712] asus_wmi: fan_curve_get_factory_default (0x00110032) failed: -19
[    7.668587] Bluetooth: hci0: Opcode 0x0c03 failed: -110
[   54.867537] nvme nvme0: using unchecked data buffer
[   54.873435] block nvme0n1: No UUID available providing old NGUID
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ ls /sys/class/net/
lo
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ uname -a
Linux archlinux 6.18.6-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:34:07 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ pacman -Q linux-firmware
linux-firmware 20260110-1

Last edited by Archeux (2026-01-25 14:41:03)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 72,938

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi Dongle not detected

feel like the "wlan0" device of my dongle is not being detected, and that the "lo" device has taken its place (a Wi-Fi device that is not compatible with Linux)

Probably some conspiracy…
https://www.baeldung.com/linux/loopback-lo-device

sudo dmesg -k -l emerg,crit,err,warn

That's pointless.
Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

resp. unplug the dongle, run "dmesg -W", plug the dongle and see what it does specifically.

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Archeux

Member

Registered: 2026-01-24

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi Dongle not detected

Here is what the "dmesg -W" command produce:

[pommeau@archlinux ~]$ sudo dmesg -W
[ 1001.988682] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[ 1002.116217] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=1a2b, bcdDevice= 0.00
[ 1002.116234] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 1002.116240] usb 3-1: Product: DISK
[ 1002.116245] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: Realtek
[ 1002.117296] usb-storage 3-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 1002.117597] usb-storage 3-1:1.0: device ignored

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 72,938

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi Dongle not detected

Shows up as mass media, likely to promote some windows driver.
Try https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … odeswitch/ and just in case you're dual-booting also see the 3rd link below.

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Archeux

Member

Registered: 2026-01-24

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi Dongle not detected

Thank you very much!
Installing usb_modeswitch solved my problem perfectly, and now my dongle is detected again as before.