Arch Linux

LaurentMercier

Member

From: Montréal, Québec, Canada

Registered: 2023-09-14

Posts: 33

[Solved] Wifi driver (ath11k) unresponsive after arch install

Hi,

I have recently reinstalled arch on my laptop and since I have no wifi. It seems the driver is unresponsive. One thing to note is that before reinstalling arch, my wifi was disconnecting and reconnecting every few seconds. I have tried: downgrading the firmware of ath11k, upgrading the bios, adding iommu=pt in the kernel parameters and booting with linux-lts.

Here is the symlink situation with the firmware:

ls -lh /lib/firmware/ath11k/WCN6855/hw2.1/
total 24K
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   32 Mar 24 11:52 amss.bin.zst -> ../../QCA2066/hw2.1/amss.bin.zst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3.1K Mar 24 11:47 board-2.bin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   35 Mar 24 11:52 board-2.bin.zst -> ../../QCA2066/hw2.1/board-2.bin.zst
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   11 Mar 23 15:22 board.bin -> board-2.bin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   30 Mar 24 11:52 m3.bin.zst -> ../../QCA2066/hw2.1/m3.bin.zst
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   44 Mar 23 15:19 nfa765
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   22 Mar  9 18:55 regdb.bin.zst -> ../hw2.0/regdb.bin.zst

Here is the output of journalctl -b:

https://0x0.st/PfKf.txt

Here is the output of dmesg:

https://0x0.st/PfKV.txt

Particularly, I see that ath11k_pci fails to create soc core:

sudo dmesg | grep -i ath11k 
[   52.241890] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: BAR 0 [mem 0x78600000-0x787fffff 64bit]: assigned
[   52.241905] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   52.242377] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: MSI vectors: 32
[   52.242382] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: wcn6855 hw2.1
[   52.248207] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to create ath11k debugfs
[   52.280458] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to create soc core: -1
[   52.280465] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to init core: -1
[   52.661189] ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: probe with driver ath11k_pci failed with error -1

The result is I have no wlan0 and can't connect to wifi, ethernet is working tho:

ip link show
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
2: enp1s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fc:5c:ee:df:98:5b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enxfc5ceedf985b
3: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc htb state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:05:e0:70 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: docker0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/ether 3a:6d:d7:67:09:29 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Here is the status of NetworkManager and iwd:

sudo systemctl status NetworkManager iwd
● NetworkManager.service - Network Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-03-24 12:39:16 EDT; 17min ago
 Invocation: 5db80af932694c978610e44d0d6195af
       Docs: man:NetworkManager(8)
   Main PID: 1875 (NetworkManager)
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 33174)
     Memory: 14.3M (peak: 15M)
        CPU: 392ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service
             └─1875 /usr/bin/NetworkManager --no-daemon

Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5892] device (docker0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'connection-assumed', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5895] device (docker0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'connection-assumed', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5898] device (docker0): Activation: starting connection 'docker0' (f0989556-01d7-476f-8609-02421451a8bd)
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5901] device (docker0): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5902] device (docker0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5902] device (docker0): state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.5903] device (docker0): state change: ip-config -> ip-check (reason 'none', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.6281] device (docker0): state change: ip-check -> secondaries (reason 'none', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.6283] device (docker0): state change: secondaries -> activated (reason 'none', managed-type: 'external')
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s NetworkManager[1875]: <info>  [1774370476.6287] device (docker0): Activation: successful, device activated.

● iwd.service - Wireless service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/iwd.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-03-24 12:39:16 EDT; 17min ago
 Invocation: 5e0247abf1384f029f8fa095e4885cd0
       Docs: man:iwd(8)
             man:iwd.config(5)
             man:iwd.network(5)
             man:iwd.ap(5)
   Main PID: 1876 (iwd)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 33174)
     Memory: 1.8M (peak: 2.2M)
        CPU: 20ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/iwd.service
             └─1876 /usr/lib/iwd/iwd

Mar 24 12:39:15 thinkpad-p16s systemd[1]: Starting Wireless service...
Mar 24 12:39:16 thinkpad-p16s iwd[1876]: Wireless daemon version 3.12
Mar 24 12:39:16 thinkpad-p16s iwd[1876]: Loaded configuration from /etc/iwd/main.conf
Mar 24 12:39:16 thinkpad-p16s systemd[1]: Started Wireless service.
Mar 24 12:39:16 thinkpad-p16s iwd[1876]: station: Network configuration is disabled.
Mar 24 12:39:16 thinkpad-p16s iwd[1876]: udev interface=virbr0 ifindex=3
Mar 24 12:41:16 thinkpad-p16s iwd[1876]: udev interface=docker0 ifindex=4

This is not the first time I have wifi problems on this computer, could it be that the wifi card is failing?

Last edited by LaurentMercier (2026-03-24 22:22:26)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,254

Re: [Solved] Wifi driver (ath11k) unresponsive after arch install

could it be that the wifi card is failing?

https://grml.org => same behavior?

However
https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.17. … re.c#L1884
https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.17. … gfs.c#L879

Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: pinctrl core: failed to create debugfs directory
Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: Could not create 'lock_event_counts' debugfs entries
Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: zsmalloc: debugfs not available, stat dir not created
Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: pinctrl core: failed to create debugfs directory for AMDI0030:00
Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: zswap: debugfs initialization failed
Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: cec: Failed to create debugfs cec dir
Mar 24 12:39:14 thinkpad-p16s kernel: ath11k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to create ath11k debugfs

Take a closer look at this:

Mar 24 12:38:25 archlinux kernel: Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=UUID=8550cb1e-95e0-4022-8ed6-80e3129fdcb0 rw rootflags=subvol=@ rd.luks.name=4337b242-c4ac-4b21-ac48-13b62fb49b12=cryptroot rd.luks.options=4337b242-c4ac-4b21-ac48-13b62fb49b12=tpm2-device=auto,discard root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot rootflags=subvol=@ resume=/dev/mapper/cryptroot resume_offset=533760 rw quiet loglevel=3 udev.log_level=3 init_on_alloc=1 init_on_free=1 page_alloc.shuffle=1 pti=on randomize_kstack_offset=on vsyscall=none debugfs=off amd_pstate=active thinkpad_acpi.fan_control=1 lsm=landlock,lockdown,yama,integrity,apparmor,bpf iommu=pt

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LaurentMercier

Member

From: Montréal, Québec, Canada

Registered: 2023-09-14

Posts: 33

Re: [Solved] Wifi driver (ath11k) unresponsive after arch install

You worked your magic again! I looked at the kernel parameters and saw that debugfs was off so I put it on! That didn't completely solve it tho, I had to delete all the firmware files and redownload it and now it works. Thanks a lot seth!