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#1 2014-12-06 23:27:23

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

[SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

I've been using Arch since May. I never had any problems connecting to wifi--my laptop has always connected automatically to my home wireless network within a few seconds of booting to my desktop. I use Network Manager, with the network-manager-applet on my panel.

All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, every time I boot now I cannot connect to the internet for several minutes: When I click on the panel applet there are no available wireless networks listed. It's only after several minutes (it varies slightly, usually after about 2 minutes) that available wireless networks finally show up in the applet.

The physical wifi switch on the laptop is securely in the "on" position. NetworkManager is running as soon as the system boots, and lsmod shows me that iwlwifi module is loaded. There are no errors in the journal. I haven't changed any network settings in a long time. Why is it suddenly taking NetworkManager several minutes to show me the available wireless networks after a reboot?

EDIT: During the time when I have no wireless networks available I get this:

eileen@vaio ~ $ nmcli general status
STATE         CONNECTIVITY  WIFI-HW  WIFI     WWAN-HW  WWAN    
disconnected  none          enabled  enabled  enabled  enabled 

eileen@vaio ~ $ iwconfig         # notice that wlp2s0 is not listed in the output!
enp4s0    no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eileen@vaio ~ $ nmcli dev connect wlp2s0
Error: Device 'wlp2s0' not found.

eileen@vaio ~ $ sudo ip link set wlp2s0 up
Cannot find device "wlp2s0"

After wireless networks finally show up in the applet, I get this:

eileen@vaio ~ $ nmcli general status
STATE      CONNECTIVITY  WIFI-HW  WIFI     WWAN-HW  WWAN    
connected  full          enabled  enabled  enabled  enabled 

eileen@vaio ~ $ iwconfig
enp4s0    no wireless extensions.

wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"blue"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 98:FC:11:86:9C:EC   
          Bit Rate=78 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=62/70  Signal level=-48 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:34   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

tun0      no wireless extensions.

Could the problem be that the kernel is taking a long time to detect my wireless card and designate it as wlp2s0 (which needs to happen before NetworkManager can do anything)? If so, how can I tell the kernel to prioritize looking for a wireless card when the system boots?

Last edited by bdantas (2014-12-09 03:22:29)

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#2 2014-12-08 04:41:20

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

BTW, the problem only happens after a fresh boot--no problem when resuming from suspend. My wireless card is Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200. My system was fully updated on 12/1/14 and is running the latest lts kernel (linux-lts 3.14.25-1) with the latest version of systemd (systemd 217-8).

Could my problem be a bug in systemd? https://www.marc.info/?l=systemd-bugs&m … 224801&w=1

Last edited by bdantas (2014-12-09 03:20:03)

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#3 2014-12-08 21:48:09

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

After I'm finally connected, dmesg gives me this:

eileen@vaio ~ $ dmesg | grep iwlwifi
[ 15.089340] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control 
[ 15.089499] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X 
[ 15.190528] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 15.190531] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper 
[ 75.324699] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2 
[ 75.324705] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper 
[ 135.843224] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 9.221.4.1 build 25532 op_mode iwldvm
[ 135.926866] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG disabled 
[ 135.926874] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUGFS disabled
[ 135.926879] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING enabled 
[ 135.926885] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN, REV=0x74 
[ 135.926991] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled 
[ 136.063045] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled 
[ 136.069775] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x1-0x3-0x1
[ 136.288670] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled 
[ 136.295360] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x1-0x3-0x1

Notice the firmware load failures at 15 and 75 seconds after boot, and the fact that it's not until 135 seconds that the firmware for the wireless card is finally loaded.

This suggests to me that the culprit is either the kernel (and/or its iwlwifi module) or the actual firmware. I will try different versions of these packages (linux, linux-lts, and linux-firmware) and will report back.

Last edited by bdantas (2014-12-09 12:31:55)

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#4 2014-12-09 12:35:20

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

The newest (testing repo) version of linux-firmware did not help. Downgrading my linux-lts kernel to the prior version, which did not have this problem, also didn't help. So I decided to try the latest regular kernel (linux 3.17.4) and, lo and behold, the problem went away. Go figure--I was using the lts kernel in order to enhance stability and avoid experiencing regressions!

Troubleshooting this took a huge bite out of my weekend. I will add a note in the Wireless Networking Configuration section of the wiki to hopefully help others avoid some pain.

Last edited by bdantas (2014-12-09 12:44:49)

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#5 2014-12-11 20:10:51

petzouill
Member
Registered: 2013-11-19
Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

Hi,

Same problem with same hardware. I'm running manjaro with the 3.12.34-1 kernel. Should i wait an update of my kernel version or should i install the latest kernel ?

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#6 2014-12-11 20:26:42

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

Hi, petzouill. I don't think an updated kernel from the 3.12 series will help you. Please try a kernel from the 3.17 series.

I know that Manjaro has its own repositories. If there isn't a 3.17 kernel in the Manjaro repo, you could try using the one in the Arch repo. I'm not 100% sure this would work, but as far as I know Arch and Manjaro are binary-compatible and use the same exact pacman-based packaging system. If you want to try it, click on the right kernel for your architecture under "exact matches" here: https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?sor … =&flagged=
then click on "download from mirror" (in box to the right), install the downloaded package with pacman -U <packagename>, update your bootloader, and reboot. Please post your results if you choose to try it.

Last edited by bdantas (2014-12-11 21:06:14)

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#7 2014-12-11 22:03:44

petzouill
Member
Registered: 2013-11-19
Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

3.16 didn't work so i tried 3.17 kernel and it solved the problem. Thanks for your help.

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#8 2014-12-12 02:04:19

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

Good to hear! For the benefit of other manjaro users, did you install the 3.17 kernel from the arch repo as I described or did you take some other route?

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#9 2014-12-12 07:37:27

petzouill
Member
Registered: 2013-11-19
Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

There is a tool in manjaro to easily install kernel. I used it.

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#10 2014-12-12 12:40:43

bdantas
Member
Registered: 2014-05-13
Posts: 94

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

Well, that's convenient! Thanks for sharing.

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#11 2014-12-14 16:01:44

Azurewrath
Member
Registered: 2013-10-28
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager taking long time to show available wireless

Same problem with 3.14.26-1-lts  kernel, thanks for your help smile

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