Wifi scans but fails to connect on Thinkpad W520

nonconvergent · 2014-12-22 04:21:16

Running Network Manager on a Lenovo Thinkpad W520 and able to scan but unable to connect to wifi. Wifi works fine in dualboot on Windows, and ethernet works fine in both.

$ lspci -vv
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (rev 35)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 3x3 AGN
	Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 35
	Region 0: Memory at d5300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

$ sudo systemctl status NetworkManager-wait-online.service 
● NetworkManager-wait-online.service - Network Manager Wait Online
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager-wait-online.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2014-12-21 22:58:55 EST; 12min ago
 Main PID: 500 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Dec 21 22:58:55 Defiant systemd[1]: NetworkManager-wait-online.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 21 22:58:55 Defiant systemd[1]: Failed to start Network Manager Wait Online.
Dec 21 22:58:55 Defiant systemd[1]: Unit NetworkManager-wait-online.service entered failed state.
Dec 21 22:58:55 Defiant systemd[1]: NetworkManager-wait-online.service failed.
$ sudo systemctl status NetworkManager-dispatcher.service 
● NetworkManager-dispatcher.service - Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager-dispatcher.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
$ sudo systemctl status NetworkManager.service 
● NetworkManager.service - Network Manager
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2014-12-21 22:58:23 EST; 13min ago
 Main PID: 341 (NetworkManager)
   CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service
           └─341 /usr/bin/NetworkManager --no-daemon

Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> Activation (wlp3s0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) started...
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> (wlp3s0): device state change: ip-config -> failed (reason 'ip-config-unavailable') [70 120 5]
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> Disabling autoconnect for connection 'Bifröst'.
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <warn> Activation (wlp3s0) failed for connection 'Bifröst'
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> Activation (wlp3s0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) complete.
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> (wlp3s0): device state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> (wlp3s0): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <warn> Connection disconnected (reason -3)
Dec 21 23:10:12 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <info> (wlp3s0): supplicant interface state: completed -> disconnected
Dec 21 23:10:15 Defiant NetworkManager[341]: <warn> Could not get scan request result: Scan request rejected

Additionally, after stopping NetworkManager and trying wifi-menu, it scans correctly but fails to connect, never even prompting for a passphrase.

So I tried wpa_supplicant on its own:

$ sudo wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "Bifr\xc3\xb6st" "mypassword")
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
wlp3s0: failed to initialize driver interface

For good measure:

$ rfkill list
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s25: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether f0:de:f1:62:13:b8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.0.11/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global enp0s25
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlp3s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:24:d7:c6:ab:48 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

I'm at a loss. and I've googled my little heart out. Any help would be appreciated.

Trilby · 2014-12-22 12:44:41

Welcome to the forums - and thanks for a great initial post, all the needed information seems to be here.

Specifically, the following error from wpa_supplicant will most likely be best to dig into:

wlp3s0: failed to initialize driver interface

I see several results of this error in a google search, but none of them quickly translated into solutions yet. To get some more information on it, could you run the same wpa_supplicant command, but with the verbose debugging flag "-dd" and post the ouput here?

I don't have a intel wireless card, so I don't know what the diagnostic signs are for the problem addressed in the wiki, but you may want to try the modprobe options shown in this section of the wiki.

EDIT: there is a similar but unresolved thread on these forums here which points to using the -D flag for wpa_supplicant to specify other drivers. I was thinking this too upon my first reading, but I don't fully understand what these are so I was reluctant to suggest it. It certainly can't hurt anything to use the command in the wiki to see which drivers are available, then try each one.

EDIT 2: and this thread seems to indicate that the -D flag driver specification is the right solution. So start here with the -D flag and only if that fails follow up with my initial debugging suggestions.

Last edited by Trilby (2014-12-22 12:52:13)

nonconvergent · 2015-01-12 01:35:32

[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager.service 
Swipe your right index finger across the fingerprint reader
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ iw dev wlp3s0 link
Not connected.
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ rfkill list
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ rfkill unblock wifi
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ sudo wpa_supplicant -D nl80211 -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "Bifr\xc3\xb6st" "mypassphrase")
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Failed to open config file '/dev/fd/63', error: No such file or directory
Failed to read or parse configuration '/dev/fd/63'.
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ iw dev wlp3s0 link
Not connected.
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ sudo wpa_supplicant -D wext -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "Bifr\xc3\xb6st" "mypassphrase")
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Failed to open config file '/dev/fd/63', error: No such file or directory
Failed to read or parse configuration '/dev/fd/63'.
[wintermute@Defiant ~]$ iw dev wlp3s0 link
Not connected.

TheSaint · 2015-01-12 02:28:24

Shouldn't you set the interface up, before attempting to use wpa_supplicant ?

sudo ip link set wlp3s0 up

But I recommend you to look at here and here

Trilby · 2015-01-12 12:24:56

This will not work:

sudo wpa_supplicant -D nl80211 -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "Bifr\xc3\xb6st" "mypassphrase")

It must either be ran in a root shell (not sudo) or ran as two separate commands (details here)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-12-22 04:21:16

Wifi scans but fails to connect on Thinkpad W520

#2 2014-12-22 12:44:41

Re: Wifi scans but fails to connect on Thinkpad W520

#3 2015-01-12 01:35:32

Re: Wifi scans but fails to connect on Thinkpad W520

#4 2015-01-12 02:28:24

Re: Wifi scans but fails to connect on Thinkpad W520

#5 2015-01-12 12:24:56

Re: Wifi scans but fails to connect on Thinkpad W520

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