Arch Linux

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

[SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

I'm trying to install arch on my other laptop, the problem is that there is no Ethernet connection so I have to use wifi.
I have tried using ip link set wlan0 up. Which gave no output, but when I tried to check whether it came UP using ip link show wlan0 it said that the interface is DOWN.
So I tried running dmesg to see what went wrong. There were 4 outputs from iwlwifi:

[526.118608] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Applying debug destination EXTERNAL_DRAM
[526.200428] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Applying debug destination EXTERNAL_DRAM
[526.202442] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: FW akready configured (0) - re-configuring
[526.226221] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS

I'm not sure what does the error: BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS

I also ran lspci -k and searched for Network controller (which was last) the output of that was:

01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165 (rev 79)
              Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165
              Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
              Kernel modules: iwlwifi, wl

I even checked if the interface isn't blocked with rfkill list but it wasn't.

If there will be no other way, I could try installing it offline by saving necessary packages from my computer into a repository which the computer without internet access could access,
but I'd still like to know what went wrong and why is this not working.

- I'm not sure this is important but, I should mention that this PC has already installed 2 OS: Windows, Ubuntu (which both works just fine)

I'm not that familiar with arch and this is only my second installation of it, so it is possible that I'm just doing something wrong,
but I was following the arch wiki and there was no mention of this error.
Does someone have any idea what could be going on here?

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 15:34:24)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,373

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

What was the full output of `ip link show wlan0`?

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

What was the full output of `ip link show wlan0`?

Output:

2: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER, BROADCAST, MULTICAST, UP> mtu 1500 qdusc noqueue state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
       link/ether 90:78:41:71:7d:93 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,373

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

The UP in NO-CARRIER, BROADCAST, MULTICAST, UP indicates the interface is up, not the later state DOWN,  as noted here.

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

The UP in NO-CARRIER, BROADCAST, MULTICAST, UP indicates the interface is up, not the later state DOWN,  as noted here.

Oh, and what does the DOWN means than, also why the error?

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 13:18:40)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,560

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

What do you expect setting an wireless interface UP manually to accomplish anyway?

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

What do you expect setting an wireless interface UP manually to accomplish anyway?

I was just following arch wireless installation wiki

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,560

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

The one that says "Tip: Usually this step is not required."?

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

The one that says "Tip: Usually this step is not required."?

Yes, I did it anyway but I haven't noticed that I was looking for the first UP and not the second DOWN.
But I still wonder what that error I got meant.

EDIT:
Also, it was actually required because when I tried to run next command it said that the interface was DOWN

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 13:44:09)

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

The error mentioned before (BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS) also pops up when I tried using wpa_supplicant with command wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
[439.997284] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: BIOS contains WGDS but no WDRS

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 13:59:46)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,560

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

You haven't posted an error

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

You haven't posted an error

Sorry I thought it was obvious from the dmesg but this error appeared right after I started the network interface (ip link set wlan0 up)

[526.226221] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 13:59:07)

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

And after made clear that the interface was actually UP, I was following the arch wiki again, until the error popped up again (with starting the wpa_supplicant).

But I ignored it and I tried starting the wpa_cli and using scan scan command (which returned OK). But when I tried to display the results using scan_results, the only output I got was:

bssid / frequency / signal / level / flags / ssid

Which is weird because it would mean that it didn't find anything in the scan, but when I scanned using iw dev wlan0 scan | less. I saw plenty of networks.
Why are they not showing up?

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 14:02:14)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,560

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

You haven't posted an error

Sorry I thought it was obvious from the dmesg but this error appeared right after I started the network interface (ip link set wlan0 up)

[526.226221] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS

What makes you think that's an error?

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

You haven't posted an error

Sorry I thought it was obvious from the dmesg but this error appeared right after I started the network interface (ip link set wlan0 up)

[526.226221] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS

What makes you think that's an error?

Well it seems like my BIOS is missing something and usually I don't get this message when starting interface (on my other laptop), so I thought it's an error, is it not?
And what about the question in post #13, why is the scan not returning any results?
Or should I post that as separate topic, as it is not directly connected to starting wlan0 interface anymore?

Last edited by koumakpet (2020-02-28 14:15:50)

koumakpet

Member

Registered: 2020-02-28

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start wlan0 interface on live arch

And after made clear that the interface was actually UP, I was following the arch wiki again, until the error popped up again (with starting the wpa_supplicant).

But I ignored it and I tried starting the wpa_cli and using scan scan command (which returned OK). But when I tried to display the results using scan_results, the only output I got was:

bssid / frequency / signal / level / flags / ssid

Which is weird because it would mean that it didn't find anything in the scan, but when I scanned using iw dev wlan0 scan | less. I saw plenty of networks.
Why are they not showing up?

Actually, I found solution to this, for some reason wpa_cli was using the wrong interface and so it needed to be specified by wpa_cli -i wlan0 it was using interface 'p2p-dev-wlan0' as described in this topic