Arch Linux

noreset

Member

Registered: 2018-09-19

Posts: 53

[SOLVED] wlan0 unavailable if iwd.service is stopped

Hello guys,

I'm doing a fresh Arch installation following the guide and I'm stucking at the internet connection process.

What I've tried to do is connecting via iwctl, like during the previous steps, though, since I've to configure it first, I've decided to use nmtui instead. But I'm facing something weird.

For context I'll tell you that I've already checked every page looking for possible issues, e.g. firmware, activate just one network manager at a time, setting the device up ect. The problem here is that if I start the iwd.service I'm able to locate the wlan0 device using ip link, although, if I stop it and even if I start NetworkManager.service it will be gone, not able to find it with ip link anymore, therefore unable to connect it otherwise.

Am I missing something?

Last edited by noreset (2020-11-18 15:21:45)

ponyrider

Member

Registered: 2014-11-18

Posts: 112

Re: [SOLVED] wlan0 unavailable if iwd.service is stopped

You cannot run NetworkManager with iwd, because it depends on wpa_supplicant which iwd replaces.

you would need NetworkManager-iwd according to the wiki

GaKu999

Member

From: US/Eastern

Registered: 2020-06-21

Posts: 696

Re: [SOLVED] wlan0 unavailable if iwd.service is stopped

Or read man iwd.config and disable the IWD managing the interface like that, if your firmware is happy with it.

Iirc it’s UseDefaultInterface.

NetworkManager has also an experimental support for iwd, its only that wpa_supplicant is a dependency. You can change the backend in the config. Again, read the manual and wiki.

---

My repos • Some snippets

Heisenberg might have been here.

noreset

Member

Registered: 2018-09-19

Posts: 53

Re: [SOLVED] wlan0 unavailable if iwd.service is stopped

I solved it with a simple reboot, started the NetworkManager.service and connected to the WiFi via nmtui.

The odd part is that preoviusly the wlan0 device wasn't available under

networkctl list

Although, after the reboot, starting just that mentioned network service, wlan0 was there.

That's it

GaKu999

Member

From: US/Eastern

Registered: 2020-06-21

Posts: 696

Re: [SOLVED] wlan0 unavailable if iwd.service is stopped

I solved it with a simple reboot, started the NetworkManager.service and connected to the WiFi via nmtui.

The odd part is that preoviusly the wlan0 device wasn't available under

networkctl list

Although, after the reboot, starting just that mentioned network service, wlan0 was there.

That's it

It goes away because IWD by default takes control of the interface, taking it down and up on every restart of the daemon.
That can be disabled with UseDefaultInterface to true, like:

# /etc/iwd/main.conf
# vim:ft=dosini:fenc=utf-8:tw=80:
[General]
UseDefaultInterface=true

So it doesn't happen, the default is false, because there are some firmwares (which?) that have issues.

---

My repos • Some snippets

Heisenberg might have been here.

noreset

Member

Registered: 2018-09-19

Posts: 53

Re: [SOLVED] wlan0 unavailable if iwd.service is stopped

I solved it with a simple reboot, started the NetworkManager.service and connected to the WiFi via nmtui.

The odd part is that preoviusly the wlan0 device wasn't available under

networkctl list

Although, after the reboot, starting just that mentioned network service, wlan0 was there.

That's it

It goes away because IWD by default takes control of the interface, taking it down and up on every restart of the daemon.
That can be disabled with UseDefaultInterface to true, like:

# /etc/iwd/main.conf
# vim:ft=dosini:fenc=utf-8:tw=80:
[General]
UseDefaultInterface=true

So it doesn't happen, the default is false, because there are some firmwares (which?) that have issues.

Great, thank you for explaining that.

Last edited by noreset (2020-11-19 13:12:08)