Arch Linux

freedomd1v3

Member

Registered: 2020-12-01

Posts: 12

[SOLVED] How do I check my Wi-Fi adapter for any faulty behavior?

OS: Arch Linux

Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T430

Wi-Fi adapter: Intel Centrino Advanced N-6205 (integrated)

DE (if this information is relevant): Xfce

I've recently switched to Arch Linux from pre-installed Windows on this laptop (been using Arch Linux PC before as main driver, but moved completely to this laptop).
The main problem I discovered was weird behavior of Wi-Fi adapter.
For example: after 6-8 hours of inactivity (AFK without touching, locked screen or sleep mode, it doesn't matter) the download speed becomes really slow and unstable.
This was fixed by adding:

options iwlwifi 11n_disable=8

to:

/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

As suggested in ArchWiki and Debian Wiki.

Yet sometimes it starts to work unstable and slow (download speed) by itself again after some time of activity (but not that significantly as before). I don't know why, this gets fixed by reboot.

So, is there any way I could check my Wi-Fi adapter for any errors or faulty behavior, preferably without dualbooting to Windows? Like some kind of benchmark?
Dualbooting to Windows would be a quite complicated: I've installed Arch Linux on encrypted partition on entire SSD, so I'd need to shrink it, therefore installing Windows as a 2nd second OS just for a benchmark would take some time.

Edit: there's also tip for installing crda and editing

/etc/conf.d/wireless-redgom

to match your specific country.
I've done that, and maybe uninstallation of this package would even fix the problem. Haven't tried this yet, but I assume this won't work, since my download speed doesn't drop momentarily, but after some time of (-in)activity.

UPDATE: Seems to be related to Wi-Fi adapter. Having the same issue on Windows.

Last edited by freedomd1v3 (2025-02-26 13:58:09)