Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

Sharkie00 · 2023-02-28 16:12:55

I recently installed Arch Linux with encrypted root on a USB key and I noticed some strange behavior ongoing. I installed Arch Linux as a removable medium only last week and there has been little use of the computer.
I am a newbie and I don't know much about Arch Linux.

My Arch Linux is pretty much lightweight and fast most of the time. Sometimes however, when I get connected to a public wifi, I notice that when I entered "sudo bash" (for general purposes like pacman -Syu), the exit command may take a long time to exit (several minutes), and it will often only respond once I enable Airplane mode, as if the wifi could interfere with it.
I also noticed that sometimes the screen goes blank for a micro second while I am working on the computer and connected to a public wifi (as if it was a screenshot).

I don't know if I should associate this behavior with me badly setting up the USB key, or if it comes from some program not running smoothly on the USB key, or if it could be a virus, and what I should do in this case.

I installed my USB key following a mixture of the official recommendations, from the following links:
https://mags.zone/help/arch-usb.html
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-cry … _partition
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Instal … ting_Linux
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … mendations (more mags.zone for the setup itself)

Besides installing gnome and some general softwares (libreoffice, firefox, etc.) on my Arch Linux, there are no changes. (Simple stateful firewall has been set up, but there no servers that I installed that could cause interference with the wifi settings). I tried installing Flatpak and then removed it.

Any guess on what is going on?

I need to work from time to time with some sensitive data and I can compartmentalize my work on a different USB key that is not connected to the wifi if it could help protect the privacy of my data.

Any recommendations on how I should proceed?

seth · 2023-02-28 21:30:59

PSA: a usb key is not a cheap SSD and not a very good root partition. You want to read up https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Instal … ble_medium

On topic: is the wifi wired via PCI or USB (lspci/lsusb)?
Is the lag limited to

when I get connected to a public wifi, I notice that when I entered "sudo bash"

?
=> What's the output of "hostnamectl"?
PSA/2: don't open root shells unless you mean to and if you do, use "sudo -i", not "sudo bash". But don't. You can just "sudo pacman -…"

Sharkie00 · 2023-03-01 17:32:02

It is connected via lspci (Everything is). lsusb gives out "command not found".

I will be more careful about opening root and focus only on sudo command. (What is the difference between sudo -i and sudo bash?)

Sharkie00 · 2023-03-01 17:33:27

What are you looking for with hostnamectl? There is nothing that I find unusual there.

loqs · 2023-03-01 17:59:45

If you have not set a valid hostname, a transient hostname will be used which can be changed on connection to a network. This breaks hostname based authentication.
Please post the full system journal for a boot with the issue. Redact anything you do not wish to share. Please use a unique token for each redacted string.

V1del · 2023-03-01 18:00:45

Whether you have a valid static hostname that isn't localhost. lsusb is part of the usbutils package. In general if we ask for output, please post the output, there's very little of actually private and identifying information (or post the output and CLEARLY mark things that you alter for privacy reasons) in most of these and they can be vital and it can be very annoying to have to play a teeth pulling game because someone isn't willing to disclose vital information, while not knowing what kind of information we'd want/need

seth · 2023-03-01 21:07:20

To answer the remaining

What is the difference between sudo -i and sudo bash?

"sudo -i" will open a login shell for the shell configured for the root user, not an interactive bash.
https://man.archlinux.org/man/core/sudo/sudo.8.en#i
https://man.archlinux.org/man/core/bash … INVOCATION

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-28 16:12:55

Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

#2 2023-02-28 21:30:59

Re: Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

#3 2023-03-01 17:32:02

Re: Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

#4 2023-03-01 17:33:27

Re: Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

#5 2023-03-01 17:59:45

Re: Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

#6 2023-03-01 18:00:45

Re: Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

#7 2023-03-01 21:07:20

Re: Arch Linux on USB displaying strange behavior while connected to wifi

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