Arch Linux

hudavendigar

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

Greetings,

This is the first time I've ever encountered something like this, usually restarting NetworkManager helps, but this time to no avail. I've been for posts of users having the same problem. I've done, and reverted when it produced no results, solutions on every similar post and it still nothing. Yes, the wifi disappeared just after I'm booting the linux just after booting Windows and it did an automatic update. Please help. Here's the result of checks some responders usually asked.

❯ pacman -Qi linux-lts
Name            : linux-lts
Version         : 6.6.70-1
Description     : The LTS Linux kernel and modules
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.kernel.org
Licenses        : Apache-2.0 OR MIT  BSD-2-Clause OR GPL-2.0-or-later  BSD-3-Clause
                  BSD-3-Clause OR GPL-2.0-only  BSD-3-Clause OR GPL-2.0-or-later  BSD-3-Clause-Clear
                  GPL-1.0-or-later  GPL-1.0-or-later OR BSD-3-Clause  GPL-2.0-only  GPL-2.0-only OR Apache-2.0
                  GPL-2.0-only OR BSD-2-Clause  GPL-2.0-only OR BSD-3-Clause  GPL-2.0-only OR CDDL-1.0
                  GPL-2.0-only OR Linux-OpenIB  GPL-2.0-only OR MIT  GPL-2.0-only OR MPL-1.1
                  GPL-2.0-only OR X11  GPL-2.0-only WITH Linux-syscall-note  GPL-2.0-or-later
                  GPL-2.0-or-later OR BSD-2-Clause  GPL-2.0-or-later OR BSD-3-Clause  GPL-2.0-or-later OR MIT
                  GPL-2.0-or-later OR X11  GPL-2.0-or-later WITH GCC-exception-2.0  ISC  LGPL-2.0-or-later
                  LGPL-2.1-only  LGPL-2.1-only OR BSD-2-Clause  LGPL-2.1-or-later  MIT  MPL-1.1  X11  Zlib
Groups          : None
Provides        : KSMBD-MODULE  VIRTUALBOX-GUEST-MODULES  WIREGUARD-MODULE
Depends On      : coreutils  initramfs  kmod
Optional Deps   : wireless-regdb: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
                  linux-firmware: firmware images needed for some devices [installed]
Required By     : None
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : wireguard-lts
Installed Size  : 128,64 MiB
Packager        : Andreas Radke <andyrtr@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Thu Jan 9 20:22:24 2025
Install Date    : Fri Jan 10 22:39:06 2025
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

❯ uname -a
Linux xxxxx 6.6.70-1-lts #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu, 09 Jan 2025 13:22:24 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

❯ lspci -k
...
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak] (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 2110
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
	Kernel modules: iwlwifi
...

❯ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp4s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether d8:c4:97:a8:8f:2c brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enxd8c497a88f2c
3: enp0s20f0u3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 66:a1:6b:fe:e9:a1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enx66a16bfee9a1

Note that I remember usually wlan0 shows up here.

Please help, thanks! Please point me where to look. I'm so clueless.

Last edited by hudavendigar (2025-01-19 11:11:37)

kermit63

Member

Registered: 2018-07-04

Posts: 288

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

make sure Windows Fast Startup is disabled. Even if you disabled it before, windows update can sometimes turn it back on.

After disabling it, reboot to Windows and arch at least twice. Because of some quirks unknown to me, it doesn't get disabled after the first reboot.

Also, please refrain from saying "please help". People here will help when they can. It can even turn off potential helpers.

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Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,245

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

windows updates are known to re-enable fast startup & hibernation without asking or telling .

Double check if that is the case .
see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dual_b … ibernation

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hudavendigar

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

Also, please refrain from saying "please help". People here will help when they can. It can even turn off potential helpers.

Thanks. I have yet to understand the etiquette of this forum. I'm just panicking because this laptop is the only one I have.

Last edited by hudavendigar (2025-01-18 15:38:07)

mackin_cheese

Member

Registered: 2025-01-07

Posts: 146

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

Also, please refrain from saying "please help". People here will help when they can. It can even turn off potential helpers.

Thanks. I have yet to understand the etiquette of this forum. I'm just panicking because this laptop is the only one I have.

Perhaps you're better off us using a more beginner friendly distro then. If it's your only laptop and you're panicking and resorting to the forum first thing instead of doing research and taking the time to learn Arch Linux, you're better off using beginner friendly distro and experimenting with Arch through a VM.

hudavendigar

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

Perhaps you're better off us using a more beginner friendly distro then. If it's your only laptop and you're panicking and resorting to the forum first thing instead of doing research and taking the time to learn Arch Linux, you're better off using beginner friendly distro and experimenting with Arch through a VM.

Resorting to ask the forum is NOT my first thing to do, read my post, though it's true I didn't list everything I was doing to find out why. I'm asking because I'm stuck and the general inspection as far as I'm able doesn't work. I don't even know why and how Fast Boot interacts at deep level resulting to a most surface, seemingly random thing as the disappearance of network interface AND I'd be glad if someone could tell me why this is so because most of the information available only stops on making everything back work and call it the day (and maybe my google-fu is not that great). The Wiki only listed cautions "do this then everything works", not cause, and I don't even know Windows usually turns it back on without user's knowledge. It's ignorance on my part.

I really hate this kind of attitude, really. It closes someone's else door to learn.

Also thanks to kermit63 and LoneWolf for the idea. It's true, the wifi interface backs up but I have no idea why. If you happen to know how Fast Boot and Linux interacts, I'd be glad to hear.

Last edited by hudavendigar (2025-01-19 08:22:00)

-thc

Member

Registered: 2017-03-15

Posts: 775

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

We live a world with new kinds of neo-feudalism/authoritarianism are popping up everywhere - including the IT industry. You'll notice this in the general attitude of the tech firms towards their customers and the behavior of their bosses (Musky, Zucky, Bezy...).

Among others the tech firms
- harvest and use and sell the 6 kinds (service, disclosed, entrusted, incidental, behavioral, derived) of data you create. A new "gold rush".
- are selling you "shiny" products with "shiny" attributes but their inner security culture is rotten the core - and they know it. Makes more profit.
- are shaping their products around a paternalistic mind set. "We know better than you how you want to work with this."

That last attitude has lead to the change of the shutdown behavior of Windoze 8+: Microsoft thinks you don't really want to shut down the computer. So it doesn't (but doesn't tell you so). It's a kind of hibernation ("Hybrid shutdown") leading to a "faster" boot time and leaving some hardware in a kind of suspend/sleep/limbo state (at least not the correct "powered down" state) - especially network controllers. Another OS at boot time finds the device in an unexpected state - and sometimes fails to handle the device.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,738

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

I don't even know why and how Fast Boot interacts at deep level resulting to a most surface, seemingly random thing as the disappearance of network interface AND I'd be glad if someone could tell me why this is so

Windows' "fast startup" is actual a form of hybrid suspend-and-resume so the machine doesn't actually shut down properly when you tell Windows to "power off". This can leave some network cards in an inaccessible state, and can lead to corruption on the Windows partitions should they be mounted under Linux. HTH.

EDIT: dammit, sorry -thc. I didn't mean to echo your response.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2025-01-19 09:42:53)

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hudavendigar

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

It's a kind of hibernation ("Hybrid shutdown") leading to a "faster" boot time and leaving some hardware in a kind of suspend/sleep/limbo state (at least not the correct "powered down" state) - especially network controllers. Another OS at boot time finds the device in an unexpected state - and sometimes fails to handle the device.

Windows' "fast startup" is actual a form of hybrid suspend-and-resume so the machine doesn't actually shut down properly when you tell Windows to "power off". This can leave some network cards in an inaccessible state, and can lead to corruption on the Windows partitions should they be mounted under Linux. HTH.

Hey thanks, yall make this problem less mystical. I don't get why of all components of the machine, why the network card is vulnerable to this condition.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,807

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot system, WiFi is missing after Windows update

It's typically all radio and the reason is (likely) to preserve existing connections either for faster "re"-connects or just to be able to wake up and use the network to upload all your pers… to fetch valuable updates while you're sleeping.
A bigger concern is actually filesystems - any attempt to write to an NTFS partition that's still in "active" use by windows will lead to some form of data corruption/loss.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter - hibernation is not a shutdown, here's the story of a bear:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 4#p1960554

You cannot expect to run one OS while another one is hibernating. Windows, Linux, MacOS. Doesn't matter.
The only oddity is that Windows now (well since a decade or so) silently defaults to hibernation on power-off.

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