Problem with WiFi driver in arch linux

Hi everyone

I’ve been trying to solve a problem with my arch (endeavour) instalation and wanted to know if anyone here can help

Everything is working well, excepting the WiFi connection. It is extremely slow, sometimes disconnecting from the network, and in the task bar, the WiFi icon shows that the signal strength is weak, although the router is in the same room. Switching between r8168 and r8169 as recommended doesnt work. Any ideas?

@linux

  • Nicolas Rojas
    OP
    4•1 year ago

    01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 [8086:24fd] (rev 78)
    02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 15)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [1043:200f]

    • Rustmilian
      11•1 year ago

      I did some digging.
      Check if iwlwifi kernel module is loaded with
      lsmod | grep iwlwifi
      If not sudo modprobe iwlwifi
      Then in /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf add

      options iwlwifi swcrypto=1 11n_disable=1

      And reboot, check if the problem is still persistent. If it is let me know, as there’s a few more things we can try like disabling power management.

      • Nicolas Rojas
        OP
        8•1 year ago

        @Rustmilian @linux Thank you for your help! I did what you suggested and it fixed about 80% of the problem. I no longer randomly disconnect from the network and it is way faster than before, although download speed is still 8x slower than it was last week when I had fedora running instead of arch. I think I’m going to try more values for the 11n_disable parameter (there is no power management to disable), but even if it doesnt improve my machine is at least usable now. Thanks!

        • Rustmilian
          2•1 year ago

          I’m glad to hear that worked.
          I suggest trying sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off replacing wlan0 as needed, this temporarily disables the wireless card’s power saving features.
          Then check if the speed has improved, if not, skip the following.
          If it has improved make the change permanent by adding the following to file /etc/pm/power.d/disable-wireless-power-management :

          #!/bin/bash
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off

          Then run sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/disable-wireless-power-management

          I assume the linux-firmware package is already installed, but double check if you’re not sure. It provides iwlwifi-8265-36.ucode in /usr/lib/firmware/ which I believe is your cards specific iwlwifi driver. Intel Wireless Firmware Page is the source that made me think to check.

          If the above doesn’t work let me know as there’s a few more things we can try, but we’re reaching the end of our options.

          • Nicolas Rojas
            OP
            1•1 year ago

            @Rustmilian @linux Just tried that but no change. iwconfig was not found but I installed it through the wireless_tools arch package. Also confirmed that the linux-firmware package was always been installed with the iwlwifi-8265-34 and iwlwifi-8265-36 files in the folder you said. When I ran the iwconfig wlan0 power off command, there was no error but the connection quality didnt change, so I didnt do the rest of the suggestions
            @Link commented they had the same issue but in the end decided that the solution was replacing the realtek card for an intel because the drivers just dont work. Im starting to agree, but still dont know how this issue didnt exist when I had fedora running

            • Rustmilian
              1•1 year ago

              Well here’s where I became less helpful. There’s 3 possible things I can think of, unfortunately as I haven’t had to do them myself I don’t know how exactly to go about doing them.
              First is to optimize the MTU settings.
              Second is to optimize the Regdomain.
              Third is to investigate Fedora’s WiFi configuration for your card.
              Sorry that I can’t help you pass here.

              • Nicolas Rojas
                OP
                2•1 year ago

                @Rustmilian @linux Yeah, it’s close to impossible to find documentation on what to do here. I’m trying to find out how is it that Fedora works well with the same hardware, and even considering changing the card itself, but for the moment at least my connection is much more stable after setting the iwlwifi.conf file
                Once again, thank you for your help!