Internet Connection breaks up regularly - since update

Dear Colleagues,

Dear Community

I have a Network problem, that unfortunately I was not able to solve by myself. It is kind of this similar to this post of 2022.

I keep loosing the Internet connection. Watching a video on YouTube or streaming / surfing something on the internet and suddenly internet connections is lost. Tries to reconnect an in 10-40 sec is back. I cant imagine that my Wifi Adapter is somehow in power saving mode because I am constantly using the computer. Or it still can, while I am computing?

It got very bad since my last system update (My XFCE war on the 29. December fully updated). Now it happens to 2-3x times whiting an hour!!! :hot_face:

How can I search the source of the problem and how can I fix it?

I donā€™t have a router connection problem. Our TV, Tablets and Windows PC donā€™t have this connection problem in the house. Everything is running smoothly. Only my DELL XPS17-9720 and my son`s DELL Inspiron 15-5510 , both running Linux, have this Internet connection lost problem.

DELL supplies his computers with Linux distros for years now. DELL must have reliable Linux drivers for all his PC-s by now. I am sure this is regarded to some setup, and must be a solution finding the problem on my XPS. I didnĀ“t have this problem before my Update back in August 2024!!

I would appreciate if you could support solving this issue.

I have attached following Information:

Global Information

My Kernel

My Release version of Manjaro

Drivers

PCI Devices

If you require additional information or I forgot something (supplied everything accoding to [HowTo] Provide System Information ) in the outpunts, please let me know.
Thank you in advance.

So did ypu try the suggestion? It is as easy as creating a text file at the correct directory, put a line in it and restart. :man_shrugging:

Sure it can. Imagine it saves power and lower the signal strength ā€¦ wuuups no signal ā€¦ try to reconnect ā€¦ signal strength is high again. :man_shrugging:

Unfortunately no, because I didnā€™t have this issue before and I am not sure that I have a power saving problem: I donĀ“t seem to have anything in the

etc/udev/rules.d

directory

stefan > DELL-XPS17 > ~ lsmod | grep ā€˜^iwl.vmā€™
iwlmvm 700416 0

stefan > DELL-XPS17 > ~ ls /etc/udev/rules.d/ -lhai
total 8,0K
4719486 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4,0K 21. Dez 2022 .
4718643 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4,0K 15. JƤn 20:01 ā€¦

But the post did not refer to that directory - it suggested to create a file in
/etc/modprobe.d/

ā†’ /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

with this content:

options iwlmvm power_scheme=3
1 Like

Yes, sorryā€¦You are right @Nachlese . But like I mentioned, I don`t think I have a power-saving mode Problem on my Laptop. I checked the ArchWIKI for my modell and it doesnā€™t say anything about this issue. I never had this issue before.
Does it still make sense to create this file then? Shouldnā€™t I search for something else?
Is there a way to install the WIFI driver again in Linux?

Yes.

You donā€™t (or shouldnā€™t) want to go on belief but on what you know. :wink:

Not before you checked that this wonā€™t solve your problem.
Itā€™s very easy to do - takes 5 seconds and a reboot ā€¦
and another 5 seconds to reverse it - just delete the file or put a # in front of the line in it ā€¦

What for? - You will be getting the exact same thing that you have already.
Precisely nothing will change when you reinstall the same driver again.
(I havenā€™t looked whether this is included with the kernel or whether it is built from AUR - but ā€¦ it will just be the very same in any case.)


btw:
these are the options that you have - 2 is the default

modinfo iwlmvm
...
...
...
parm:           power_scheme:power management scheme: 1-active, 2-balanced, 3-low power, default: 2 (int)

setting it to 3 doesnā€™t look promising to me - but I would still try 3 and 1 ā€¦

1 Like

ok @Nachlese, but for me was more than 5 sec. :grin:
I logged on sudo an created the file and add the line using nano. Saved it an rebooted.
Now what? I wait and keep an eye if the connection problem still reappears again?

Yes.

What Iā€™d do also is:

open a terminal and have the command
journalctl -f
running in it while you use your machine - it will continuously print any new message from the kernel and thus likely help you capture the moment when the issue occurs, without having to dig through the whole log.

ā€¦ just quit the process by CTRL+C and then look at (or copy paste) the last, hopefully useful, messages which should hint at what happened and why ā€¦
You can scroll up to see more than just the immediate content of the terminal window ā€¦

ā€¦ and: please just use copy/paste for terminal output - no pictures/screenshots

You can, of course, also install yet another kernel - either an older LTS or a newer one and see whether that makes a difference.

1 Like

Thank you @Nachlese ! I will do soā€¦ In case I need the terminal , I can still use it parallel in a second TAB or window, no?
I will test it by Sunday (both computers) and if the problem is solved I will post it !
If the problem reappears I will post the output as a pastebin link.
Appreciate your time for supported meā€¦

You need it - it is the (only) way to have that command (the real time log view ā€¦) running while you are doing other things.

That you cannot do - a Terminal app is a Terminal app and a Browser is a Browser. :wink:

You are aware that you can more than one application open at any one time? :slight_smile:
ALT+TAB switches between the active windows ā€¦ and they are also in the panel.

ps:
ā€¦ I probably misunderstood what you meant with the question - sorry

Well it dint take long. I got my first interroption at 14:39. I was online, on web and I lost internet for about 40-50sec.
Here ist the output of the last lines from running the above command. What do you think @Nachlese ?

Try to capture a few more lines, go back farther, further up.
ā€¦ up to anything with NetworkManager in it, perhaps

My WiFi works, so I can only ā€œsimulateā€ a disconnect by actually disconnecting and then reconnecting myself.

I do not see messages like this on my machine:

wpa_supplicant[1692]: wlp0s20f3: CTRL-EVENT-SIGNAL-CHANGE above=1 signal=-69 noise=9999 txrate=864800

Here, I donā€™t see anything related to noise level and signal strength.

It could be the ambient noise level (a microwave, perhaps - or interference with bluetooth).

Maybe you can use 5 GHz vs. 2.4 GHz ?
Donā€™t know whether the card or your router support this.

Here is everything since you recommended running the

journalctl -f

Still running on my pc.

I am using 2.4G on Wifi. No Micro or similar , only my Bluetooth mouse and docking station.

In light of the modinfo iwlmvm output, your card is now in mode 3 (low power),
which probably is not ideal.
Try setting it to 1 instead of 3 (2 is the default).

another unlikely possibility:
If your installation is older, you may have TLP installed - itā€™s for power saving and was installed by default until some time ago.
Check and disable that for the device.

or (already mentioned) try using a different kernel

What I meant is:
can you switch to 5 GHz?

I also didnā€™t mean your microwave - but that of people nearby.
I live in a 5 story city building with probably around 30 to 50 apartments in the range of less than 50 meters - plenty of microwaves I do not control or even know about :wink: - and each one has got a WiFi as well ā€¦ plenty of noise there.
You, on the other hand, might not have any close by neighbors possibly running interference ā€¦

Your firewall drops packets from quite a few local addresses in the 10.0.0.x range - as well as broadcasts.
But I do not know what is up with that.

I do not see any disconnect/reconnect events - the connection never drops and is established again - it appears to be stable.

In other words: I have no further bright ideas :man_shrugging:

You mean just nano the

/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

file and change the position to 1?

Yes you are right. This running OS was installed sometimes back in 2022. It is always up to date. Never had a reason to change it or reinstall it. Should I reconsider a full Re-installation of the XFCE in the future? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:
How do I check if my kernel is TLP? I have this installed:
I will switch the kernel, but how do I now to which one?
I used to run the linux61 but switched some time ago to linux66.

available kernels:

  • linux419
  • linux510
  • linux515
  • linux54
  • linux61
  • linux611
  • linux612
  • linux613
  • linux66
  • linux61-rt
  • linux611-rt
  • linux66-rt

Regarding:

I can try. I need to contact my provider for that, no? Or is a Router setup?

Thank you again for your support. :muscle:Will call it a day. I will try to solve it , if not than maybe reinstall a full fresh ISO of Manjaro.
Have a nice day=week. And thank you againā€¦ :wave:

Yes - change it from what is now:

options iwlmvm power_scheme=3

to

options iwlmvm power_scheme=1

ā€¦ just to try and perhaps see a difference ā€¦

No.

Itā€™s not your kernel that ā€œis TLPā€.
Itā€™s about you, checking whether the software TLP is installed.

If your system was installed in 2022, TLP might have been the default and might still be installed.

It probably isnā€™t - but I donā€™t know.
Look at your package manager whether it is.

ā€¦ go back to using linux61 - itā€™s still installed, just choose it at the Grub prompt

or try any other except the ones with -rt at the end of the name

No. They just set the defaults. They donā€™t manage that for you.
You configure that - to the extent the hardware and software of the thing allows you to do it.

It is a router setup option (if and when your router can even do it) -
and it also is a question of whether your WiFi card can even use it.

The default on most routers should already be:
both are enabled if they can do it.
I donā€™t know about your WiFi card - whether it can do it.

That should not be necessary - and if you donā€™t know what to look for, what to possibly do differently, the result will be the very same as it is now.

Perhaps disable your firewall (at least temporarily),
to rule out that it is not the piece of the puzzle which is interfering here.

It could be as simple as a loose antenna connector inside the laptop ā€¦

Thank you for everything @Nachlese
I will check my router. I am pretty much sure that I can change to a 5Gz.
I changed the power scheme to 1 and switched back to linux61 kernel.

Regarding TLS.

Yes TLP is installed. At least based on the Terminal outcome of

stefan >DELL-XPS17 > ~ pacman -Qs tlp
local/tlp 1.7.0-1
Linux Advanced Power Management

ā€¦Should I remove it? Or need to change something in the

/etc/tlp.conf

file? By the way, I took a look at the file. All positions are with a # in front. LIke nothing is set. Should I send you a copy?

probably not - there is also a GUI to configure it
rather than having to edit the
/etc/tlp.conf
file by hand - although, from my memory of it, the options there are pretty well described.

See whether you have that GUI installed also.
In Xfce with the whisker menu, you just need push the ā€œWindowsā€ key to access the menu and then start typing to find it - or any installed program.

It has been a long time that I used TLP.

TLP settings might affect the performance of your WiFi when set to power save too aggressively.

Dell XPS 17 9720 System BIOS
Version ā€ƒā€ƒ ā€ƒ 1.30.1
Release dateā€ƒ 16 Jan 2025

Dell Technologies highly recommends applying this important update as soon as possible. The update contains critical bug fixes and changes to improve functionality, reliability, and stability of your Dell system. It may also include security fixes and other feature enhancements.

I would suggest using iwd instead of wpa_supplicant for the newest Intel WiFi Cards, since iwd is developed by Intel and the cards are tested with that backend as I know.

Keep sure iwd is installed and then add this:

File: /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi_backend.conf

[device]
wifi.backend=iwd

NetworkManager - ArchWiki

Then restart: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

See if that helps.