No network with rtl8821ce after latest stable update

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1

I have a Lenovo Ideapad L340 with an RTL8821CE Wi-Fi chipset that I have been happily using for months with the AUR driver rtl8821ce-dkms-git. But when I rebooted after the latest stable update of Oct 19 no more Wi-Fi connection was available in KDE Plasma’s Network Manager.

I tried removing and reinstalling the driver, I tried rtl8821ce-dkms instead, I tried using the 5.8 kernel with the same result. I also tried the 5.9 kernel with the integrated driver but nothing.

Looking at the system, it seems that the hardware is functioning and the driver is loaded. But why doesn’t network manager use it? Is it blacklisted somehow?

Here are more details:

inxi -SNxxx

System:    Host: lenovo Kernel: 5.4.72-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.19.5 
           tk: Qt 5.15.1 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lenovo driver: rtl8821ce v: N/A 
           port: 4000 bus ID: 07:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:c821 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 
           bus ID: 08:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168

sudo dmesg | grep rtl8821

[    3.532697] rtl8821ce 0000:07:00.0 wlp7s0: renamed from wlan0

lspci | grep 8821

07:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)

lsmod | grep 8821

8821ce               1978368  0
cfg80211              851968  1 8821c

nmcli

wlp7s0: disconnected
        "Realtek RTL8821CE"
        wifi (rtl8821ce), MAC_REDACTED, hw, mtu 1500

p2p-dev-wlp7s0: disconnected
        "p2p-dev-wlp7s0"
        wifi-p2p, hw

enp8s0: unavailable
        "Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411"
        ethernet (r8169), MAC_REDACTED, hw, mtu 1500

lo: unmanaged
        "lo"
        loopback (unknown), 00:00:00:00:00:00, sw, mtu 65536

nmcli device show (MAC addresses removed)

GENERAL.DEVICE:                         wlp7s0
GENERAL.TYPE:                           wifi
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         <MAC-ADDRESS_3>
GENERAL.MTU:                            1500
GENERAL.STATE:                          30 (disconnected)
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     --
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       --

GENERAL.DEVICE:                         p2p-dev-wlp7s0
GENERAL.TYPE:                           wifi-p2p
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         (unknown)
GENERAL.MTU:                            0
GENERAL.STATE:                          30 (disconnected)
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     --
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       --

GENERAL.DEVICE:                         enp8s0
GENERAL.TYPE:                           ethernet
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         
GENERAL.MTU:                            1500
GENERAL.STATE:                          20 (unavailable)
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     --
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       --
WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER:               off

GENERAL.DEVICE:                         lo
GENERAL.TYPE:                           loopback
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         00:00:00:00:00:00
GENERAL.MTU:                            65536
GENERAL.STATE:                          10 (unmanaged)

sudo systemctl status NetworkManager

● NetworkManager.service - Network Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service.d
             └─NetworkManager-ovs.conf
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-10-24 22:49:52 CEST; 14min ago
       Docs: man:NetworkManager(8)
   Main PID: 718 (NetworkManager)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 9386)
     Memory: 14.2M
     CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service
             └─718 /usr/bin/NetworkManager --no-daemon

Oct 24 22:50:06 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603572606.3361] manager: startup complete
Oct 24 22:50:09 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603572609.8091] agent-manager: agent[7cb72a6d6296a79a,:1.44/org.kde.plasma.networkmanagement/1000]: agent registered
Oct 24 22:54:58 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603572898.1270] device (wlp7s0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to <MAC_ADDRESS_1> (scanning)
Oct 24 22:54:58 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603572898.6531] device (wlp7s0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> inactive
Oct 24 22:54:58 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603572898.6532] device (p2p-dev-wlp7s0): supplicant management interface state: disconnected -> inactive
Oct 24 23:01:19 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603573279.7729] device (wlp7s0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to <MAC_ADDRESS_2> (scanning)
Oct 24 23:01:19 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603573279.8097] device (wlp7s0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> disconnected
Oct 24 23:01:19 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603573279.8098] device (p2p-dev-wlp7s0): supplicant management interface state: inactive -> disconnected
Oct 24 23:01:20 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603573280.2928] device (wlp7s0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> inactive
Oct 24 23:01:20 lenovo NetworkManager[718]: <info>  [1603573280.2929] device (p2p-dev-wlp7s0): supplicant management interface state: disconnected -> inactive
2

maybe helpful

3

Thanks. Unfortunately not.

Blacklisting ideapad_laptop does not change anything (except losing all the function keys).

This thread is promising though, I will join it.

4

has this blacklisting brought nothing?

blacklist rtw_8821ce
blacklist rtw88_8821ce
5

No. None of the blacklisting suggestions brought anything.

6

I found a log trace that may be interesting.

Is this normal behavior? The beacon scan is not taking place because another one is in progress… but it does look like it is.

journalctl -b | grep wlp7s0

Oct 26 18:40:55 lenovo kernel: rtl8821ce 0000:07:00.0 wlp7s0: renamed from wlan0
Oct 26 18:40:56 lenovo NetworkManager[723]: <info>  [1603734056.8239] device (wlp7s0): driver supports Access Point (AP) mode
Oct 26 18:40:56 lenovo NetworkManager[723]: <info>  [1603734056.8250] manager: (wlp7s0): new 802.11 Wi-Fi device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/3)
Oct 26 18:40:56 lenovo NetworkManager[723]: <info>  [1603734056.8269] device (wlp7s0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed', sys-iface-state: 'external')
Oct 26 18:40:57 lenovo NetworkManager[723]: <info>  [1603734057.3945] device (wlp7s0): supplicant interface state: internal-starting -> disconnected
Oct 26 18:40:57 lenovo NetworkManager[723]: <info>  [1603734057.3946] device (wlp7s0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Oct 26 18:41:31 lenovo plasmashell[1240]: plasma-nm: Last scan finished  5079 ms ago and last request scan was sent  0 ms ago, Skipping scanning interface: "wlp7s0"
Oct 26 18:41:31 lenovo plasmashell[1240]: plasma-nm: Rescheduling a request scan for "wlp7s0" in 4921
Oct 26 18:41:37 lenovo wpa_supplicant[812]: wlp7s0: Reject scan trigger since one is already pending
7

OK. So the issue discussed here was resolved for me by the latest stable update… albeit for only a few minutes :frowning_face::rage:

I performed today’s stable update on my system (Lenovo Ideapad L340) then rebooted with kernel 5.4 and Wi-Fi woked again with the rtl8821ce driver. Great!

Then I rebooted with kernel 5.9 which is also installed on the system. There Wi-Fi did not work. I tried blacklisting rtw88_8821ce and rebooted but it did not work either.

BUT when I finally booted again with kernel 5.4… No Wi-Fi. I tried the usual since: remove blacklisting, de-install rtl8821ce, de-install 5.9, re-install rtl8821ce, reinstall kernel 5.4, nothing works. I also tried kernel 5.8 with no better result.

It looks like it is booting with 5.9 (and its rtw88_8821ce driver) that screws everything up but I don’t understand why.

8

I just restored a timeshift snapshot from a few days ago and perform the stable update again. It did not bring Wi-Fi back to life. :thinking:

9

After removing linux59 and switching to the testing branch, the latest kernel update re-enabled Wi-Fi. It took some time / a few reboots after the update before it worked again though.

I have no idea what is going on with this driver and the kernel.

10

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