Hi,
Since yesterday I’m experiencing troubles with the network connections, both wifi and ethernet (using a usb c dock).
It seems like sometimes I’m lucky enough to get connection, sometimes not.
I’m using a Dell XPS 15 (and now I’d say that I absolutely don’t recommend using linux on this machine), uname -a gives me:
Linux kanelbulle 5.8.18-1 MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Nov 1 14:10:04 UC 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux
When I try to get to the networks window, it freezes and takes a long time to run. Then I have the following message (rough translation from French) instead of the list of available connections:
Something went wrong. Please contact your software distributor. NetworkManager should be running.
So restarted NetworkManager:
systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
And it took a few minutes, now I have the icon for the ethernet connection but it’s still not working, I can’t load any web page.
Anyone is experiencing the same ? Do you have any lead ?
Hi @supermarille 
Maybe IPv6 is the problem. Try to disable it in the Network-Manager.
nm-connection-editor
Thank you for your answer, I tried on both wifi + ethernet but it doesn’t change anything.
@supermarille
I would try running:
journalctl -f -t NetworkManager
Then watch what happens there. Maybe there is a hint what causes your problem.
With journalctl -f -t NetworkManager
I can see the following errors:
nov. 19 13:26:12 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <info> [1605788772.3287] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_SITE
nov. 19 13:26:12 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <info> [1605788772.3293] device (enp56s0u1u3): Activation: successful, device activated.
nov. 19 13:28:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <warn> [1605788901.9657] device (wlp0s20f3): re-acquiring supplicant interface (#1).
nov. 19 13:28:22 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <error> [1605788902.3759] device (wlp0s20f3): Couldn't initialize supplicant interface: GDBus.Error:fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.UnknownError: wpa_supplicant couldn't grab this interface.
nov. 19 13:28:22 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <info> [1605788902.3760] manager: startup complete
nov. 19 13:28:28 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <info> [1605788908.0246] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_GLOBAL
nov. 19 13:28:32 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <warn> [1605788912.7533] device (wlp0s20f3): re-acquiring supplicant interface (#2).
nov. 19 13:28:33 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <error> [1605788913.1688] device (wlp0s20f3): Couldn't initialize supplicant interface: GDBus.Error:fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.UnknownError: wpa_supplicant couldn't grab this interface.
nov. 19 13:28:43 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <warn> [1605788923.7576] device (wlp0s20f3): re-acquiring supplicant interface (#3).
nov. 19 13:28:44 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <error> [1605788924.1737] device (wlp0s20f3): Couldn't initialize supplicant interface: GDBus.Error:fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.UnknownError: wpa_supplicant couldn't grab this interface.
nov. 19 13:28:54 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <warn> [1605788934.7565] device (wlp0s20f3): re-acquiring supplicant interface (#4).
nov. 19 13:28:55 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <error> [1605788935.1528] device (wlp0s20f3): Couldn't initialize supplicant interface: GDBus.Error:fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.UnknownError: wpa_supplicant couldn't grab this interface.
nov. 19 13:29:05 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <warn> [1605788945.7627] device (wlp0s20f3): re-acquiring supplicant interface (#5).
nov. 19 13:29:06 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <error> [1605788946.1676] device (wlp0s20f3): Couldn't initialize supplicant interface: GDBus.Error:fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.UnknownError: wpa_supplicant couldn't grab this interface.
nov. 19 13:29:06 kanelbulle NetworkManager[6688]: <info> [1605788946.1677] device (wlp0s20f3): supplicant interface keeps failing, giving up
@supermarille
I would guess that the device name wlp0s20f3 has been changed and therefore wpa-supplicant can’t find it.
I would look for messages like:
wlp0s20f3: renamed from wlp0s20f4
for example.
If that is the case, then you need to use a fixed name, so that it don’t get renamed every time.
Here is a way how to do it:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration#Change_interface_name
You’re right, I checked the journal and it was renamed from wlan0.
What I don’t understand is that I have this log about renaming every day, at least once. So why am I having troubles only now ?
no idea… Maybe a change in the kernel according to usb hubs? Try another kernel.
Unfortunately I still have the issue, even if there is no renaming in the journalctl logs, and I don’t know where to look.
The logs look fine, there are no errors, but I still have to wait several minutes to load a page, with a lot of tryings.
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9245] device (wlp0s20f3): state change: ip-config -> ip-check (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9292] device (wlp0s20f3): state change: ip-check -> secondaries (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9294] device (wlp0s20f3): state change: secondaries -> activated (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9298] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_LOCAL
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9336] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_SITE
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9338] policy: set 'Auto AllCatsAreBeautiful' (wlp0s20f3) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9373] device (wlp0s20f3): Activation: successful, device activated.
nov. 23 09:35:21 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120521.9379] manager: startup complete
nov. 23 09:35:23 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120523.7850] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_GLOBAL
nov. 23 09:42:31 kanelbulle NetworkManager[4527]: <info> [1606120951.9538] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_SITE
I tried again nm-connection-editor but the list is empty.
Weird thing is that I see activity in the Net Activity Viewer, the “received” and “sent” values seem alive.
Could you share your system details?
inxi -Fazy
Another weird thing is that earlier today I was on a videocall without troubles, but couldn’t load a web page.
However, I’m sorry but I think we’ll never find out. I have to give this machine back very soon with a fresh install, so I lost patience and I performed the fresh install. It’s very frustrating but I don’t have enough time now to look into this issue.
Thank you very much for your help so far !