Wifi signal strength change when clicked on wifi icon in kde

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1

Complete linux noob.I just want to know if its a normal behaviour. I am usually 5-8 meters from my router. WIFI satus icon shows low bars but when i click on the icon the strength suddenly becomes full.

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.70-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64
  root=UUID=61144fc1-596f-4c11-9c70-b98a8276dba9 rw udev.log_priority=3
  apparmor=1 security=apparmor quiet audit=0
  snd_hda_codec_hdmi.enable_silent_stream=0
  systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=true
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E7440 v: 00 serial: <filter>
  Chassis: type: 9 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Dell model: 06MFX3 v: A01 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: A28
  date: 06/13/2019
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 41.6 Wh (89.7%) condition: 46.4/47.7 Wh (97.3%)
  volts: 8.4 min: 7.4 model: SMP DELL 909H538 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
  status: Unknown
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.68 GiB used: 2.78 GiB (36.3%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-4310U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
  arch: Haswell family: 6 model-id: 45 (69) stepping: 1 microcode: 26 cache:
  L2: 3 MiB bogomips: 20760
  Speed: 601 MHz min/max: 800/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 601 2: 694 3: 592
  4: 678
  Flags: abm acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts
  clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm
  dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase
  fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx
  monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm
  pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdtscp rep_good
  sdbg sep smep smx ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2
  tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave
  xsaveopt xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional,
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915
  v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a16 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Microdia Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  bus-ID: 2-4:3 chip-ID: 0c45:64d2 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
  loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2")
  s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
  v: 4.5 Mesa 21.2.3 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
  v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
  v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.70-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.38 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel
  port: f080 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:155a class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 02:00.0
  chip-ID: 8086:08b1 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
  bus-ID: 1-1.3:3 chip-ID: 8087:07dc class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
  rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
Not an ARRAY reference at /usr/bin/inxi line 16007.
2

If you don’t experience any network connection or speed drops, you should not bother much about status icon. Once you clicked and the information on it is refreshed, does it change back to low bars?

3

yes after sometime, but comes back up after i click again. Speed doesn’t suffer. And this happens with all distros.

4

Could be a KDE Plasma minor bug, or probably cache issue … If network works without issues, then you can consider it a cosmetic inconsistency.

5

I am fine with it but wanted to know if i am the only one experiencing this. Thnx for the reply.

6

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

  1. Please read this:
    How to provide good information
    and press the three dots … below your post and press the :pencil2: to give us more information so we can see what’s really going on.
    Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.
7

It’s also possible that this is a feature of your router who stays in a standby-mode with minimum functions and is only in full featured mode if activated. this seems to me the most plausible cause from your information.

8

Sorry if i am wasting your precious time as i am pretty sure you all are busy replying to more pressing issues people are having. This is not even an issue for me but i am just trying to learn.
I also have a windows pc and 3 android devices connected to the same router, none has this reporting issue. Can i attach a video to my post to provide more accurate behaviour? Or should i just ignore this and not stretch this any further?

9

this inxi command as shown above gives information about your hardware. without this it is a simple guessing, so it is common that everyone give this information at hardware issues if he/she request help. it’s not rude, it’s just elementary.

10

I have added the system info and issue video , thanks.

11

if you check the arch-wiki you’ll find this link
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dell_Latitude_E7440
the iwlwifi is installed but if you follow the iwlwifi link there you’ll get to here
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wireless#iwlwifi
it describes some troubleshooting if it is not working, but your’re is working but if you follow the reading it shows up that there are power saving settings
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_saving#Network_interfaces
and it seems that you’re power saving is enabled and therefor the functionality is not 100% while your wifi is not used.
you can disable this if it bothers you or is failing or you can stay with this behaviour “as known” and save money by less power consumption

P.S.: another well known source for misbehaviour is the tlp-service. check the wiki for tlp-service and how to optimize it for your needs

12

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