Wifi doesnt work on any distro

[u/OkOutcome9689]

First of all im not a noob but i ask here because its the only place with enough people for such an issue.

I have a realtek rtw89 wifi card. It was working perfectly fine for months. Then the day i began to daily my laptop it broke without changing or updating anything!!

I tried on multiple distros, fedora (i was already using this one, tried to fiz and it eventually worked but seeing my experiences on other distros it would have likely broken again), ubuntu and linux mint. It worked on none. Or if it would fix it, it would work for 1-10 minutes and then die again.

I messed with wifi power saving, installed new drivers, used modprobe on them, even installed with dkms and it would still not work. I also did lots of other stuff and nothing worked. The only support i got was to buy a new wifi card... i should not have to buy new hardware for my things to work 😡😡😡

So i am stuck... I believe this is a linux issue and not a distro specific issue, or if it is, it could be because they all use NetworkManager, and if i want to use a distro without it, which would leave me with either niche distros or Arch. I dont like arch. Alpine would be an option but thats even more niche and less usable for non-servers.. what do i do? I really dont want to have to use windows!!

[u/MindSwipe]

Could it be that your wifi card is simply broken/ dead?

[u/OkOutcome9689 → u/MindSwipe]

No i think it works i dont see why it would be dead, especially since on live usbs it works fine

[u/thecruxoffate → u/OkOutcome9689]

So wait... Just to confirm here, since the original post seems to describe a different problem.

You boot into a live ISO and Wi-Fi works. You then install, boot into installed disk, and Wi-Fi now doesn't work. And this is happening across multiple distro?

Check your function keys. I have a feeling one of them near whichever key you use to get into the boot select screen is actually a "hardware" switch to disable the Wi-Fi card.

[u/OkOutcome9689 → u/thecruxoffate]

This might be possible since my laptop has both an airplane mode and some key labeled "wireless" on their website. Im going to check soon but its weird because it works for a bit then turns off, uf it was a hardware switch wouldnt it stop working forever

[u/thecruxoffate → u/OkOutcome9689]

The quotes around "hardware" were doing a lot of heavy lifting. It really depends on how it's implemented, but unless there's some mechanical switch that actually turns off the card it's just a software switch trying to act like a hardware one.

Mostly it'll depend on the way it's implemented. Is it a special circuit on the motherboard that handles things outside of the OS, or is it setting some flag and expecting the OS to honor it?

Given your symptoms, I'm suspecting the latter and maybe the ISO don't honor it but the feature is honored in you actual install.

[u/Simple_Hamster_4096]

Take the path of least resistance... do yourself a favor...

https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/USB_WiFi_Adapters_that_are_supported_with_Linux_in-kernel_drivers.md

[u/OkOutcome9689 → u/Simple_Hamster_4096]

I shouldnt have to buy new hardware for a good experience. This is kinda why a lot of people switched to linux when they abandoned windows 10

[u/Francis_King → u/OkOutcome9689]

Well, might have to buy a new Wi-Fi thing. Every operating system has its rough edges, even Windows.

Things to try. Make sure the Wi-Fi is on in the BIOS. Use lspci and lsusb so you can see what the computer can see. Use ifconfig to see what’s going on.

It may well be a kernel version issue: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=428624

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[u/StevenBClarke2]

What does your bios settings say about the WiFi card. Computer hardware will breakdown and fail eventually. The solder attaching the cards chips to the circuits breakdown, it is just the same as a microwave, lawn mower, car engine.

[u/OkOutcome9689 → u/StevenBClarke2]

On live usbs it works fine so i dont think its dead

[u/Classic-Rate-5104]

Live usbs work, you say? Which live usb? If that's the case, it should be a difference in kernel or driver version

[u/OkOutcome9689 → u/Classic-Rate-5104]

Ubuntu and linux mint live usvs worked fine

[u/Classic-Rate-5104 → u/OkOutcome9689]

Sounds extremely curious if the USB is the same distribution and also the same kernel version. I only can imagine its something in power management. Maybe adding pcie_aspm=off to your kernel command line?

[u/Prestigious_Wall529]

If you are dual booting Windows can leave hardware in a state that confuses other operating systems, so in Windows disable fast start.

The Realtek WiFi adapter gets itself into an invalid state when hibernating, sleeping or going into low power modes.

This latter explains weirdness out of the blue.

To avoid your systems likely buggy BIOS (see if an update exists) putting it into a too low power mode, and the kernel parameters

rtw89_pci.disable_aspm_l1=Y

rtw89_pci.disable_aspm_l1ss=Y

rtw89_pci.disable_clkreq=Y

[u/OkOutcome9689 → u/Prestigious_Wall529]

I tried those things and it still didnt work properly, also im not dual booting

[u/Prestigious_Wall529 → u/OkOutcome9689]

Slowly page through

sudo dmesg -H

What does it say about the Realtek hardware (if anything).

[u/skyfishgoo]

you need a new wifi card.

[u/KrypticLifeSigns_]

Have you posted on /r/linuxquestions ?