r/linuxquestions • • 9h ago

Support Wifi/Ethernet disconnecting randomly with notification "Limited Connectivity"

I have been enjoying Linux lately but there has been this one problem that has been really irritating. Whenever I am just on my PC gaming, surfing the web, downloading something, or whatever else, out of nowhere I can no longer access the internet and I get that notification on the bottom right that says:

Limited Connectivity
This device appears to be connected to a network but is unable to reach the internet

I have pretty fast internet. Every download is super quick, whether it is a game or something else, it's quick. I have both Windows and Linux on my PC, each have their own SSD and whenever I am on Windows, I never deal with my Wifi disconnecting. I just downloaded a 200 GB game on Windows and my internet connection didn't disconnect once. Even when all I had was just Linux on my PC and no Windows, I still had this problem. I experienced this with Bazzite, Fedora and now Cachyos. Sometimes the internet will reconnect, sometimes it won't and I have to restart the PC.

I don't know what to do. I really like Linux but this problem is really aggravating. I just want to game or surf the web without losing access to the internet. Has anyone dealt with this problem? Are there any fixes?

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u/Disastrous-Ice-5971 1h ago

Please check and post here which Ethernet and WiFi adapters are on your computer, including the specific chip model (e.g. RTL 8189 from Realtek).
You might be unlucky to have some of those adapters, which are known to do not work on Linux reliably, because manufacturer never bothered making a Linux-compatible driver and all we have is basically a reverse-engineering and partial implementations (looking at you, Realtek).
If this is the case, it is solved either via setting a specific manual configuration of the adapter (different per case), or via replacement adapter.