WIFI no longer working after update

[nrickert]

Here's what I would try:

Boot to single user mode. Or boot rescue media and mount your system. The idea is to be accessing your system with NetworkManager not running.

Remove the connection definition file in "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/"

Remove the connection state files in "/var/lib/NetworkManager/"

Reboot to graphic mode, and configure your connection. This should now be like configuring just after a clean install, with nothing remaining from what was previously there.

(Before removing those files, you can first copy them to elsewhere in case you want to undo this).

[MirceaKitsune]

I temporarily removed /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections and almost everything from /var/lib/NetworkManager, after running "sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager.service" and ensuring the service was down (the system tray icon disappeared to confirm this). No results after restarting unfortunately. What else do you suggest trying next?

[malcolmlewis]

I temporarily removed /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections and almost everything from /var/lib/NetworkManager, after running "sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager.service" and ensuring the service was down (the system tray icon disappeared to confirm this). No results after restarting unfortunately. What else do you suggest trying next?

Hi
You don't seem to provide info on the chipset in use, not a broadcom device?

As root user post the info from;

hwinfo --network

[MirceaKitsune]

33: None 00.0: 10701 Ethernet                                   
  [Created at net.126]
  Unique ID: usDW.ndpeucax6V1
  Parent ID: rBUF.amNVgiHJezE
  SysFS ID: /class/net/eth0
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.0/0000:03:00.0
  Hardware Class: network interface
  Model: "Ethernet network interface"
  Driver: "tg3"
  Driver Modules: "tg3"
  Device File: eth0
  HW Address: 00:26:2d:84:6b:db
  Permanent HW Address: 00:26:2d:84:6b:db
  Link detected: no
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #1 (Ethernet controller)

34: None 00.0: 1070a WLAN
  [Created at net.126]
  Unique ID: AYEt.QXn1l67RSa1
  Parent ID: y9sn.0_PmERRIX24
  SysFS ID: /class/net/wlan0
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:05:00.0
  Hardware Class: network interface
  Model: "WLAN network interface"
  Driver: "ath9k"
  Driver Modules: "ath9k"
  Device File: wlan0
  HW Address: 92:93:f4:7d:a2:fb
  Permanent HW Address: 00:17:c4:dc:ab:f3
  Link detected: no
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #18 (Network controller)

35: None 00.0: 10700 Loopback
  [Created at net.126]
  Unique ID: ZsBS.GQNx7L4uPNA
  SysFS ID: /class/net/lo
  Hardware Class: network interface
  Model: "Loopback network interface"
  Device File: lo
  Link detected: yes
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

[MirceaKitsune]

It seems I managed to find a permanent solution, which was pointed out in the early stages of this issue. Funny enough it was the NetworkManager Wait Online service causing it. Likely because WIFI doesn't activate at boot time, and without a LAN cable plugged in the machine doesn't have early internet connectivity thus the service errors out. I disabled it as a boot time optimization after looking it up and seeing that it's useless, but after restarting I noticed all my connections are immediately working again.

sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service

As that service is pointless on my laptop and I have no reason to re-enable it, I can consider the issue resolved in my case. This still isn't normal behavior and will likely cause headaches to other users, so I'm leaving the discussion open for the team to debug it. I'd suggest booting a machine that's not connected to the internet via any connection that can be immediately detected (eg: cable internet) to get a complaint from NetworkManager Wait Online, then seeing if this causes WIFI connections to be missing after you log in.

[jerseysal]

After applying Tumbleweed 02072020 my wifi stopped working on my HP laptop. Short of it; Kernel vmlinuz-5.5.1-1 and vmlinuz-5.5.2-1 do not work with the wifi adapter. I booted vmlinuz-5.4.14-2 and got back online.

So, wazzup???

[hwalle]

After applying Tumbleweed 02072020 my wifi stopped working on my HP laptop. Short of it; Kernel vmlinuz-5.5.1-1 and vmlinuz-5.5.2-1 do not work with the wifi adapter. I booted vmlinuz-5.4.14-2 and got back online.

So, wazzup???

Apparently it's a bug in the latest wpa_supplicant, where the order of the startup sequence has been reversed - this is consistent with the observations in this thread that manually starting services in the right order works just fine... As a work-around, revert and lock to
wpa_supplicant-2.6-lp151.4.4.x86_64

Details here https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1166933 .