Wifi connection is not consistent on Leap 42.1

I upgraded my old Toshiba laptop to openSUSE Leap 42.1 and have been having wifi issues ever since. I don’t think this is a network issue because both my work laptop (Windows 7) and mobile phone (Android) work flawlessly.

My personal laptop is able to connect to the internet and work sometimes, but then unnecessarily falls out, all while saying it is still connected. This has converted my laptop into a lightweight desktop that is tethered to an Ethernet cord…

I have done some research and been unable to pinpoint the issue. Some people have suggested that the network connectivity issue could be caused by ‘power saving’ software that kills the connection when not in use. I’m not sure if that is the case in my situation, could someone help me determine if this is the cause?

If that is not the cause, are there any other ways of determining this wifi consistency issue?

Using the following command:

sudo lshw -class network

returns the following output:


  *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:8c:fa:24:07:f7
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=alx duplex=full ip=192.168.0.79 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:29 memory:c8500000-c853ffff ioport:3000(size=128)
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 20:68:9d:dc:6e:ca
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192ce driverversion=4.1.20-11-default firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.18 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:17 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:c8400000-c8403fff

This will show the parameters set (default or otherwise) for this module

systool -v -m rtl8192ce

I’ve seen a number of threads and bug reports concerning this hardware noting the problems you’ve described. Some have found that using particular module options (ips=0 fwlps=0) when the module is loaded has been helpful. The ‘ips=0’ is used to disable power management apparently. Create a .conf file in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory eg /etc/modprobe.d/10-rtl8192ce.conf. and add the options there. It will take effect the next time the module is reloaded, or at the next boot.

options rtl8192ce ips=0 fwlps=0

if using IPv4 and DHCP has the lease time been checked on the router?

after recent update on Leap the lease time was set at 5 minutes which
implies a renegotiation of address every 150 seconds
hence leading to a very unreliable WiFi interface

ymmv

systool -v -m rtl8192ce

I’ve looked for systool, but can’t find it. Where did you get this?


rpm -qf /usr/bin/systool 
**sysfsutils**-2.1.0-153.1.x86_64

Additional hint:

Install the “command-not-found” package, quite useful in a lot of cases.

Example:


rfkill
If 'rfkill' is not a typo you can use command-not-found to lookup the package that contains it, like this:
    cnf rfkill

cnf rfkill
                      
The program 'rfkill' can be found in following packages:
  * rfkill  path: /usr/sbin/rfkill, repository: zypp (osc) ]

Try installing with:
    zypper install rfkill

Or in case the command is already there:


cnf systool
                       
Program 'systool' is present in package 'sysfsutils', which is installed on your system.

Absolute path to 'systool' is '/usr/bin/systool'. Please check your $PATH variable to see whether it contains the mentioned path.

Or in other cases, an additional hint might be given:


cnf lspci
                     
Program 'lspci' is present in package 'pciutils', which is installed on your system.

Absolute path to 'lspci' is '/sbin/lspci', so running it may require superuser privileges (eg. root).

AK

Thanks. I had forgotten about the “cnf” command. Will add it to my commands.txt file.

Want another one for that file?


# zypper what-provides /usr/bin/systool /usr/sbin/systool /sbin/systool /bin/systool
Command 'what-provides' is replaced by 'search --provides --match-exact'.
See 'help search' for all available options.
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name       | Summary                             | Type   
--+------------+-------------------------------------+--------
i | sysfsutils | System Utilities Package / Libsysfs | package

Or (as indicated by zypper) the new syntax:


# zypper search --provides --match-exact /usr/bin/systool /usr/sbin/systool /sbin/systool /bin/systool
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name       | Summary                             | Type   
--+------------+-------------------------------------+--------
i | sysfsutils | System Utilities Package / Libsysfs | package

You need to give the full path, but for a binary there are not too many reasonable choices.

Added to the file. Thanks.