WiFi regularly disconnects and asks for password to reconnect

English Network/Internet
1

My wi-fi connection keeps dropping out (disconnecting). I get a popup window asking for the wifi password, which I enter and then it reconnects for a short while.
Is the wifi access password not stored anywhere so it can auto-connect?

Magni

2

Hello and welcome to the openSUSE forums.

As Linux (and thus openSUSE) has huge amount of choices and variations of using the system and the applications and as we can not look over you shoulder, please tell us what you are using.

For network e.g. are you using WIcked or NetworkManager? in the second case, what desktop environment? Maybe other details about your network environment.

3

Hi Henk and thanks for responding:
Desktop is KDE Plasma version 5.18.6
Kernel Version 5.3.18-lp152.106-default 64-bit
I’m using NetworkManager

General configuration for the adaptor is:
Connect automatically with priority 1 - checked
All users may connect to this network - checked

Wi-Fi configuration is:
Mode - Infrastructure

Wi-Fi Security is:
WPA/WPA/2 Personal
Password *****
Store Password for all users - selected

IPV4 and IPV6 Methods are both Automatic

Is there other information I can collect / pass? I’m not sure what information is required to help diagnose the problem

Magni

4

The above is a good start. I do not use NetworkManeger, but others will tune in.

5

This seems strange. I have the same set up and here it works well. The only difference is the priority setting. I have a “0” entered there - AFAIR it was default setting. I don’t think that makes a big difference. I assume you are using the plasma applet? If the setting is stored for all users you must enter the root password. Did it ask you for it? Otherwise the settings can not be persistant.

Edit:
You can find the settings of your connection in: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
There is a file named after the SSID of your WLAN. The PSK must be there in plain text. Can you find it?

6

Hi Kasi,
Yes the psk is there in plain text.
I changed the priority from 0 to 1 to see if would help in any way, but it didn’t.

magni

7

Examination of the NetworkManager logging may be useful.

sudo journalctl -u NetworkManager

*It can be lengthy, and you’re looking for disconnection and reconnection logging.

To watch it on the fly

sudo journalctl -fu NetworkManager

then observe/capture the moments where you are getting disconnected and prompted to reconnect again.

Share the wireless NIC/driver details…

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --wlan

Similar archlinux thread…
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=228107

8

Hi Deano, thanks for the reply - here is my hwinfo:

07: PCI 100.0: 0282 WLAN controller
  [Created at pci.386]
  Unique ID: y9sn.MxvvoCwdjwB
  Parent ID: z8Q3.O8qDgKpXcV4
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.0/0000:01:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Device Name: "Ralink WLAN Ralink RT3290LE Roma 802.11bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi + BT4.0 co"
  Model: "Hewlett-Packard Company Ralink RT3290LE 802.11bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter"
  Vendor: pci 0x1814 "Ralink corp."
  Device: pci 0x3290 "RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x18ec "Ralink RT3290LE 802.11bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter"
  Driver: "rt2800pci"
  Driver Modules: "rt2800pci"
  Device File: wlan0
  Features: WLAN
  Memory Range: 0x52510000-0x5251ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 16 (no events)
  HW Address: 68:94:23:a5:fb:e1
  Permanent HW Address: 68:94:23:a5:fb:e1
  Link detected: yes
  WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
  WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 2.467 2.472 2.484
  WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
  WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001814d00003290sv0000103Csd000018ECbc02sc80i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: rt2800pci is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe rt2800pci"
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #3 (PCI bridge)

I don’t know if the Ralink adaptor is Broadcom related (and the responses in the article you posted seemed to indicate it was broadcom harsware that was the culprit).

The journalctl command is mainly handshake messages - other than this.

Dec 30 12:55:35 Linux-box NetworkManager[23358]: <warn>  [1640868935.6492] sup-iface[0x55bef09ca110,wlan0]: connection disconnected (reason -4)

Magni

9

I really don’t know what to advise here. Lots of results if you search “rt2800pci disconnects” online. Does this happen after machine has been suspended, or from boot as well?

10

The NM reason codes are listed here…

NM_DEVICE_STATE_REASON_CONFIG_FAILED The device could not be readied for configuration