Wifi Slowness

I have switched to Opensuse recently due to lot of functionality available compared to another linux distros.

Everything works great, except 1 minor issue

The wifi connectivity tops at 50 to 75 Mbps for download; upload speed has no issues.

typeically i get about 200Mbps in other distros on same hardware. I tried gecko linux (rolling with all the same updates as opensuse tumbleweed) and it was also able to get about 200Mbps.

So wondering if there is anything that i am missing from settings.

I am trying to use Opensuse Tumbleweed as daily driver and working on zoom pauses video with message “Your internet is unstable” and would like to make things right to be able to use Opensuse on daily basis

Gecko is OpenSUSE with pre-installed packages that OpenSUSE does not offer - Like MATE desktop as a default.
Yes, I know that you can install MATE from the OpenSUSE DVD.

Maybe you should go back to Gecko - the repo’s are the same as OpenSUSE - just the background is different.

Thanks for quick response.

I am using KDE plasma for desktop environment.

I am fan of how disk partitioning is done in Opensuse compared to gecko

Since they are using the same packages, trying to figure out why it behaving differently for wifi? Still doing some research, but any hints on how to resolve it will be helpful.

  1. You picked wrong sub-forum. You need https://forums.opensuse.org/forumdisplay.php/676-Wireless.
  2. Without any info about hardware I only can conclude, that there are gremlins, and you need magic ritual to get rid of them.

I have switched to Opensuse KDE recently for lot of functionality available compared to another linux distros.

Everything works great, except 1 minor issue. The wifi connectivity tops at 50 to 75 Mbps for download; upload speed has no issues. Typically i get about 200Mbps in other distros on same hardware. I tried gecko linux (rolling with all the same updates as opensuse tumbleweed) and it was also able to get about 200Mbps.

Reason for preference over other distos (especially gecko) is due to disk partitioning done in Opensuse (BTRFS + Subvolumes)

So wondering if there is anything that i am missing from settings.

I am trying to use Opensuse Tumbleweed as daily driver and experience slowness in web pages loading, watching videos, and having video calls.

Since opensuse and gecko are using the same packages, trying to figure out why it behaving differently for wifi? Still doing some research, but any hints on how to resolve it will be helpful.

My hardware information
Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi

7.194878] **iwlwifi** 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0100 -> 0102)
7.411789] **iwlwifi** 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 36.ad812ee0.0 8000C-36.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
8.173755] **iwlwifi** 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 8260, REV=0x204
8.247507] **iwlwifi** 0000:02:00.0: base HW address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
8.323494] **iwlwifi** 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: renamed from wlan0

Please let me know if there is anything further i need to look into

Thanks…i posted my question in https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/554041-Wifi-Speed-Slowness?p=3030088#post3030088

I find it ironic that we partition our disks for filesystems.

We used partitions in the old days because disks were 10MB each so we needed separate file systems boot etc bin home var were all separate drives because there were no large affordable drives - the 10mb drive was $25,000 without the controller and was the size of a 2 drawer filing cabinet and had lead weights to keep the cabinet from moving. The big Unix box had 64MB of ram - most only had 16MB.

To combine disk they developed Veritos (which is LVM today) to combine disk to make a large disk (5 10mb to make a 50mb image) today we use to the break up large disks.

I like everything in one partition. And I back up 100% twice a week and delta backup every 6 hours to offline backup drive that is rsync’ed to.

Sorry, the idea about Network/Internet not being the best place because there is the more specific Wireless was good. The advice to start a new thread was not. In the T&C it is forbidden to double post (this creating confusion, who reads answers in both?).

The correct advice should have been to use the report button (the triangle with ! below a post) to ask a mod to move the thread.

I will now combine both.

I am the least technical contributor to the opensuse forum. So, this decidedly low-tech post should be taken as a desire to be helpful, if useless!

I have an ancient laptop with a Broadcom wireless chip. The download speeds were similar to what you report. The driver never updated in zypper dup but I forced and update to a wl driver and my download speeds more than doubled. Maybe there is a beta driver out there that might work for you.

Thanks… appreciate your response

I see that 8000C-36 loads up for the Intel AC 8260 card, but on the official intel website the driver for this is 8000C-13. Not sure if that is the issue, since in gecko it uses the same 8000C-36 and does not have any issues…

Not sure, if some additional packages (due to difference in # of packages in opensuse (2200+) vs gecko (1700+) ) may be conflicting and causing this issue…

Continuing in researching on my end, but any pointers from this forum will be really helpful

I see the Intel card has also Bluetooth.

Bluetooth and WiFi (on 2.4 GHz) do coexist but the WiFi throughput will be low.
So is somehow Bluetooth enabled?

Possibly too new kernel in TW for Intel nic. Test Leap and compare experience.
You may use external USB Wi-Fi adapter with another die if you need TW.

Maybe a newer (or older) firmware can help.
I have build it on May 20th with some iwlwifi changes:
https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Sauerland:/hardware/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/noarch/kernel-firmware-20210520-3.1.noarch.rpm

But I build all firmware files in one rpm, so please delete the ones from Tumbleweed.

Or install some older firmware:
https://software.opensuse.org/package/kernel-firmware-all

Courtesy: https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/90rhsw/opensuse_tumbleweed_wifi/

Fix:

File: /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi_fix.conf

[connection] wifi.powersave=2

[device] wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

Or a one line command (as root):

/bin/sh -c "if ! test -d /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d ; then mkdir /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d ; fi; printf '[connection]
wifi.powersave=2

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no
’ > /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi_fix.conf" && systemctl restart network

There is plenty of room for any distribution to make things more complicated than necessary. Thus I prefer a common approach and now go with systemd-networkd/systemd-resolved: Network Management With Systemd - openSUSE Wiki