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I'm using an HP 14 with a Realtek RTL8188ee wireless network adapter and Ubuntu 18.04. The problem is that sometimes the wifi adapter and the Network Manager turn off out of the blue, and the only way to turn them on again is to restart the computer. This happens after the wifi signal is lost and the computer tries to reconnect again. The issue is rather unpredictable - sometimes I can spend the whole day without it happening, and sometimes it disconnects every few minutes and it takes me several tries to get the wifi working again.

I have looked for other solutions online but the threads I've found are rather old and nothing has worked. I reinstalled the OS a couple of weeks ago. I even took the computer to the repair shop and they told me there was nothing wrong with the wireless adapter. So I'm at my wit's end, and would greatly appreciate your help.

Here's the info outcome of the “wireless-info” script https://pastebin.com/BDYp4Y5w

Thank you in advance!

camerashy
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  • Look at the logs: journalctl $(type -p NetworkManager) – waltinator Oct 05 '18 at 17:40
  • Here's the output https://pastebin.com/EJD9iJq1 Thanks! – camerashy Oct 05 '18 at 18:33
  • I don't read LogVomit - YOU should extract a few interesting lines from that dump, and ask questions about them. – waltinator Oct 05 '18 at 20:36
  • Thank you for your reply. I understand you're using your valuable time to reply to me, but if I'm asking here is because I don't have the knowledge to make sense of these logs. If I knew exactly where the error is in the logs and what to ask I wouldn't be wasting your time, I'd probably know enough to fix the issue myself. – camerashy Oct 05 '18 at 21:24
  • Try a different kernel - rollback to an older LTS version –  Oct 05 '18 at 23:57

1 Answers1

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I don't have an exact answer but I have the same wi-fi adapter (RTL8188ee) and I want to share my investigation.

In short, try to go to your Network Configuration and choose BSSID, press OK button and reconnect. This variant won't work if you use wi-fi roaming. If you use archlinux you can install networkmanager-noscan

The idea is to disable background wi-fi scanning that doesn't work properly and has errors. Maybe there are another ways to disable the scanning, try to find these variants if needed.

The source the solution is here

Firstly, there is a list of commands that can help you reveal a reason of the problem.

  1. Look at firmware info in a log file and find realtek or rtl words. rtl is an abbreviation of realtek.
dmesg | grep -i firm

or

dmesg | grep -i firmware

or

dmesg | grep rtl
  1. Look at a list of network cards.
sudo lshw -class network
  1. Look at systemd journal and find an info about NetworkManager.
journalctl $(type -p NetworkManager)
  1. Look at your wi-fi module (driver) available option list.
user@user-PC:~$ modinfo rtl8188ee
filename:       /lib/modules/4.18.0-17-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtlwifi/rtl8188ee/rtl8188ee.ko
firmware:       rtlwifi/rtl8188efw.bin
description:    Realtek 8188E 802.11n PCI wireless
license:        GPL
author:         Larry Finger    <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
author:         Realtek WlanFAE <wlanfae@realtek.com>
author:         zhiyuan_yang    <zhiyuan_yang@realsil.com.cn>
srcversion:     69B74227D1AF7CF8C664053
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008179sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        rtlwifi,rtl_pci,mac80211
retpoline:      Y
intree:         Y
name:           rtl8188ee
vermagic:       4.18.0-17-generic SMP mod_unload 
signat:         PKCS#7
signer:         
sig_key:        
sig_hashalgo:   md4
parm:           swenc:Set to 1 for software crypto (default 0)
 (bool)
parm:           ips:Set to 0 to not use link power save (default 1)
 (bool)
parm:           swlps:Set to 1 to use SW control power save (default 0)
 (bool)
parm:           fwlps:Set to 1 to use FW control power save (default 1)
 (bool)
parm:           msi:Set to 1 to use MSI interrupts mode (default 1)                                                                                                                             
 (bool)                                                                                                                                                                                         
parm:           aspm:Set to 1 to enable ASPM (default 1)                                                                                                                                        
 (int)                                                                                                                                                                                          
parm:           debug_level:Set debug level (0-5) (default 0) (int)                                                                                                                             
parm:           debug_mask:Set debug mask (default 0) (ullong)                                                                                                                                  
parm:           disable_watchdog:Set to 1 to disable the watchdog (default 0)                                                                                                                   
 (bool)

You can add these options to /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8188ee.conf file. If there is no such file then you should create the file sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8188ee.conf For example, we can disable power saving like that:

options rtl8188ee ips=0 swlps=0 fwlps=0 aspm=0
  1. You can look at exact module (driver) name with these commands.
sudo apt install ethtool            # install an utility
sudo lshw -class network            # find a value of "logical name:" field (e.g. wlp19s0)
ethtool -i wlp19s0 | grep driver    # use the value of "logical name:" in the command (e.g. wlp19s0)

An example of that where rtl8188ee is a name of a module (driver).

user@user-PC:~$ sudo lshw -class network
  *-network                 
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       logical name: enp7s0
       version: 07
       serial: dc:4a:3e:d3:2e:f5
       size: 10Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl8106e-1_0.0.1 06/29/12 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
       resources: irq:18 ioport:5000(size=256) memory:d6000000-d6000fff memory:d6100000-d6103fff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:13:00.0
       logical name: wlp19s0
       version: 01
       serial: 26:70:f9:cd:0e:3c
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8188ee driverversion=4.18.0-17-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.3 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:48 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:d3000000-d3003fff
user@user-PC:~$ ethtool -i wlp19s0 | grep driver
driver: rtl8188ee

  1. Set wi-fi region to use local area frequency. Open /etc/default/crda file and set REGDOMAIN= to REGDOMAIN=RU for Russia (use a value of your country). List of REGDOMAIN values you can find here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2 Reboot your system.

  2. There is a case when your wi-fi module can have only one wi-fi antenna instead of two antennas. But wi-fi driver algorithms work as for two wi-fi antennas. See: https://askubuntu.com/a/1018851 https://askubuntu.com/a/883688 https://askubuntu.com/a/1079892 In short, you should add options ant_sel=1 or options ant_sel=2 to /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8188ee.conf and reboot your system.

  3. You can to try install a newer driver from the driver developer repository, see https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new

  4. You can try to disable power saving https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/315400 In addition, you can disable module (driver) power saving by adding options rtl8188ee ips=0 swlps=0 fwlps=0 aspm=0 to /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8188ee.conf and rebooting your system.

  5. The possible reason of the error is an background wi-fi scaning. As I understood there is an error in the driver but NetworkManager try to call this buggy background scanning anyway. You can lock BSSID by setting it explicitly in your system Network Configurer to prevent this buggy background scanning or you can install networkmanager-noscan if you use Archlinux.

Secondly, my experience. I have tried all of these options except installing newer version of the driver from https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new Now I locked BSSID and all works fine for a while. To lock BSSID just choose a value from a list in your GUI network configurer. See https://askubuntu.com/a/834013/813587

Kuzeyeu Siarhei
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