WiFi suddenly stopped working [solved]

CrouchingTigger · n00b Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 16

Hello everyone,

Something funky seems to have happened to my WiFi connection. I'm not sure, but it might be connected to the recent update of wpa_supplicant. Since a reboot, there are no networks available/visible in plasma-nm and NetworkManager logs:

jburns · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2022 5:25 pm Post subject:

I had the same problem with WiFi not working after the update, but I could see other routers when I looked for available routers just not mine. I used my phone's hot spot to connect to connect to the internet through the router. My solution was to replace my router that supported the ac standard with one that supported the ax standard.

Jean-Paul · Guru Joined: 13 Apr 2009 Posts: 307

Hi,
I ran into the same error yesterday. no wifi after update to wpa_supplicant-2.10-r1.
BTW we have the same nic, maybe that mean something.

CrouchingTigger · n00b Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 16

Gentlenoob · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 66

Hi all,

I also had troubles after todays wpa_supplicant upgrade from 2.10 to 2.10-r1

CrouchingTigger · n00b Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 16

unheatedgarage · n00b Joined: 19 Sep 2016 Posts: 60

Also had the same problem. For now I switched back to net-wireless/iwd.

In my case I didn't notice the problem until a day after the update, after rebooting -- all my systems were affected -- thankfully I remembered that wpa_supplicant had been recently updated.

Glad to see I'm not the only one with the problem.
_________________
I'm not even mad; I'm impressed!

jburns · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 12:15 am Post subject:

A possible workaround is to build wpa_supplicant with the tkip USE flag. The default was tkip enabled until 2.10-r1 where the default was changed to disabled.

houtworm · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 12:32 am Post subject:

paluszak · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 12:21 pm Post subject:

CrouchingTigger · n00b Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 16

MFG080xc0 · n00b Joined: 22 Jan 2021 Posts: 2

devsk · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 6:33 pm Post subject:

This begs the question: Why did the dev decide to do this default switch with an -r1 update without a NEWS item which could flash this?

All the folks who only have TKIP support in their routers will fail to connect, leaving them no resort to recover (how do you download the older ebuild if your wifi is down?).

Changes like this need to be thought out and announced so that folks know that the breakage is coming! Dev's concern for security is appreciated but a heads up NEWS item would be too!

jburns · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:52 pm Post subject:

The problem was not caused by the router only having TKIP support although that would be a problem. One of the solutions was to disable TKIP support in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. The problem seems to also be related to using the iwlwifi driver.

The problem could be caused by 1. wpa_supplicant saying it supports TKIP when it does not and 2. The iwlwifi driver not being able to handle the case where wpa_supplicant says it supports TKIP when it does not support it. The problem is also related to the router capabilities. I solved my problem by replacing my 802.11ac router with a 802.11ax router. Befor I replaced the router I connected to the internet via a hot spot on my phone which supports 802.11ax which connected to my router.

devsk · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:04 pm Post subject:

Yeah, there are several pieces involved in making the wifi communication happen. That's why we can't switch a piece off unilaterally! Taking tkip support away from wpa_supplicant without announcing it first was a bad idea!

I would have liked not needing to troubleshoot my kernel, drivers, recent firmware package update, router etc. Took a long time! If there was a news item for it, it would have saved me half day's worth of reverting and fiddling with different pieces.

Gentlenoob · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 66

Seconded.

Plus repeating my plea for some less strict removal policy. My knee-jerk reaction to sudden breakage is reverting back, which wasn't easily possible here, as the working version was gone (and I would have to read about local repos, git etc. first).

Cheers, Ralph

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21597

I think emerge --usepkgonly =wpa_supplicant-2.10 should have been able to reinstall a binpkg of the older version, even without the ebuild.

I'm not surprised that TKIP was changed to default to disabled. According to equery use, it was deprecated in 2009.

As far as asking for a different removal policy, are you sure that the relevant developer(s) are even reading this thread? If not, it doesn't matter what you ask them to do. They'll never know you asked.

Gentlenoob · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 66

I'll try to remember that option, but if I'm not mistaken, this only works if a binpkg is available, which I think it wasn't in my case. But the even simpler emerge =wpa_supplicant-2.10 should have done the trick, if ebuild (+ distfiles) still there.

pre-2009 sounds about right for my 1st wifi attempts. The router from these days was replaced 3y ago, with no apparent hiccups.

What's a better place to ask for a more recovery-friendly removal policy? Keeping 1 - 2 older versions doesn't seem too unreasonable to me, at least for more critical system stuff. I even vaguely remember having seen discussions on such issues? Any hints?

Cheers, Ralph

cavernico · n00b Joined: 27 Dec 2020 Posts: 71

You can downgrade to 2.9 emerging from libressl overlay and problem is fix. Also enabling the use flag mentioned above also works for me.

Gentlenoob · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 66

sorry, if I didn't make that clear, the problem is fixed for me already. I've also set the tkip useflag now, just in case I'll run into some old router somewhere.

I was just bitching a bit since this was the 1st time with Gentoo that I wasn't able to revert easily to some working state (if I remember correctly).

Cheers, Ralph

ese002 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 143

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21597

The deprecation note is in equery use output, which makes it the domain of the Gentoo maintainer. The Wiki is community-maintained, and the Gentoo maintainer may or may not even read that page. The manual pages are maintained by upstream, which may or may not be the same group that maintains the Gentoo package.

According to Wikipedia, in 2009, IEEE resolved to deprecate TKIP. In 2012, a standard revision formally deprecated it.

Yes, the documentation should be updated accordingly. However, I see nothing in this thread to lead me to believe that the person who changed the default on the USE flag is the documentation maintainer for any of the documentation you cite. The people who maintain those documentation sources could be advised to add a deprecation note.

devsk · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2022 5:28 pm Post subject:

Documentation gets ignored most of the time. I think this kind of change is best suited for a news item that appears in 'eselect news', a notification for which is shown at the end of each emerge. The tkip removal is EXACTLY what the news was designed for.

PS: I have always read the news items religiously because I know if I don't, pain follows.

ulcuber · n00b Joined: 23 Mar 2022 Posts: 1

ese002 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 143