weird WiFi card behaviour

[HAWR]

Yes, it could be a problem with the router and your PCIe wifi card, because other devices like your phone and the usb wifi adapter have no problems to connect. Can you please tell me the router model, so that I can have a look in the manual (maybe you have a link) and please show me the output of

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lsusb

with the plugged-in usb wifi adapter. It is a strange behaviour, that when you unplug the adapter the PCIe wifi isn't shown anymore in the network manager.

[alangauld]

Sorry for the late response, I only just noticed that there was a second page to the thread.
The lsusb output:

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$ lsusb
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0151 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Mass Storage Device (Multicard Reader)
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:c811 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04b8:08a5 Seiko Epson Corp. EPSON WF-2510 Series
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 045e:0039 Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Optical
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 046a:0180 Cherry GmbH Strait 3.0
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 1a86:8072 QinHeng Electronics 
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 056a:0011 Wacom Co., Ltd ET-0405A [Graphire2 (4x5)]
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

As for the router it's the freebie provided by my ISP, Plusnet.net, their Plus One model
Here is the URL for its help page...
https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/rou ... s/hub-one/

[HAWR]

Hello alangauld,

thank you for the informations. As far as I can see, the router could not be the problem. I found nothing unusual with it and Katie explains all well. At first I thought I had the solution nevertheless, but now I'm not sure anymore. I kind of feel like Sherlock, who do not see a tiny detail and Dr. Watson is missing

Your USB adapter

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:c811 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC

uses the rtl8821cu driver (module name is 8821cu) and your PCIe card rtl8821ae. Because of the similarity of the driver names, I thought/think that they somehow interfere with each other. That would be a possibility, but what makes me wonder is that the connection with your smartphone hotspot works without problems.

- Have you ever rebooted your router since you inserted the PCIe wifi card?
- Have you ever booted your PC without the USB adapter plugged-in, since you inserted the PCIe wifi card?

You have tried live systems of different Linux distributions with the same disappointing result. it would be interesting to know if the card works with the router under Windows. I'm a bit stumped at the moment and so far have only found that manually entering and saving the password for the wifi connection in the network connection settings has helped some. Unfortunately that doesn't sound promising, but it's worth a try. Maybe JeremyB is reading along here and has an idea what it could be?

[JeremyB]

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$ lspci -nnk | grep -i net -A3
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8812AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8812] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8812AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8812]
	Kernel driver in use: rtl8821ae
	Kernel modules: rtl8821ae
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [1462:7596]
	Kernel driver in use: r8168
	Kernel modules: r8168
04:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: LSI Corporation FW322/323 [TrueFire] 1394a Controller [11c1:5811] (rev 04)

$ iwconfig
wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"Huawei P smart 2019"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: A4:9B:4F:87:85:41   
          Bit Rate=300 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=40/70  Signal level=-70 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:17575   Missed beacon:0

virbr0-nic  no wireless extensions.

virbr0    no wireless extensions.

enp3s0    no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

Just for comparison, here is the USB output:

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$ iwconfig
wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"PLUSNET-K3HHMG"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 98:AA:FC:32:A2:7F   
          Bit Rate=144.4 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=26/70  Signal level=-84 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:52   Missed beacon:0

And the non-working PCIe card:

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wlxb44bd62c2758  IEEE 802.11AC  ESSID:"PLUSNET-5G"  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.24 GHz  Access Point: B8:D9:4D:57:DA:75   
          Bit Rate:434 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=33/100  Signal level=-80 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Signal strength is very poor on both devices and you have the USB and PCIe iwconfig results reversed as wlp2s0 is PCIe and the wlxb44bd62c2758 is USB because of how the predictable naming structure works. I am not sure what you can do unless you get your extender working better.

The internal might function better after

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echo "options rtl8821ae ips=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8821ae.conf

Reboot

[alangauld]

- Have you ever rebooted your router since you inserted the PCIe wifi card?
- Have you ever booted your PC without the USB adapter plugged-in, since you inserted the PCIe wifi card?

Yes, both many times!

it would be interesting to know if the card works with the router under Windows

I don't know if the windows PC has any spare PCIe slots - it is one of those minimal machines. If it has I'll try it next week.

In a way I'm glad you guys are struggling too because I thought I was pretty Linux savvy but it has me beat!
I don't feel quite so bad now.

I'll try Jeremy's suggestion tomorrow...

[alangauld]

echo "options rtl8821ae ips=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8821ae.conf

I tried that but it made no difference.

As to the extender it is downstairs in my living room so makes no real difference to the PC in my study.
I'm about 30 feet from the router and that's why I bought the "more powerful" PCIe card.

One weird thing is that my ethernet started working on Wednesday and was fine right through to this afternoon.
Then it stopped again! Thats by far the longest it has worked in the last 2 years. This really is driving me nuts.

[HAWR]

Hello alangauld,

JeremyB saw the same as I did in one of my first posts:

I see, that the link qualities/signal strengths for the USB and PCI card are not the best.

When your router is really under you, Is it possible to change the position of your Desktop a little bit? And also you can try some other positions with the antennas of your wifi card. When that doesn't make the situatio better, you could think about an Access Point upstairs connected with the cable which is now connected with your Desktop. Maybe you have an old router, which can be configured as an Access Point. For testing it would be enough for now.

One weird thing is that my ethernet started working on Wednesday and was fine right through to this afternoon.

Sounds a little bit hopeful. Maybe it repeats and stays.

[alangauld]

The ethernet seems much improved. It drops out for an hour or so two or three times a day and I drop back to the %GHz Wifi network but then the ethernet kicks in again. It's by far the best networking I've had in over 2 years. In fact, I'll be OK if it just stays like this.

But I would like to know why it's dropping out etc. Are there any log files I can look at?

And I still need to try the PCIe Wifi card in my Windows box to see if it works there.

[HAWR]

Hello alangauld,

then let's wait for your Windows experiment.

Are there any log files I can look at?

In the menu you find the program logs. When I play around with the NetworkManager a little (enable/disable), I can find that on the left side under "All". You can also view a few previous sessions with the dropdown menu at the top. And you can search for keywords.

[alangauld]

Just an update. I haven't cracked this yet, but the behaviour is so erratic that it's impossible to know what is making a difference and what isn't. My ethernet works for several hours after a reboot but then starts dropping out every 5-10 minutes or so. The WiFi is as described above. I still haven't got round to trying the new card on my Windows PC (no spare PCIe slots so I need to take something else out!). I'm also contemplating upgrading to Mint 20.3 and starting the diagnosis over from there, but given that running a live image didn't help I'm not sure there is much point.

[HAWR]

Hello alangauld,

you could try it with Hiren's BooCD, a Windows PE live environment. You could boot it via USB the same way as with LM. It should contain many wifi drivers, so it is possible, that your wifi card could run with it. Maybe you can realize it better than with your Windows PC.

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

[alangauld]

OK, after weeks of more erratic behaviour I've taken the plunge and bought a new Mac mini to replace both my Linux and Windows desktop boxes. I'm now planning my data migration strategy. I'll keep my existing Windows box as a backup but probably convert it to dual boot Linux and Windows just so I don't get "homesick".
Thanks for all the suggestions and attempts to help but after 2 years of struggling to fix this I've given up.

[HAWR]

Hello alangauld,

I can understand you very well that you are doing it this way now. I wish you that everything will work out fine.