Linux Mint Cinnamon 20 Internet Connection.

[geoffarnold]

Booting from power on I don't get an internet connection. When I re-boot via reboot selection it connects OK. I'm connecting via Ethernet via a TP Link Wi-Fi extender. Android mobiles near to this extender find and connect to internet OK. If I use Wi-Fi in place of Ethernet the same happens but several reboot attempts are needed to connect. The connection to the router is OK each time. Does anybody have any suggestions?

[Larry78723]

Without some technical information, we can’t help you. Please post an inxi -Fxxxzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and on how Mint sees it.

Here is how to generate the report and post it:
Open a terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-t). Make it fullscreen to avoid unneeded linebreaks or chopped lines. Execute the command

Code: Select all

 inxi -Fxxxzr 

exactly as it has been typed here.

Mark the complete text output which the command will display with your mouse.
Press the keyboard shortcut <Shift><Ctrl>C to copy the marked text into the clipboard.
Enclose the results between the code markers by selecting </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply then paste <Ctrl>V them in your reply between the code markers [code]Results [/code].

The results will help us to help you.
Larry

[geoffarnold]

Thanks for the help.
The output you asked for is as follows:-
geoffrey@geoffrey-X556UAM:~$ inxi -Fxxxzr
System: Kernel: 5.4.0-77-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1
dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine: Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X556UAM v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X556UAM v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: X556UAM.318 date: 04/19/2019
Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 30.1 Wh condition: 30.1/38.0 Wh (79%) volts: 7.6/7.6 model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery type: Li-ion
serial: <filter> status: Not charging cycles: 10
CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i7-6500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake rev: 3 L2 cache: 4096 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20799
Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 400/3100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 500 3: 500 4: 500
Graphics: Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:1916
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3
chip ID: 8086:9d70
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-77-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000
bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: AzureWave driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel
port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 168c:0042
IF: wlp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: Local Storage: total: 960.48 GiB used: 116.25 GiB (12.1%)
ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 type: USB model: SD32G size: 28.97 GiB serial: <filter> scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABD100 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm
serial: <filter> rev: 5J scheme: GPT
Partition: ID-1: / size: 316.09 GiB used: 90.81 GiB (28.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2400
Repos: No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
1: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list
1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qbittorrent-team-qbittorrent-stable-focal.list
1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/qbittorrent-te ... ble/ubuntu focal main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sandromani-gimagereader-focal.list
1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sandromani/gimagereader/ubuntu focal main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/surfshark.list
1: deb https://ocean.surfshark.com/debian stretch main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teejee2008-ppa-focal.list
1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu focal main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tsbarnes-indicator-keylock-focal.list
1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tsbarnes/indic ... ock/ubuntu focal main
Info: Processes: 240 Uptime: 2h 56m Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 2.94 GiB (38.5%) Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers:
gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38
geoffrey@geoffrey-X556UAM:~$

[Larry78723]

Booting from power on I don't get an internet connection. When I re-boot via reboot selection it connects OK. I'm connecting via Ethernet via a TP Link Wi-Fi extender. Android mobiles near to this extender find and connect to internet OK. If I use Wi-Fi in place of Ethernet the same happens but several reboot attempts are needed to connect. The connection to the router is OK each time. Does anybody have any suggestions?

You say " I'm connecting via Ethernet via a TP Link Wi-Fi extender." Does this mean you have an ethernet cable plugged into the wifi extender? If that's the case, it's a wifi issue.

You also say that "The connection to the router is OK each time". What exactly do you mean? Does that mean when booting from power on, you can ping the router but can't connect to the 'net or something else?

[geoffarnold]

Hello Larry,
The Ethernet connection between my PC and the WiFi extender was tried to see if the wireless connection on the PC was at fault software wise. But either can cause this problem although the Ethernet does appear to be less troublesome. My PC has been set up to be dual boot with Windows 10 which connects to the internet faultlessly each time. So therefore the WiFi hardware is OK which indicates that the Linux software has problems.

Linux reports that the router is connected, (in the yellow pop up from the network tray icon). But even so there can be no Internet connection.
It seems like something is blocking the internet data. When I try to ping the router Linux reports "No Network Connection" which conflicts with the yellow pop up info. I assume that the pop up message relates to an LAN connection to the router.
I have read that the Linux Realtek driver for the network chip can cause this sort of problem. I assume this isn't the same driver that is used by Windows 10?
Do you know anything about this?

[Larry78723]

Make sure that Fast Startup and Hibernation are disabled in Win10.

[geoffarnold]

Hello Larry,
I have tested with Win 10 Hibernate off via "powercfg -h off". The fast boot I disabled via the BIOS setting.
(Isn't this something that Linux Mint could make sure of when installing either automatically or by prompting the user?)
I'm still getting a random refusal to connect to the Internet.
I have now tried to change the router channel. I am getting better than -30dB Wifi signal as seen on an Android phone app , (next to laptop).
I need to test this over a few days as the connection doesn't fail every time.

The problem still seems to point to something in Linux Mint 20.2 as I do not see this issue on Win 10.
I am thinking about a re-install but without dual boot with Win 10 - but without knowing why this is happening I am reluctant to do this.
If I run a "live" session from a USB drive, but not using Linux Mint, would this be a good idea ? I'm not sure that I would be using a different Linux Kernel?
Thanks for any help.

[Larry78723]

You also need to make sure that Fast Startup is disabled in Win10 power options.

[geoffarnold]

Hello Larry, Hello All.
I think this issue has been resolved.
The action of selecting another Wi-Fi channel on my router has, up till now, resulted in a reliable and immediate Internet connection.
I have noticed, via an Android app for Wi-Fi Analyser, that nearby channels were centred around channel 1 or 11 albeit channel 1 nearby interference was at a low value. My channel was previously set to 6 or 8. The improvement came when I selected channel 1 which seemed to swamp and block out nearby channel 1 interference, and distanced itself from nearby channel 11 interference.
So if you have this problem it is well worth experimenting changing Wi-Fi channels on your router.
I'm not sure why this is so. Perhaps some weakness in the router but each access is protected via a code so why should a nearby Wi-Fi interfere?
If all channels are centred on a frequency of 2.4GHz then how are channels differentiated?
Is it + or - N Hz from the centre frequency. If so then perhaps some physical house layouts are better at some of the lower frequencies - if these correspond to to a lower channel number. Perhaps swamping nearby channel interference ensures no interference?

[Larry78723]

Glad you figured it out. Please open your original post, click on the pencil, and add (Solved) to the Subject.

[djph]

for 2.4 GHz, you should ideally be on channel 1, 6, or 11.

This is due to how the spacing of channels on the 2.4 GHz spectrum is done -- each channel is 22 MHz wide (20 MHz data + a bit of guard), and their center frequencies are spaced 5 MHz apart, starting at 2.412 GHz (2412 MHz). Do not use 40 MHz channels on 2.4 GHz - you just get a crapton of interference, and poor performance.

Only one (1) device can transmit on a given channel at a time, and ALL devices can hear anything else transmitting on that channel -- so, if you and your neighbors are all on channel 1, well, your WIFI AP transmitting something will prevent the others from transmitting (PROVIDED THAT everyone can hear everyone else). This is due to the underlying CSMA/CA protocols done (basically) at the "physical" layer of wifi (i.e. "Listen on the frequency for a brief period -> if you don't hear anything above a threshold, you can transmit")

On the other hand, if you're on a different channel the signals can overlap (think like when you're in the car, on a really good weather-for-radio day, and you start hearing two broadcasts on the same radio station), and you and your neighbor will interfere with each other.

[geoffarnold]

OK. Thanks to all for your input. Bye for now.