mint keeps loosing internet connection

[n0body_special]

As per subject. Mint keeps loosing internet connection for no obvious reason.
It occasionally happened with my previous 20.1 installation, now problem persists in 20.2 but MUCH more often.
I thought is was my wifi adapter's problem, I switched it, problem persists.
I gave up on wireless, and brought a 8 meter ethernet cable, problem persists.
I stopped using my NordVPN, problem persists.

After booting in Mint, everything works fine, but after some time, (usually 5 mins -2 hours) connection is just lost and nothing can be done to bring it back. Disconnecting wifi adapter does not work. Disconnecting ethernet cable doesn't work either.
I have tried:
-switching wifi adapters
-sudo sed -i "s/wifi.powersave = 3/wifi.powersave = 2/g" /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf && sudo systemctl restart network-manager.service
-disabling ipv6

What works:
-Only full system restart.
-Using windows. Windows has absolutely no fking problem with my wifi dongles or ethernet. It never looses connection for any reason.

Please help, nothing makes any sense.

[djph]

What, exactly, happens?

Does the network card actually flat out lose connection? Or does the machine still think the network is up?

If the machine thinks the network is up ...
Are you still able to ping your router by IP?
Are you able to perform DNS lookups?

[n0body_special]

The network manager does not show the "cable disconnected" thing, if that's what you' re asking. It still says "connected to the wired network". However, NOTHING works. I can't access any site, I can't connect to my router (I haven't tried pinging, but I will).
Output of inxi -Fi:

Code: Select all

System:
  Host: compu-teras Kernel: 5.4.0-96-generic x86_64 bits: 64 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: Z170-A PRO (MS-7971) v: 1.0 
  serial: <superuser/root required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.D0 
  date: 08/30/2016 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-6600K bits: 64 type: MCP 
  L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Baffin [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] driver: amdgpu 
  v: kernel 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
  resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz, 1680x1050~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Radeon RX 550 Series (POLARIS11 DRM 3.35.0 
  5.4.0-96-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio 
  driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-2: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] 
  driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-3: Arkmicro USB2.0 PC CAMERA type: USB 
  driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-96-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  driver: r8169 
  IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 4c:cc:6a:89:b2:e1 
  IP v4: 192.168.1.18/24 type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  IP v6: 2a02:587:b424:e229:e8d7:e5fd:bbb:a542/64 type: temporary dynamic 
  scope: global 
  IP v6: 2a02:587:b424:e229:3527:a349:94cd:691e/64 
  type: dynamic mngtmpaddr noprefixroute scope: global 
  IP v6: 2a02:587:b424:e229:34fd:3e29:4a4e:f1f7/64 type: temporary dynamic 
  scope: global 
  IP v6: fe80::e546:fe86:5a07:b5d9/64 type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  WAN IP: No WAN IP data found. Connected to the web? SSL issues? 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 7.02 TiB used: 287.42 GiB (4.0%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD60EFAX-68JH4N1 
  size: 5.46 TiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Mushkin model: MKNSSDTR480GB size: 447.13 GiB 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD1002FBYS-01A6B0 
  size: 931.51 GiB 
  ID-4: /dev/sdd vendor: Patriot model: Burst size: 223.57 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 27.38 GiB used: 18.65 GiB (68.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 
  ID-2: /home size: 411.25 GiB used: 268.76 GiB (65.4%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sdb3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 41.5 C mobo: 29.8 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 45 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1116 
Info:
  Processes: 240 Uptime: 45m Memory: 15.60 GiB used: 1.90 GiB (12.2%) 
  Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.38 

ifconfig output (when internet is up):

Code: Select all

enp4s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.18  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 2a02:587:b424:e229:e8d7:e5fd:bbb:a542  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fe80::e546:fe86:5a07:b5d9  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 2a02:587:b424:e229:34fd:3e29:4a4e:f1f7  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 2a02:587:b424:e229:3527:a349:94cd:691e  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        ether 4c:cc:6a:89:b2:e1  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 95577  bytes 109207550 (109.2 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 1  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 68284  bytes 11852437 (11.8 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 2728  bytes 252225 (252.2 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 2728  bytes 252225 (252.2 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Will try to put some output when internet is down

[adeswas]

Identical situation with me. Only solution is restart. After connection is lost everything shows still connected. Ifconfig, iwconfig show connection, network manager shows connection. Can ping 127.0.0.1, can't ping router. Ifconfig up, down...no joy. Restart wireless connection from network manager, no joy.

[sleeper12]

Not sure if it will help, but you are using an old kernel. Install the 5.4.0-109 in Update Manager, View, Linux Kernels & reboot.

[barneyblogggs]

I have the same problem as described by adeswas.
Its entirely intermittent in that I can go for a couple of days without encountering the issue at all, than on a day that it does happen it can occur 3 or four times.
Usually i can just reconnect but sometimes reboot is the only solution.
I use Wifi not ethernet, as seen here.
I am currently not seeing the issue occur...

Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 08:00.0
chip ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp8s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wireless 3160 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 09:00.0
chip ID: 8086:08b3
IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>

Not sure if it will help, but you are using an old kernel. Install the 5.4.0-109 in Update Manager, View, Linux Kernels & reboot.

I already use that kernel
barneyblogggs@mint2:~$ uname -a
Linux mint2 5.4.0-109-generic #123-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 8 09:10:54 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Regards,
barneyblogggs

[barneyblogggs]

Forgot to also mention that Power Management is off

barneyblogggs@mint2:~$ iwconfig
wlo1 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:**********
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: D0:58:FC:95:3E:F3
Bit Rate=325 Mb/s Tx-Power=22 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=53/70 Signal level=-57 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:9 Missed beacon:0
barneyblogggs

[djph]

Will try to put some output when internet is down

Any news on this front? This is the key information

Identical situation with me. Only solution is restart. After connection is lost everything shows still connected. Ifconfig, iwconfig show connection, network manager shows connection. Can ping 127.0.0.1, can't ping router. Ifconfig up, down...no joy. Restart wireless connection from network manager, no joy.

OK, so being able to ping localhost means that the (LinuxMint) networking stack is fine.

Inability to ping your local router (ISP Supplied "Residential Gateway" or TP-Link/Netgear/Etc. device) GENERALLY means that you don't have an IP address. Given the dearth of information in your post, the simplest solution is that the DHCP server on that device timed out / failed / etc.

(in other words -- need more info).

Forgot to also mention that Power Management is off

Assuming you can ping localhost while it's borken, same answer to you as above.

Also note that I've seen wifi fall over and die HARD due to input power issues -- I had one laptop where it turned out the AC adapter was no longer able to maintain proper voltage / current to the machine, and this would in turn freak out the wifi card. Replaced the AC Adapter (and battery, since it was also 5 or 7 years old at that point), and the problems cleared right up.

[barneyblogggs]

(in other words -- need more info).
..

[Assuming you can ping localhost while it's borken, same answer to you as above.

Also note that I've seen wifi fall over and die HARD due to input power issues -- I had one laptop where it turned out the AC adapter was no longer able to maintain proper voltage / current to the machine, and this would in turn freak out the wifi card. Replaced the AC Adapter (and battery, since it was also 5 or 7 years old at that point), and the problems cleared right up.

Thanks for this reply. Will defo update this topic next time a drop out has occurred.

Re: the power cord issue, my power connector at the laptop end is a bit on the loose side and seems to fall out of the socket on its own free will, so I'll keep an eye on that

Regards,
barneyblogggs

[gmorris]

I was having similar issue after installing mint, during the first day. i would keep losing internet connection, both wireless and wired. For me, i disabled the wifi, and then unplugged the ethernet cable. after i replugged it, it said it was still unplugged. I waited a bit and unplugged, then replugged it. finally, it seemed to reconnect to the internet, and since doing so, i haven't had any further network connectivity issues. but my problem was same as you describe, very weird and frustrating.

[adeswas]

DJPH...you might just have something there. It seems to be a timing out issue. I'll check into it a little more and get back. Thank you!

[barneyblogggs]

Its just happened again for me for the first time in ages, captured the following information:

iwconfig
wlo1 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=22 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

lo no wireless extensions.

enp8s0 no wireless extensions.



ifconfig
enp8s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether b0:5a:da:59:16:a1 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 59991 bytes 5474287 (5.4 MB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 59991 bytes 5474287 (5.4 MB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wlo1: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether b4:6d:83:77:35:7b txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 304694 bytes 138846920 (138.8 MB)
RX errors 0 dropped 14832 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 212147 bytes 43778215 (43.7 MB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0



ping 192.168.0.1
ping: connect: Network is unreachable



ping 127.0.0.1
PING 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.051 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.063 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.064 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.064 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.063 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.064 ms
^C
--- 127.0.0.1 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 5112ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.051/0.061/0.064/0.004 ms

[Colm]

If the OP could check the output of

Code: Select all

dmesg | tail

as soon as they notice the wifi either disconnect or reconnect, that might show some hints as to why it is disconnecting. I don't have any great theories for the OP at this moment, but this is a place I often start inspecting when weird things happen in general.

[djph]

Its just happened again for me for the first time in ages, captured the following information:

ping 127.0.0.1
PING 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.051 ms
[...]
^C
--- 127.0.0.1 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 5112ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.051/0.061/0.064/0.004 ms

Okay, so the network stack is fine, and the issue is with the wifi card itself (or the router / WLAN in general).

definitely grab sudo dmesg output like Colm suggests.

[barneyblogggs]

definitely grab sudo dmesg output like Colm suggests.

Just to be certain do i grab this whilst the issue is occurring or can I do it anytime?

barneyblogggs

[djph]

definitely grab sudo dmesg output like Colm suggests.

Just to be certain do i grab this whilst the issue is occurring or can I do it anytime?

barneyblogggs

when you see it happening.

[barneyblogggs]

The internet connection just dropped out again for the first time in a while.
I captured the output of sudo dmesg as requested and have tried attaching it to this reply but I get a message "Too Large", the file is only 259.4 kB.
So I have just tried to copy and paste the text here, and get another message "Your message contains 259738 characters.
The maximum number of allowed characters is 60000":-
How do I get my dmesg output to this chat, Is there a specific part of the output that I can paste here so that I am not pasting the whole thing?

[djph]

Assuming you caught it "fast enough", the last 30 lines or so should be all that's needed.

[barneyblogggs]

Assuming you caught it "fast enough", the last 30 lines or so should be all that's needed.

OK Here are the lat 30-odd lines from dmesg output, hopefully its enough, and thanks for taking the trouble to look at this for me.....

[203481.714437] wlo1: authenticate with a0:bda1:aa:6d
[203481.717570] wlo1: send auth to a0:bda1:aa:6d (try 1/3)
[203481.719215] wlo1: authenticated
[203481.723186] wlo1: associate with a0:bda1:aa:6d (try 1/3)
[203481.724783] wlo1: RX AssocResp from a0:bda1:aa:6d (capab=0x1011 status=0 aid=3)
[203481.726197] wlo1: associated
[203481.768963] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 23 (23 - 0) dBm as advertised by a0:bda1:aa:6d
[203490.677827] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlo1 OUT= MAC=01:00:5e:00:00:fb:32:b1:da:5f:8a:0e:08:00 SRC=192.168.0.123 DST=224.0.0.251 LEN=32 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=1 ID=32240 PROTO=2
[203516.307914] wlo1: disconnect from AP a0:bda1:aa:6d for new auth to d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3
[203516.314009] wlo1: authenticate with d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3
[203516.317330] wlo1: send auth to d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (try 1/3)
[203516.318193] wlo1: authenticated
[203516.322438] wlo1: associate with d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (try 1/3)
[203516.326035] wlo1: RX ReassocResp from d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (capab=0x1011 status=0 aid=3)
[203516.327633] wlo1: associated
[203516.540334] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlo1 OUT= MAC=01:00:5e:00:00:01:a0:bda1:aa:69:08:00 SRC=192.168.0.1 DST=224.0.0.1 LEN=32 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=1 ID=0 DF PROTO=2
[203516.618569] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlo1 OUT= MAC=01:00:5e:00:00:fb:d0:58:fc:95:3e:f2:08:00 SRC=192.168.0.18 DST=224.0.0.251 LEN=32 TOS=0x00 PREC=0xC0 TTL=1 ID=0 DF PROTO=2
[203516.698656] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 23 (23 - 0) dBm as advertised by d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3
[203517.587889] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlo1 OUT= MAC=01:00:5e:00:00:fb:32:b1:da:5f:8a:0e:08:00 SRC=192.168.0.123 DST=224.0.0.251 LEN=32 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=1 ID=349 PROTO=2
[203540.249240] wlo1: Connection to AP d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 lost
[203540.476629] wlo1: authenticate with a0:bda1:aa:6d
[203540.479127] wlo1: send auth to a0:bda1:aa:6d (try 1/3)
[203540.480738] wlo1: authenticated
[203540.485923] wlo1: associate with a0:bda1:aa:6d (try 1/3)
[203540.488450] wlo1: RX AssocResp from a0:bda1:aa:6d (capab=0x1011 status=0 aid=3)
[203540.490435] wlo1: associated
[203540.546033] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 23 (23 - 0) dBm as advertised by a0:bda1:aa:6d
[203575.122987] wlo1: disconnect from AP a0:bda1:aa:6d for new auth to d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3
[203575.127339] wlo1: authenticate with d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3
[203575.129391] wlo1: send auth to d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (try 1/3)
[203575.130900] wlo1: authenticated
[203575.133201] wlo1: associate with d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (try 1/3)
[203575.237257] wlo1: associate with d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (try 2/3)
[203575.238465] wlo1: RX ReassocResp from d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (capab=0x1011 status=0 aid=3)
[203575.240353] wlo1: associated
[203575.372272] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 23 (23 - 0) dBm as advertised by d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3
[203578.746414] wlo1: deauthenticated from d0:58:fc:95:3e:f3 (Reason: 2=PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID)

[djph]

That looks a lot like the AP being unhappy. What WiFi AP are you using in your home, and how long has it been in service?