64-bit Sylvia wireless woes - [SOLVED]

[Alex_P_Keaton]

Hello,

I am a long-time Linux user (Caldera 1.2 --> Mandrake 8.0 --> Mandriva 2006 --> Mageia with some ubuntu along the way). I installed Mint (KDE, 64-bit, 18.3) and I do like the neat, clean interface. But I am having problems with the wireless interface. Sometimes it will be detected, sometimes it will be dropped, and sometimes it won't be detected. I hope you can help.

Here is inxi -Fxn:

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mike@mikes-amd-8150 ~ $ inxi -Fxn
System:    Host: mikes-amd-8150 Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Machine:   Mobo: AsRock model: 970A-G/3.1 Bios: American Megatrends v: P1.20 date: 01/12/2016
CPU:       Octa core AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core (-MCP-) cache: 16384 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 57602
           clock speeds: max: 3600 MHz 1: 1400 MHz 2: 1400 MHz 3: 2100 MHz 4: 2100 MHz 5: 1400 MHz 6: 1400 MHz 7: 1400 MHz 8: 1400 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Juniper XT [Radeon HD6770] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD JUNIPER (DRM 2.49.0 / 4.10.0-38-generic, LLVM 4.0.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Juniper HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5700 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA0 driver: snd_hda_interl bus-ID: 04:00.0
Network:   Card-1 Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: wlp4s0state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 70:85:c2:5d:9e:85
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 620.1 GB (1.8% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 500.1 GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: KINGSTON_SUV400S size: 120.0 GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 32G used: 6.2G (21%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1
           ID-2: /home size: 75G used: 465M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb6
           ID-3 swap-1 size: 4.18 GB used: 0.00 GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 12.6C mobo N/A gpu: 29.0
Info:      Processes: 229 Uptime: 40 min Memory: 1151.6/16015.6 MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

First, can anybody help me figure out how to post stuff like this in future without hand-typing it?

Second, when I do have the wireless working, I occasionally see 1 KB/sec, very rarely 2KB/sec., and extremely rarely 3 KB/sec. Never faster than that, and mostly 0K/sec). The speed I have from my ISP is like 6-20 MB/sec, I don't remember. I routinely get 400 KB/sec. and higher with ethernet (Win7 64-bit or any linux flavor). (So my very old ARRIS CM550A is not the bottleneck.)

Can anybody help me get things working here?

(I am also having problems seeing the SSD inside the USB enclosure plugged into my Linksys WRT-AC1200 [stock firmware], but that will be a different post. Interesting, when I can see the drive and examine its contents, there is no entry in /etc/fstab. Maybe this is no longer listed in fstab because systemd or the kernel handle it differently now, I can't keep up with all the changes.)

[JeremyB]

Try

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sudo sed -i 's/wifi.powersave = 3/wifi.powersave = 2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf
systemctl restart network-manager.service

That will keep network manager from enabling power management

[Alex_P_Keaton]

I am very sorry for the delay, I was working hard during the holidays (my company only paid me 50 cents per hour more, I thought they were rather cheap). I tried the solution above but I continue to have the same problems. From my post, it looks like I am using RTL2800i driver, but this might not be the best driver.

I installed a Broadcom adapter (Broadcom 43224 chip, device ID is 14e4:4353) and started Linux Mint's "Driver Manager". It offered to download a solution for the Broadcom card (and the AMD microcode for Spectre/Meltdown).

So I shut down, put the RALINK module back in, and booted Mint. Now, Driver Manager only lists the AMD microcode. Perhaps the Driver Manager thinks the wifi is working fine, since the RT2800pci module is loaded. Here is the relevant output of lspci -vvnn:

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04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe [1814:3090]
        Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe [11ad:6622]
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at fe800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
        Kernel modules: rt2800pci

Here is a list of modules running now (lsmod):

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mike@mikes-amd-8150 /etc/modprobe.d $ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ccm                    20480  3
binfmt_misc            20480  1
input_leds             16384  0
usblp                  20480  0
edac_mce_amd           28672  0
edac_core              53248  0
kvm_amd              2183168  0
kvm                   593920  1 kvm_amd
irqbypass              16384  1 kvm
crct10dif_pclmul       16384  0
crc32_pclmul           16384  0
ghash_clmulni_intel    16384  0
pcbc                   16384  0
aesni_intel           167936  6
aes_x86_64             20480  1 aesni_intel
crypto_simd            16384  1 aesni_intel
glue_helper            16384  1 aesni_intel
cryptd                 24576  3 crypto_simd,ghash_clmulni_intel,aesni_intel
arc4                   16384  2
rt2800pci              16384  0
rt2800mmio             16384  1 rt2800pci
snd_hda_codec_realtek    90112  1
snd_hda_codec_generic    73728  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
k10temp                16384  0
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     49152  1
rt2800lib              94208  2 rt2800mmio,rt2800pci
rt2x00pci              16384  1 rt2800pci
fam15h_power           16384  0
rt2x00mmio             16384  2 rt2800mmio,rt2800pci
rt2x00lib              53248  5 rt2800lib,rt2x00pci,rt2800mmio,rt2x00mmio,rt2800pci
snd_hda_intel          36864  5
snd_seq_midi           16384  0                                                                                                                 
mac80211              782336  3 rt2800lib,rt2x00pci,rt2x00lib                                                                                   
snd_seq_midi_event     16384  1 snd_seq_midi                                                                                                    
snd_hda_codec         126976  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek                                    
snd_hda_core           81920  5 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek                      
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec                                                                                                   
snd_rawmidi            32768  1 snd_seq_midi                                                                                                    
cfg80211              602112  2 rt2x00lib,mac80211                                                                                              
eeprom_93cx6           16384  1 rt2800pci                                                                                                       
snd_pcm               102400  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core,snd_hda_codec_hdmi                                                     
snd_seq                65536  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi                                                                                 
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
i2c_piix4              24576  0
snd_timer              32768  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    77824  21 snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_seq,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_pcm
nuvoton_cir            20480  0
soundcore              16384  1 snd
shpchp                 36864  0
rc_core                28672  1 nuvoton_cir
mac_hid                16384  0
parport_pc             32768  0
ppdev                  20480  0
lp                     20480  0
parport                49152  3 lp,parport_pc,ppdev
autofs4                40960  2
btrfs                1089536  0
xor                    24576  1 btrfs
raid6_pq              114688  1 btrfs
dm_mirror              24576  0
dm_region_hash         20480  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                 20480  2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
pata_acpi              16384  0
hid_generic            16384  0
usbhid                 53248  1
hid                   118784  2 hid_generic,usbhid
uas                    24576  0
usb_storage            69632  1 uas
amdkfd                139264  1
amd_iommu_v2           20480  1 amdkfd
radeon               1507328  6
mxm_wmi                16384  0
i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 radeon
ttm                    98304  1 radeon
drm_kms_helper        151552  1 radeon
syscopyarea            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt              16384  1 drm_kms_helper
fb_sys_fops            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
r8169                  81920  0
mii                    16384  1 r8169
drm                   352256  9 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
ahci                   36864  3
pata_atiixp            16384  0
libahci                32768  1 ahci
fjes                   77824  0
wmi                    16384  1 mxm_wmi

I put rt2800pci in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and rebooted. None of the RT2800 modules were loaded, but Driver Manager still did not offer a solution for the Ralink.

I think I have an RALINK 5390 around my house, but it will be nearly impossible to find. Is that chip easier to set up in Mint? Should I grab another 5390 mini-module from eBay (and another PCIe adapter)?

Any ideas on what to do next? Please note that compiling code is beyond my skill level.

[Alex_P_Keaton]

Okay, I found a solution. I bought the Asus PCE-N15, with the Realtek 8192CE chip. In fact, I am using Mint 18.3 with this PCIe card to make this post. When I type lspci -vvnn, I get TWO different ID numbers. I am not sure why there are two, but here they are:

10ec:8178
1043:84b6

This card has drivers for Windows 7 so I can dual-boot, so all is well. At the time I wrote these words, this card can still be found on eBay, new in box, if someone wants to have a good wifi experience with Mint 18.3.

I commented out the rt2800pci in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, so it is not blacklisted anymore. That should not matter, though, since that other card is gone now.

It is a shame we have to try 2 or 3 distributions and 2 or 3 different wireless cards before we find a combination that works well. Especially with wifi chips and other hardware that is quite a few years old now.

Thanks for all of your your help!