"Activation of network connection failed" for Hidden Wifi Network

[manvinderst]

Hi,

I just moved from Windows to Linux and very new to this OS. I Installed LinuxMint 20.1 Cinnamon on my machine. I am facing an issue when connecting to a hidden wifi network. I am able to connect to the same network when it is not hidden but when is the same network is made hidden from router settings then I am not able to connect to the network. It displays error "Activation of network connection failed"

[hglee]

Hi,

I just moved from Windows to Linux and very new to this OS. I Installed LinuxMint 20.1 Cinnamon on my machine. I am facing an issue when connecting to a hidden wifi network. I am able to connect to the same network when it is not hidden but when is the same network is made hidden from router settings then I am not able to connect to the network. It displays error "Activation of network connection failed"

Follow the below instructions while your Access Point (wifi router) is visible, so you'll be connected to see the BSSID in Step #3. After you've completed these steps, you can set the router to Hidden -- because you should be locked on the IP address of the AP, not its SSID name.

Try the following NetworkManager configuration.


To access the Mint 20 network connections Editor:

⎓ In Cinnamon, click the panel's NetworkManager icon, then click Network Connections, then double-click your network's name to configure.

⎓ In MATE and Xfce, right-click the panel's NetworkManager icon, then click Edit Connections, then double-click your network's name to configure.

⎓ To invoke the network connections editor GUI in a Terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-T) command-line, run nm-connection-editor.

Then...

1) Under the General tab: Uncheck (deselect) All users may connect to this network. (Keep Connect Automatically with priority 0 checkmarked.)

2) Under the Wi-Fi tab: In the drop-down menu of the Band field, select the band frequency of your network, either A (5GHz) or B/G (2.4GHz).*

3) In the BSSID field, enter the IP address of your network Access Point (wifi router). There's more than one way to find this address -- such as connect your PC to the wifi network, directly or by tethering to a smartphone or by a dongle -- then click the drop-down menu of the BSSID field. The IP address looks something like 20:0D:4E:00:33:AA.

4) Save. Reboot.

*In bullet #2, for 802.11N (WiFi 4) select band B/G; for 802.11AC (WiFi 5) or 802.11AX (WiFi 6) select band A.


After you have reliable connections: If you'd like NetworkManager to sometimes change your PC's MAC address, which is visible to others online: Under the Wi-Fi tab, click the drop-down menu of Cloned MAC address to select Stable or Random. See MAC Address Spoofing in NetworkManager.

[manvinderst]

Thanks for quick response. I tried above and also other combinations as well what I could but still same issue. When network is visible, connection establishes successfully but when same network is made hidden said alert is presented.

[hglee]

Thanks for quick response. I tried above and also other combinations as well what I could but still same issue. When network is visible, connection establishes successfully but when same network is made hidden said alert is presented.

Have you tried directly tweaking the wpa_supplicant configuration?

Go to this StackExchange.com post and scroll down to 'Step by step'.

[linux_newbie]

I have the same issue. By using my new hdd to boot in an old system with an on-board wifi plus my new wifi adapter I've managed to narrow down the cause of this issue as being an rtl8192 chipset driver that's incompatible. What I mean is that the same installation connects flawlessly on an old wifi on-board card, but fails when using my new TP-LINK adapter. I've tried clnhub's and Mange's alternative drivers but with no success (official linux drivers are for kernel 3.10.10 or older). At least I think that this is the issue. I've also tried the same adapter on a Win machine and it works perfectly. So it's not the Mint installation and it's not the adapter. That's why I believe it's a driver issue. Nobody has ever posted in any other thread on the subject the syslog of the connection attempt.

Here's mine

Code: Select all

Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4277] device (macaddr**********): Activation: starting connection 'NETWORK_SSID' (NETWORK_UUID)
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4278] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="NETWORK_UUID" name="NETWORK_SSID" pid=**** uid=**** result="success"
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4279] device (macaddr**********): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4282] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4288] device (macaddr**********): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4291] device (macaddr**********): Activation: (wifi) access point 'NETWORK_SSID' has security, but secrets are required.
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4291] device (macaddr**********): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4326] device (macaddr**********): state change: need-auth -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4331] device (macaddr**********): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4333] device (macaddr**********): Activation: (wifi) connection 'NETWORK_SSID' has security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4334] Config: added 'ssid' value 'NETWORK_SSID'
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4334] Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4334] Config: added 'bgscan' value 'simple:30:-70:86400'
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4334] Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK WPA-PSK-SHA256 FT-PSK'
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4334] Config: added 'psk' value '<hidden>'
Apr 17 16:12:57 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****3977.4431] device (macaddr**********): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Apr 17 16:13:22 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <warn>  [****4002.9154] device (macaddr**********): Activation: (wifi) association took too long, failing activation
Apr 17 16:13:22 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****4002.9155] device (macaddr**********): state change: config -> failed (reason 'ssid-not-found', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:13:22 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****4002.9165] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTED
Apr 17 16:13:22 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <warn>  [****4002.9191] device (macaddr**********): Activation: failed for connection 'NETWORK_SSID'
Apr 17 16:13:22 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****4002.9199] device (macaddr**********): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Apr 17 16:13:22 "username" NetworkManager[****]: <info>  [****4002.9216] device (macaddr**********): supplicant interface state: scanning -> disconnected

EDIT : It goes without saying that I first tried the solutions offered here with no success. The first one had no effect whatsoever and the second one was met with an "Access denied" error right off the bat (both without and with sudo). If you could maybe rewrite the instructions in that post in a more coherent manner I'll try again. I'm no expert so maybe I screwed something up.

[linux_newbie]

Update:

While testing an older Mint version (18.1) I've noticed that the connection completes without problems, using the default driver. So it's exactly the combination of Mint 20.1 and the TP-LINK adapter that's the actual issue.
(I did not yet test this on Mint 19)

[Larry78723]

Hiding your wifi SSID provides no additional security. See the following article: https://www.alphr.com/should-broadcast-wifi-ssid/ .

[linux_newbie]

Thank you for the info. I am aware of this however and of one more downside than those mentioned in the post you linked, but I would still like to receive a helpful answer from the community on this issue. At least if someone can confirm that it's indeed the driver at fault, I can pester the manufacturer for a solution. They are, after all, marketing their product as being "Linux compatible".