# Wifi and ethernet periodically drop on laptop



## PaddyMac (Apr 9, 2021)

I've been running FreeBSD 13-CURRENT on my home server for months and have not had any problems with its ethernet connection. It's currently updated to 13-RC5. I prefix my question with this fact because I recently installed 13-RC4, since upgraded to RC5, on my Toshiba Satellite, and the wifi has been periodically dropping at seemingly random intervals requiring me to run "service netif restart" to get the wifi working again. I eventually ran an ethernet cable into my bedroom to deal with the issue, and the network connection is still periodically failing for both the wifi and ethernet simultaneously, and I have to restart netif to get it working again.

It seems like there's an issue with the wifi, and when it goes out, it takes out the ethernet with it. Because if the ethernet was having issues, I surely would have had problems on my server as well, but I haven't. So does anyone have any idea what might be wrong or how to diagnose the problem?

Additional information: In order to troubleshoot, I stopped the netif service, edited /etc/rc.conf to comment out the lines configuring my wireless connection, then started netif. After restarting, my wifi was disabled as expected, but my ethernet connection also did not come back up. So I edited /etc/rc.conf again to uncomment the lines for my wifi then restarted netif. My wifi connection came back up, but my ethernet connection did not. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the cable. I tried restarting the netif service a few times and repeatedly checking the output of ifconfig. But the ethernet status continued to say "no carrier". It looks like I'll have to reboot to get the ethernet back up. So *something* sure isn't working right.


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## mark_j (Apr 9, 2021)

Probably wise to look into /var/log/messages for any sort of hint as to what's going on. You should also put in your message the type of card, also gained simply from /var/log/messages (or `dmesg`if you wish).
So, I take it from your hint that RC4 was fine and RC5 has introduced some issue?


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## PaddyMac (Apr 9, 2021)

I'm not sure what specific model card it is, but apparently it's Realtek as it uses the re driver built into the kernel. The wifi uses rtwn. I did look in /var/log/messages and checked the output of dmesg before I rebooted. There were thousands of errors (fortunately abbreviated with lines just saying that the message was repeated so many times) about being unable to read the PHY on re0. The issue with the wifi dropping randomly existed in RC4, but I didn't try using ethernet until after I upgraded to RC5. So there was no opportunity while using RC4 to see a possible connection between a wifi issue and the ethernet. Unfortunately, even after rebooting my laptop, the ethernet still isn't working. It doesn't even seem to be detected at boot. I don't know if the problem is software related or if my laptop's ethernet card has died. So at this point I don't know if I'll ever get an answer. Maybe my ethernet card was on the verge of conking out anyway. So I don't know if maybe an imminent hardware failure on the ethernet might have somehow caused problems with wifi.


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## mark_j (Apr 9, 2021)

It's quite possible it was about to conk out. I don't like realtek wifi cards, I've had a bad experience multiple times where all our E580s had to have their realtek's replaced because they would randomly drop out, even when close to an access point. However, that doesn't explain the rj45 connection, as that's controlled by, I presume, an on-board chip?

You could try installing linux on a live-usb, booting off it and seeing if the network experiences drop outs. If it doesn't then it's attributing the failure to FreeBSD. If it still does drop out, then it's your card.


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## huskers (May 12, 2021)

I'm having a similar issue with wifi connection dropping on new install of 13 which was not the case with 12


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## sko (May 12, 2021)

As you are running the development branch instead of the 'production' branch (RELEASE), you should look/ask on the mailing lists where the developers are usually found. This forum is mainly geared towards end users that should always run RELEASE versions, except they absolutely know what they are doing and don't require help to debug problems.

So if you rely on that/those system(s) to work, run a supported RELEASE version. Else wait for the next updates and see if it gets fixed or try to debug it, then report and offer help on the mailing list.

and just FTR:








						Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions
					

The FreeBSD Forums cater primarily to end-users and systems administrators. As such, the Forums focus almost exclusively on FreeBSD versions that are officially supported according to the official FreeBSD website. Since resources are scarce, the FreeBSD Forums strongly suggest that anyone asking...




					forums.freebsd.org


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## mark_j (May 12, 2021)

OP may have already updated to release since April.


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## mark_j (May 12, 2021)

huskers said:


> I'm having a similar issue with wifi connection dropping on new install of 13 which was not the case with 12


Is this an upgrade or fresh install? In the first instance, check dmesg for anything that might indicate problems.


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## huskers (May 14, 2021)

sko said:


> As you are running the development branch instead of the 'production' branch (RELEASE), you should look/ask on the mailing lists where the developers are usually found. This forum is mainly geared towards end users that should always run RELEASE versions, except they absolutely know what they are doing and don't require help to debug problems.
> 
> So if you rely on that/those system(s) to work, run a supported RELEASE version. Else wait for the next updates and see if it gets fixed or try to debug it, then report and offer help on the mailing list.
> 
> ...


Mine is a pkg release install of 13. I have 12 on my other laptop also a fresh install a month ago works fine on both same Atheros cards.


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