Have this really weird issue and not sure if anyone else has encountered it. This is Fedora 42, obtained from here:
I made the netinstall (everything) Fedora ISO so I could boot up KDE on some very old laptops which have slow USB ports and don’t work in the live environment.
Went ahead and connected it to the network (which was detected and working fine), installed Fedora KDE Workspaces, left default options but also ticked the KDE box after scrolling down below
Upon reboot all was working fine. Welp, I see the internet icon in the corner and it’s disconnected. I try to connect and it detects my other router (SSID), not the one I used for installation.
I open the network settings and for my other SSID (router) it says “Never used”.
I tried to tick the hidden network box and make it show in the network connections menu but to no avail.
I tried to manually restart the NetworkManager, create a SSID (network profile) manually but again, it doesn’t want to connect. And if I get it to say “Configuring interface” after a minute it says “Connection was removed”.
I have tried installing all the updates and rebooting but to no avail.
Hotspot and the other networks work fine. I’m suspecting that this is a bug as it does it on different laptops. If there’s anything else I can post here, including logs or other information I will offer it promptly.
The laptops in question are:
Dell Inspiron N5030, 8 GB RAM, Intel Celeron 900 - I know the network card is a Qualcomm Atheros
You should be able to get more information using journalctl in a terminal. Try:
journalctl --no-hostname -b -g wifi
journalctl --no-hostname -b -p 3
Read man journalctl to learn about these options. There are many other options that help filter out the mass of irrelevant detail collected in the journal.
Newer kernels can require updates to UEFI/BIOS firmware from the vendor. In some cases, clearing existing UEFI/BIOS settings (e.g., by removing the coin cell that maintain settings when power is off) has solved WiFi issues.
Check the LHDB for the models you are using to see what works for others.
Many systems have upgradable WiFi hardware so you may find in the LHDB different WiFi hardware being used with linux in your models.
WiFi often has problems after kernel updates, so you may want a USB WiFi dongle with in-kernel drivers to use while waiting for an update that fixes an issue with onboard WiFi.
I tried to obtain logs from those but nothing of value. I reset the BIOS to default.
I tested Fedora Workstation as well and it seems to have the same issue. However, I can connect to the Hotspot and the other router in my house. Just not the main one I used for the installer.
Is this a bug with the netinstall ISO? Or is it because this is legacy hardware?
I don’t think there are any more BIOS updates for these laptops.
You need to get details for the connection that fails.
Or something about the router configuration. Ideally the router will provide a reason in some log. Some common sources of trouble are routers are configured to only allow certain mac addresses and “hidden” routers.