With the kernel update to 6.16.3 my laptop wifi with Intel ax200 became unstable. A brief internet search indicates this is a regression in 6.16. In the meantime I booted with the previous kernel. Is there a patch in the works at Fedora? Or perhaps a newer 6.16 version that addresses this regression?
You need to provide more details.
Other posts describe issues with “unstable” WiFi. Please compare the output for your system from running journalctl –no-hostname –nopager -u NetworkManager -u wpa_supplicant
with those posted in https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/patchy-wifi-with-intel-corporation-wi-fi-6e-ax211/161494
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Interesting - if the issue is the one described in these links (from a comment on the ticket)…
…then it will affect all IPv4 network connections, wireless and wired. (At least one commenter on the Arch thread above is using a wired connection, since they mention replugging their cable.)
I had some issues on my wired network connection with 6.16.3 (pages often failing to load and needing a few retries).
Back on 6.15.10 now, let’s see if that fixes it.
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Reverting to 6.15.10 cleared up these issues for me (on a wired connection).
So looks like 6.16.3 is a potential source of networking issues on both wifi and wired networks.
I’ve reported the same issue yesterday.
I’ve downgraded the kernel to version 6.14.0 and it’s all fine now.
In the linked issue above it’s said that it should be fixed in 6.16.5 kernel. Let’s wait for it to reach Fedora…
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I also had problems with unstable wifi after upgrading to kernel 6.16.3 with Intel ax201. After I switched to 6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64, the problem went away. I will monitor whether the problem is fixed in the next kernel updates.
This Bugzilla ticket reported packet loss with 6.16.3 on a USB ethernet connection.
That could in fact be this same issue - the malformed broadcast packets will cause problems whether the connection is wifi, “regular” ethernet or USB ethernet.
See the post in Common Issues:
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Has anyone tested if the fix has been applied to kernel 6.16.5, which has now landed in the Fedora repositories?
You can see the testing feedback here: FEDORA-2025-94b0d1f2b6 — bugfix update for kernel — Fedora Updates System
From a quick scan, I count 5 users who say it resolved network issues, and one who reported a new network issue (“the wifi was off” - which sounds like a separate issue).
There do seem to be some (non-network-related) issues on systems with an AMD iGPU and dGPU combination.
You can have a look at the feedback and see what you think. Personally I’m going to install 6.16.5, but I don’t have that AMD iGPU / dGPU configuration - I’d be more cautious if I did.
The new kernel 6.16.5 seems to be working so far with my Intel ax200 wifi.
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Not working for me using the iwlwifi driver for my Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 wifi card. Last kernel version it works with is 6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.
I can also confirm that all kernel versions from 6.16 do not work with Centrino Advanced-N 6205 wifi cards. 6.15 kernels are working
Welcome to the Fedora community.
This topic has a solution, so to get help please start a new topic specific to your hardware and provide enough detail to allows others with similar hardware to reproduce the issue. You should make sure your system is fully updated (Fedora packages and vendor firmware) so a) you aren’t chasing a solved problem, and b) it is easy for others to test with the same software and firmware.
You can compare the output from running inxi -Nzxx in a terminal between the 2 kernel versions. This will show you if the WiFi card is detected and the driver in use.
Other distros have had issues with the Intel firmware file names for this card. Here (for 6.16.7 kernels):
ls /usr/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000*`
/usr/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode.xz
/usr/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000g2a-6.ucode.xz
/usr/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode.xz