Hey everyone, new here, but not new to Linux. I’ve dabbled with it in the past and for some reason always ended up back on my Windows or Mac. I guess it’s because it’s just easier to use the PC with windows 11 since it has my Steam games on it. But for a multitude of reasons, I’d like to get back into using it as my daily driver and only use windows for playing my few steam games.
So I have a PC that has 2 separate NVMe drives. One is for windows, the other is for Linux. At one point a few years ago, I did have KDE Plasma running and working on the second drive and windows on the first drive. That was easy setting that up after watching a good video on youtube.
But the problem I’m running into now, and have ALWAYS run into when using Linux, is that it NEVER connects to my WiFi. I’ve used Pop OS!, Mint, KDE Plasma and Ubuntu. And I’ve used them on my PC and my Macbook Air. EVERY SINGLE TIME, it’s an absolute nightmare trying to get the damn Linux OS to connect to my WiFi. But after days or weeks of futzing around with it and asking questions, it finally works. And stupidly I never wrote down the solution.
So I just downloaded and installed Fedora 44 on the second drive. It loaded and installed fine. I then go into the Network settings and try to set it up so it will connect to the internet. It shows my network, it “tries” to connect, but it never does. It just spins and spins forever. I’ve already done and checked the “normal” issues most people say I need to check. Turn off randomized MAC address. Turn off Fast Boot. Nothing works.
I have a Gigabyte B550 Vision D-P Mobo and it has an Intel AX200 Wireless Communication Module on it for WiFi.
So just need some help figuring out why this always happens? And how do I fix it?
We need a bit more info.
Please post the output of the following commands as preformatted text so we can read it with formatted display exactly as seen on your screen. inxi -Fzxx lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 network rfkill
One thing that seems to be a common theme when dual booting with windows is that when windows has power saving on and disables the network, or when windows has fast boot (AKA rapid restart) enabled, it seems to lock the network adapter and it cannot be accessed from linux. Please ensure that within windows all these type options are disabled.
So I ran all 3 commands. Only the second and third worked. The first one says: bash: inxi: command not found
I also checked the other two things you wanted me to check. Both are already fine. Fast Boot is NOT on. And it was NOT in power saving mode. It’s in High Performance mode. I even found video online that tells you to create your own power mode, change the “Turn off the display” to never and and turn off the “Put the Computer To Sleep” to never. And even change the advanced settings for the hard drive to “Turn off hard disc to” never.
And here is a screenshot of what comes out when I type in those 3 command lines you said I should type in
You have to install inxi. To post terminal output use the </> button from the top line of the text entry panel. Some configurations hide it behind a + button. Just copy and paste text. image can be unreadable on some screens and the contents are missed by web searches. Linux support relies on the user community, so you want to make easy for users with similar hardware and issues to find your topic and help find a solution. If your system firmware and Fedora packages you avoid lengthy exchanges comparing versions and make it easier for others to match your configuration.
I can’t. It won’t install inxi. I don’t have an internet connection. And when I type in sudu dnf install it spits back out: Missing positional argument “specs” for command “install”. Add “–help” for more information about the arguments.
Then if I type in: sudo dnf install inxi, a MASSIVE wall of all sorts of confusing text comes up. Most of it in Red. And at the very bottom it says: Failed to download metadata with a bunch of stuff in there about metalink, https sites. Then after that it says: Cannot prepare internal mirrorlist: Curl Error (6): Could not resolve hostname for https and a super long website name. Then at the end: [Could not resolve host: mirrors.fedoraproject.org]
And then, I don’t even know what you’re talking about when you say: To post terminal output use the </> button from the top line of the text entry panel. Some configurations hide it behind a + button. Just copy and paste text. image can be unreadable on some screens and the contents are missed by web searches.
I’m not a Linux user and have no idea what any of that means. This is so confusing. I thought Linux was supposed to be fairly easy and so great. And yet every time I’ve tried to use it, there’s always problems. I “want” to like it and use it, but it’s just one thing after another it seems like. And then even when community members are trying to help, they don’t respond to us beginners in a manner we can even understand, which makes it even more frustrating. Because we want to learn, but it’s such a steep learning curve and most of the time, we just want the OS to work without having to do a bunch of work and learning how everything works on such a granular level that requires a massive amount of expertise.
I appreciate you trying to help, but I’m not getting anywhere with your specific response. There’s nothing in there that is directly helping me identify the problem of why the WiFi network shows up, but won’t actually connect. And nothing in there to help implement a solution that fixes the problem in easy to understand beginner jargon.
I understand your frustration as it can be painful when Windows “just works”.
Having just come back to Linux after a 15 year break, I am myself surprised how some basics are still Geek level.
Now to also defend a bit the experts here…the reason they ask for command outputs is that if you use a GUI, then a lot of what is happening is hidden and you either get a positive result or a negative with no indication of why it didn’t work. The terminal will show you why it went wrong.
So..back to terminal..
Open terminal and run the command: ifconfig
Then paste the output here for us to see. This command will tell us if Fedora can even see your wifi card and we go from there.
Nope
I was asked for the same when I had a specific issue and at least on Fedora KDE I had to install the package 1st.
Since he doesn’t have an Internet connection while in Linux, he can’t install the package either.
And I can’t figure out a way to copy what Terminal spits out in Linux and then paste it into Windows after I restart the computer. I don’t even know if it’s possible. I tried googling it and can’t find anything right now.
And as far as “can Fedora see my wifi card”, that I’m not 100% sure about either way. I can see my WiFi network. It pops up among others around here where I live. But when I try to connect to it, it just spins and spins and spins and never connects. I’ve seen loads of videos on youtube about how Linux doesn’t even show the WiFI network and how to fix that, but nothing about my problem of the WiFi network showing, but Linux not connecting to it for some reason.
So here’s a screen shot of what comes up when I type in ifconfig in Linux
Nope thats fine. You done well. So “wlp80s0” appears to be your wifi card. So Fedora sees it.
Despite that, one of the weird stuff that has happened to a very few others, is that Windows doesn’t release the card properly.
So…
I think yours is a desktop. Laptops and a lot of new Desktops have only “Soft” Off buttons and never actually turn the system properly off.
So shut down your system fully and if a desktop, either use the mechanical power toggle switch or if it doesn’t have one, remove the AC Power cable.
Leave it disconnected for 5 minutes and then after reconnecting, boot directly into Linux…don’t go near Windows.
Once booted into Linux, try to connect to your Network. If it works now..great, if it doesn’t run: ifconfig
Make sure that it shows the same info as the one you have pasted in here and that “wlp80s0” is showing just like it did before.
If we are still at the same stage as before, I will give you another command which will show us if it can see your Home Network.
Companies that sell Windows PC’s put a lot of effort into ensuring that network, sound, video, etc. work “out of the box”. With Linux the best you can do is choose hardware with “in kernel” drivers, and even then there are often issues with new kernels when vendors don’t do pre-release testing. There are ways to work around issues. For network access there are WiFi and ethernet dongles as well as smart phone tethering. I have often needed these while waiting for the fixes to arrive with linux updates or vendor firmware. For USB WiFi, see https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi.
You made a typo in entering that command. Your screenshot shows the | was missed. The output from that command should show the wifi adapter and information about it.
As stated by George above, To post terminal output use the </> button from the top line of the text entry panel.
On the screen where you enter the data for your post, the toolbar on the top of the text entry screen should have the </> button.
When you paste the text from your screen use the mouse to highlight it then click that button to enable the preformatted text tags and retain on-screen formatting.
I understand that you have no internet at present, but did you check everything I mentioned about windows and how it can block access to the network adapter?
Ok, so I unplugged the power cord to my desktop. Turned off the switch on the PSU. And it was off all night. Came back this morning, plugged in the cord, turned on the switch, booted directly into Fedora, and bubkas. Nothing. Still doesn’t work.
My desktop is a custom built piece I made myself. It’s a Lian Li 011D Mini White case and has a “power on/off” button on the top right corner. But not sure if that actually shuts it completely off all the way or just partially? It seems like when I shut the computer down, everythings off. But again, I’m no computer expert and wouldn’t know. So followed your directions and just unplugged everything and turned off the PSU switch as well.
Took a screen shot of what comes up when I run ifconfig. And it’s mostly the same, and does show the wlp80s0 again. But next to “ether” is a different set of numbers now. It almost looks like it could be a IPv6 address? Not sure.
Yesterday when I ran ifconig, it showed: 80:38:fb:d5:77:fd
Today it shows: 72:24:b4:49:3e:3f
Oh ok, thanks for explaining that. I’ve always wondered why it’s SUCH a pain to get a Linux Distro to connect to my wifi. Makes sense. WIndows is a prepacked PAID product for the masses and Linux is varying levels of mostly free for enthusiasts all the way up to computer god experts.
As far as ethernet dongles and tethering, etc. I’m not going to be doing that. If I can’t get this to work normally, I’m just not going to use it anymore.
These are MAC addresses and I don’t understand how it could have changed the MAC address of the WiFi card.
Anyway…one last attempt from me before the real experts have to step in:
In your Terminal run this command which will tell us if your WiFi card can see your home network on terminal:
nmcli device wifi list
Copy and paste it directly into your terminal and hit enter. Lets see what the output is. It will take a little while, so wait until you normal prompt shows again.
Thanks
I didn’t know that. I thought that hardware addresses are hard bound to the device.
When I tie my device to the router, I use the MAC address, so I am surprised that they can change.
So that’s another weird thing going on here. When I type the vertical line or Pipe symbol on my custom keyboard, it doesn’t type anything! On Windows or Linux. I’ve tried looking into this to no avail, no information as to why this is happening. It also doesn’t even show up in the Character Map! It’s another super annoying mystery. So I can’t even type the vertical line or pipe symbol.
Also, I can’t do any of what you’re talking about with </> symbols and copy and paste. I don’t have any way to access the internet once I’m in Linux. That’s why I’m here for help. So that means I can’t copy and paste. I’m typing to you guys on my Macbook Air laptop while I go back and forth between Linux and Windows on my desktop PC. Where Fedora 44 will not connect to the WiFi. It shows the network, it just doesn’t ever connect. It spins and spins and never connects.
And yes, I’ve answered the last question at least 2-3 times at this point. It’s in my very first post about what the problem is. MAC address randomization is off. Fast boot is off, I’m completely shutting down the PC, unplugged it, booted straight into Linux and it still doesn’t work. That’s not the problem. I’ve already done that before I even posted here for help.
