Problems connecting wifi to a specific router (mobile phone hotspot)

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1

Hi all,

I have had a problem recently to connect to the hotspot of my phone through wifi. This happened after I made an update of the system, yet it problem persists after reboot with an old kernel. I do can connect to different hotspot phone wifi and others, so the problem is specifically with my phone that I had no problem to connect before.

In Gnome it attempt to connect and after a while it ask me the password, yet it does not connect. Using nmcli the result is the following:

Error: Connection activation failed: (7) Secrets were required, but not provided.

and

journalctl --system --since today

return the following chunk:

Mar 15 10:05:45 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: PMKSA-CACHE-REMOVED MAC_NUMBER 0
Mar 15 10:05:45 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with MAC_NUMBER (SSID='mobilephone' freq=5180 MHz)
Mar 15 10:05:45 computer kernel: wlp3s0: authenticate with MAC_NUMBER
Mar 15 10:05:45 computer NetworkManager[30401]: <info>  [1647349545.8135] device (wlp3s0): supplicant interface state: associating -> authenticating
Mar 15 10:05:45 computer kernel: wlp3s0: send auth to MAC_NUMBER (try 1/3)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: SME: Trying to authenticate with MAC_NUMBER (SSID='mobilephone' freq=5180 MHz)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer kernel: wlp3s0: authenticate with MAC_NUMBER
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer kernel: wlp3s0: send auth to MAC_NUMBER (try 1/3)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer kernel: wlp3s0: authenticated
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: PMKSA-CACHE-ADDED MAC_NUMBER 0
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: Trying to associate with MAC_NUMBER (SSID='mobilephone' freq=5180 MHz)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer NetworkManager[30401]: <info>  [1647349546.1734] device (wlp3s0): supplicant interface state: authenticating -> associating
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer kernel: wlp3s0: associate with MAC_NUMBER (try 1/3)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer kernel: wlp3s0: RX AssocResp from MAC_NUMBER (capab=0x8111 status=45 aid=0)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer kernel: wlp3s0: MAC_NUMBER denied association (code=45)
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT bssid=5e:e5:bd:40:69:5c status_code=45
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: SME: Deauth request to the driver failed
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer wpa_supplicant[2036]: wlp3s0: CTRL-EVENT-SSID-TEMP-DISABLED id=0 ssid="mobilephone" auth_failures=1 duration=10 reason=CONN_FAILED
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer NetworkManager[30401]: <info>  [1647349546.1916] device (wlp3s0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer rtkit-daemon[1125]: Supervising 6 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Mar 15 10:05:46 computer rtkit-daemon[1125]: Supervising 6 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Mar 15 10:05:47 computer systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Deactivated successfully.

Any idea how to reset or allow to reconnect to the device wifi?

thanks

2

Sometimes it seems necessary to “forget” a connection then add it back in new and it will work again. I have no clue why that happens but suspect it may be a bit of corruption in the connection data that simply needs replaced.

3

I have tried that but does not work. A note to consider is that when I put an usb WiFi device it worked but not connecting through the usb interface but through the Intel internal card. Then both stop working though.

4

Does enabling/disabling MAC randomization on your mobile make any difference?

5

It did not I am afraid

6

Mmmmm.
Is there a reason you need two different wifi adapters? They may be conflicting somewhere.

Try disconnecting the usb adapter then reboot and see if the internal adapter works acceptably.

7

There is not a real reason. The sequence of events is that the internal adaptor stops working. I thought the problem was the adaptor so I connected an usb adaptor I had. Yet, when I tried to connect through the usb adaptor did not work. However, weirdly, the internal one connected if and only if the usb adaptor was on the port. Anyway, both stop working. Nonetheless, I am able to connect to a different wifi from another phone just right. By the way, other devices can connect to the phone my machine is not able to.

8

I don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes, but I have a suggestion.

What happens if you change your crypto level?

Try this:

sudo update-crypto-policies --set LEGACY

Reboot and try to reconnect.

I had to do this when my agency as using WPA2 Enterprise WiFi.
If it doesn’t work, revert it back to DEFAULT with:

sudo update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT

and reboot.

9

Hi I tried changing the crypto before but did not work. However, I have installed from scratch Fedora 35 (not only because the problem, but it triggered what I have been avoiding for months) and the wifi worked. However I did a dnf upgrade --refresh then reboot and the wifi stop connecting.

I will tried to reboot in an old kernel, yet before it did not workd in fedora 34.

10

I switch to the old kernel. Also changed the crypto, yet none of both worked. Frustrating situation.

11

after trying all above. The answer was very simple: to change the security on the phone only to WPA2-personal.