WiFi Drops Again

I had previously flailed around trying to fix occasional WiFi drops on my Pop_OS(Ubuntu) laptop. The intermittency made it hard to know if I really fixed it or not, and it turns out I hadn’t.

I installed Arch Linux on another computer here on my desk. While it sat around idle, I found it one day having lost its internet connection just like the Pop_OS machine does!

Now I knew this problem with the network connection wasn’t isolated to one machine. To recap:

  • the wired connection is fine

  • the Mac on the wireless network is fine

  • the mobile devices are fine

  • the 2 linux machines drop their connections every couple days

I started the search again for a solution with more information. I found some hints about power-saving options in NetworkManager.

On the Pop_OS machine, there’s a configuration file, /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf, that I changed to disable powersaving:

[connection]
# 0: default, 1: leave untouched, 2: disable, 3: enable
wifi.powersave = 2

I had to add a file to the Arch machine in the same location to hold this configuration. Now these machines have been maintaining their connections for days.


Filed Under: Computers Linux