On Friday, 17 October 2025 21:27:33 British Summer Time D. Ben Knoble wrote: > Hi Michael, > > Thanks for helpful reply. Unfortunately, as I receive only the user digest > mail and you did not include me in the To or Cc lists, I didn't receive > this mail in my inbox, so I did not notice it until much later when > checking one of the mirrors. > > Is it considered "wrong" to Reply-All around here? On other lists of this > style I use, we encourage Reply-All to keep folks who participate in the > conversation receiving email. I want to learn the norms of this community, > though.
Usually people send and receive messages to/from the mailing list address only. This is more convenient as it allows to just click 'Reply' as a responder and as a recipient you do not receive duplicate messages with the same content. > > On Wednesday, 15 October 2025 02:45:32 British Summer Time D. Ben Knoble > > > > wrote: > > > I've tried to describe the symptoms on my blog as best I can [1]. > > > Here's a repaste of the relevant bits for posterity. > > > > > > [1]: > > > https://benknoble.github.io/blog/2025/10/13/framework-gentoo-network-han > > > g/ > > > > > > ---8<--- > > > I've recently installed Gentoo on my new Framework Desktop, and for a > > > while > > > the network would hang, causing any program that touched the hardware to > > > also crap out. **Update same day:** I've just had the problem recur! > > > Agh! > > > > > > Here are some symptoms: > > > - Thinks chug along just fine, until > > > - The network goes down and commands start freezing. We're talking no > > > C-c, > > > no C-\\, no `pkill -9`: just dead in the water. (I hadn't solved > > > switching > > > consoles with Alt-Function keys yet, so fortunately I had tmux running.) > > > - > > > Notably, commands like `emerge` hang when they get to network steps. > > > Various `ip` & `ifconfig` style commands hang immediately. > > > > > > - Commands like `nmcli` and `ping` don't hang, but don't work. > > > - I'm pretty sure `/etc/resolv.conf` isn't being touched. > > > > > > - The `NetworkManager` daemon is running, but: > > > - `top` shows "D" (d-sleep) and `ps` shows "Dsl" > > > - `rc-status` reports NetworkManager as active, but `nmcli g` says > > > its > > > > > > down - `rc-service NetworkManager restart` fails with > > > > > > ``` > > > * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ] > > > * Unmounting network filesystems ... [ ok ] > > > * Stoppping NetworkManager ... > > > * start-stop-daemon: 1 rocesses refused to stop [ !! ] > > > * ERROR: NetworkManager failed to stop > > > * Mounting network filesystems ... [ ok ] > > > ``` > > > > Do you have some duplicated AP connection and nm will not stop? > > > > Your log shows successive de/re-authentication with different APs, e.g. > > first with 70:58:a4:d2:14:21 and then within seconds: > > > > disconnect from AP 70:58:a4:d2:14:21 for new auth to 70:58:a4:d2:14:29 > > Right, I noticed this too! I have a main router downstairs and an extender > upstairs in the same room as the device in question. As I explained over on > my blog: > > I saved some logs with > > { echo count from to; > grep 'disconnect from AP' /var/log/messages | > grep -o '\([[:xdigit:]][[:xdigit:]]:\?\)\{6\}' | paste - - | > sort | uniq -c; } | column -t > > which gave for example > > count from to > 3 <prefix>:2f:a9:51 <prefix>:2f:a9:59 > 22 <prefix>:2f:a9:51 <prefix>:d2:14:29 > 1 <prefix>:d2:14:21 <prefix>:2f:a9:59 > 2 <prefix>:d2:14:21 <prefix>:d2:14:29 > > As far as I can tell, the (masked) <prefix> there matches the output from > another connected device when checking the router with arp -a: > > gr6exx0c-a940.lan (192.168.2.1) at <prefix>:2f:a9:40 on en0 ifscope > [ethernet] > > And my (Google Fiber) management app says > > - the router has a MAC of <prefix>:2f:a9:41 > - the extender (MoCA) has a MAC of <prefix>:d2:14:10 > > So clearly something is going on here, and the NetworkManager is having > trouble deciding which connection to use? But I'm not sure what the deal is > with all those MACs that end in different digits. > > My other devices don't seem to have a problem, but I haven't looked (and am > not sure how to look) to see if there are repeatedly re-authenticating like > this. >From what you're describing, the above MAC neighbourhood is quite busy. A multi-frequency router would have more than one MAC address for each radio transmitter (2.4/5/6 GHz), in addition to its WAN and LAN NICs. It could be some adjacent property's WiFi is clashing with your chosen channel, but then I'd expect other devices of yours would suffer the same symptoms. > As I'll mention below, but so as not to bury the lede: iwd is now installed > and configured (with wpa_supplicant gone), but I'm still seeing this > behavior. It might now even be more prevalent (occurring every minute?). > > Thoughts? [snip ...] > > Take a look at this page and consider all suggestions. In particular, > > *wpa_supplicant is no longer recommended* and iwd should be used instead: > > > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NetworkManager > > > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Iwd > > Thank you very much for this! Nothing in the Handbook or the NetworkManager > wiki (aside from one specific error I wasn't encountering) really suggests > that iwd should be used, so it was easy to overlook. Thoughts on fixing > that? You could raise a request for improvement: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ Handbook:Main_Page#How_do_I_improve_the_Handbook.3F However, bear in mind the Handbook is only meant to get a basic installation going and Wiki pages are typically used thereafter for more detailed or bespoke configuration. That said, getting your network working reliably is a rather basic requirement for any OS.
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