On Friday, 17 October 2025 21:40:14 British Summer Time D. Ben Knoble wrote: > Ah, one other thing: > > On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 4:27 PM D. Ben Knoble <[email protected]> wrote: > > > 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. > > > > 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? > > Now with iwd, the reconnect happening every minute is at least to the > same MAC (always <prefix>:d2:14:21).
The iwd will blacklist for a while any AP BSSIDs which it detects are unreliable. > I'm still concerned about the constant re-auth, but it's not toggling > around semi-randomly like before. It shouldn't do that, so there is still a problem with it. Other than configuring your wireless network stack correctly, it is not always easy to pinpoint the cause. Normally power saving by the PC or NIC module should not cause this problem, but you've disabled power saving in the module anyway. Clashing WiFi channels with strong signals from neighbouring properties can be another cause. Finally buggy kernel drivers and/or firmware are also known to cause this kind of problem. Checking a couple of things. 1. You have disabled netifrc and are using nm. 2. You have disabled wpa_supplicant and are using iwd. 3. Your have not added iwd to the default service level and on boot nm starts up iwd successfully. 4. You use either iwd's built-in dhcp client, or dhcpcd, but not both at the same time. 5. You have selected the appropriate AP to associate with using iwctl, or by using the nm GUI. With the above components configured and working as they should the PC ought to associate with the AP, obtain an IP address and remain associated without dropping the connection. If you feel inclined to experiment further, disable nm & iwd and give netifrc + wpa_supplicant + dhcpcd a try, or for a simpler setup try just wpa_supplicant + dhcpcd: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Network_management_using_DHCPCD
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