Hi, I’m running Linux Mint 21.3 with kernel 6.5.0-21 on a Lenovo Thinkpad T14 gen 2 with an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, and most relevant to my question, an Intel AX210 WiFi controller.
It connects just fine to 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, but about 90% of the time it cannot see my 6GHz network, which is operating on a separate SSID. Sometimes it apparently randomly will see the 6GHz network, and it will connect and work fine until the next time the computer goes to sleep, after which it will only see 2.4/5GHz networks again.
I’ve been messing around trying to troubleshoot it, which led me to installing wavemon, and I discovered that if I run wavemon with elevated permissions and make it scan for networks it will see the 6GHz network, and when that happens it immediately becomes available to choose through Cinnamon’s GUI, and it will work fine again until the next time the computer sleeps. If I run wavemon again after waking from sleep and make it scan for networks, 6GHz functionality will work again.
Anyone know what’s going on here? I should add that I am in the US where the 6GHz band is legal and should be enabled in the Intel iwlwifi driver. It’s almost like something needs to happen to trigger the 6GHz radio into waking up or something.
It’s like background channel scans don’t look at 6ghz
Sounds like a power savings logic error
There are a lot of reasons to not background scan, like latency and packet loss - scanning for networks typically takes a few hundred milliseconds and in that time you cannot communicate with the network you’re connected to. If you don’t have the network manager open looking for a network, and you’re connected to a network, background scanning is usually disabled.
When a network with multiple APs or bands is connected, neighbourhood reports inform the device of the neighbouring SSIDs so background scanning doesn’t have to occur and interrupt connectivity.
Check with a newer Linux kernel. Starting with v6.6 my Mediatek-based WiFi started seeing 6GHz channels.
Interesting - I’ll try that as soon as a 6.6 kernel becomes available in Mint. Seems like 6.5.0-21 is the newest they offer right now.
Have this exact issue, but with 5G. Its only able to see 2.4 for about half a minute and then will find and connect to the 5G
If you can set them up with the same SSID that would be better.
Wi-Fi has all sorts of variables at play.
I can try that, thanks.
I can see the same SSID on all three bands now in wavemon, but my computer only connects to it on the 5GHz band, channel 40.
I’m not any more knowledgeable about this stuff than you :(, I just got an AX210 for my laptop the other day, but I don’t have a 6 GHz capable router.
It feels like it’s some kind of power saving feature or something like that. Do you actually get any faster speeds on 6 GHz?
You could try seeing if you have some kind of “roaming” or “mesh” option in your router settings. There’s a feature that’s supposed to have the router kick devices off of a connection if it thinks there’s a better one in the same mesh network. Not sure if it has any applicability to different frequencies on the same access point. Probably a dead end but you could look into it.
If it’s a fully featured router there should be tons of random options to change the power usage of the router’s wifi radios and all sorts of other stuff like that. At least on my old Asus router there were tons of options like that.
