NETCONF Hook Breaks WiFi Link on Arch Linux

[trainzkid]

Mostly for visibility, per Arch Linux bug FS#64393 - community/mkinitcpio-netconf: breaks iwlwifi module, it appears that adding the NETCONF hook to mkinitcpio prevents iwlwifi from creating the link for some WiFi cards on Arch Linux. I don't know if this is widely known or which cards are affected, but it affects my card (Intel AX210), and I keep coming back for a solution.

Symptoms:

• lspci -k shows the AX210 card successfully loaded the iwlwifi module

ryan@Atlas ~> lspci -k | grep -i network -A6
08:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz (rev 1a)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210 160MHz
        Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
        Kernel modules: iwlwifi

• dmesg shows no obvious errors (as far as I can tell?)

ryan@Atlas ~> journalctl --dmesg --grep=iwlwifi
Jan 14 11:56:44 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: api flags index 2 larger than supported by driver
Jan 14 11:56:44 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: TLV_FW_FSEQ_VERSION: FSEQ Version: 0.0.2.36
Jan 14 11:56:44 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: loaded firmware version 72.daa05125.0 ty-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode op_mode iwlmvm

• ip link only lists Ethernet link and loopback, no WiFi link

ryan@Atlas ~> ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp6s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Thankfully the above bug report provided me a workaround:

• modprobe iwlmvm/iwldvm to cause iwlwifi to create the link on an already-booted system

sudo modprobe iwlmvm && journalctl --dmesg --grep=iwlwifi
Jan 23 13:41:38 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX210 160MHz, REV=0x420
Jan 23 13:41:38 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: loaded PNVM version dbd9582f
Jan 23 13:41:38 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Detected RF GF, rfid=0x10d000
Jan 23 13:41:38 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: base HW address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Jan 23 13:41:38 Atlas kernel: iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0 wlp8s0: renamed from wlan0

ryan@Atlas ~> ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp6s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlp8s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

• add iwlmvm/iwldvm to the HOOKS section of mkinitcpio to cause iwlwifi to create the link correctly at boot (I haven't tested this yet, but the bug report listed it as a solution)

ENV:

ryan@Atlas ~> pacman --query linux-zen linux-firmware
linux-zen 6.1.5.zen2-1
linux-firmware 20221214.f3c283e-1

The bug report also seems to point out that this would be better addressed by mkinitcpio-netconf rather than Arch Linux. I have no opinion here, just adding this issue for visibility to others that might run into issues like I did.

Let me know if there's anything else I can provide, or if this is the wrong place to put this.

[rgerardi]

I was able to reproduce the issue with an Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 card.

[hashworks]

Same with an AX201 on a Dell Latitude 5420. Mistook it for a kernel package bug...

For me this wasn't an issue in linux 6.3.9, but it needed MODULES=(iwlmvm iwldvm).

[nerdroychan]

Also experiencing issues with my AX200. You need either MODULES=(iwlmvm iwldvm) as described above (actually, maybe just one of them), or let moddules-load.d take care of iwlmvm or iwldvm manually. Not sure about the root cause.

Same with an AX201 on a Dell Latitude 5420. Mistook it for a kernel package bug...

For me this wasn't an issue in linux 6.3.9, but it needed MODULES=(iwlmvm iwldvm).

For all 6.4.* kernels iwlmvm (or iwldvm, depending on the device firmware) need to be manually reloaded after boot because of missing firmware during early boot stage. I am running 6.5.1 in testing and seems it's finally fixed.