Ralink RT3090 Chipset Disconnects WLAN Every Reboot: Z1620-UR31P

WJB-2

Currently on Arch Linux (EndeavourOS Linux) but same problem occurs with multiple Linux distributions:

• Run a distribution as Live USB User and everything, including WiFi, works perfectly.
• Install the distribution and nasty surprise, no WiFi. Ethernet is available so you connect cable to complete set-up.
• No standard Linux / Unix command will identify the trouble or restart WLAN. Frustrated, you turn off computer.
• Next day you turn on computer and WiFi automatically connects. But ...
• Whenever next reboot occurs, WiFi is gone again. No amount of additional rebooting or commands bring it back.
• You must fully shut down computer. Start it back up. As expected, WiFi connects. Until next reboot.

The closest hint I can find to this issue across Linux forums is a reported history of problems with Ralink chipsets. In my case specifically:

Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe vendor: Lite-On driver: rt2800pci

An Arch wiki page states, "For devices which are using the RT3090 chip set it should be possible to use rt2800pci driver, however, is not working with this chip set very well (e.g. sometimes it is not possible to use higher rate than 2Mb/s)." Could the rt2800pci be at fault? Questionable given the reboot disconnections began with Linux Mint 19.3 Mate a month or so ago, and I've been using Linux distributions since March 2019 with consistent WiFi connections.

With Mint 19.3 Mate I was losing WiFi fairly often but rebooting would restore it. I switched to Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 (Cinnamon; Debian 10 Buster) and that's when rebooting began disconnecting the WLAN. Further, with LMDE 4 I often lost WiFi while online, something that so far occurred only once with EndeavourOS. I ran EndeavourOS briefly in my other computer, an Aspire E1, and WiFi was fine. However, high capacity microSD cards were unusable so I'm now running Mint 19.3 Xfce in the E1 and it has no notable networking problems other than one momentary WiFi loss during many hours of use. So I plan to replace the Z1620's EndeavourOS with 19.3 Xfce to see if there's an improvement. Curiously, I'm using the Xfce version of EndeavourOS that I suppose should be lighter than its Mint counterpart.

Below are my outputs for when WiFi drops, and for when it's working. I close by noting ACER shows the Z1620's "Wireless LAN Driver" as of 2012/12/04 as Atheros version 10.0.0.217. But there was a later production version that year with pure UEFI; mine is an earlier production model using a hybrid BIOS/UEFI setup. And Linux shows the correct driver is installed.

WHEN WIFI NOT WORKING:

[williamjbj@william-aspirez1620 ~]$ iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

enp3s0    no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry short  long limit:2   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
[williamjbj@william-aspirez1620 ~]$

WHEN WIFI WORKING:
[williamjbj@william-aspirez1620 ~]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.
enp3s0    no wireless extensions.
wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"wjbmedia"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: F8:8B:37:F5:B6:32   
          Bit Rate=19.5 Mb/s   Tx-Power=30 dBm   
          Retry short  long limit:2   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-17 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:714   Missed beacon:0

[williamjbj@william-aspirez1620 ~]$

Thoughts, anyone? Thanks.

batmalin

dmesg,lshw -class network,inxi -Fxxxz  would be helpful

billsey

That card is a miniPCI form factor. I'd be tempted to replace it with an Intel card instead.