Kuan

September 29, 2022

WiFi in Linux: 5g okay, 2.4g not okay?

Problem

My Manjaro used to NOT connecting to my 2.4g WiFi band. It connected to my 5g band no problem. It just keep asking me for the password again and again and again when I tried to connect to 2.4g.

The new Sparky installation has the same issue! So I bit the bullet and search high and low to find the solution, which I present below. It isn't easy to search since the problem of "cannot connect to WiFi, linux/arch/manjaro" results are dominating the internet.

Well, I hope anyone facing the same issue might find this post instead?

Solution

You need `iwd` as the wifi backend instead of the default `wpa_supplicant`, preferred by NetworkManager.

For Arch/Manjaro, all I need to do is follow this: Arch Linux Manual

For Debian/Sparky, I followed this but needed extra work: The config file was wrong for me. I needed to add the 

[device]
wifi.backend=iwd

to  '/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf' instead.

About Kuan

Web developer building with Flutter, Svelte and JavaScript. Recently fell in love with functional programming.

Malaysian. Proud Sabahan. Ex game developer but still like playing games.

New found hobby is outdoor camping with my love.