WiFi indicator icon disappears in Ubuntu 16.04

[Or Schiro]

Dear all,

Can someone confirm an occasionally missing WiFi indicator tray icon?

Sometimes it happens that the icon is not displayed although the WiFi connection is working.

Please see also the attached screenshot.

Warmly,

~Robert

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Vincas Dargis (talkless)]

I noticed it too. I guess it dissapears while suspeding/resuming, I'll try to experiment.

I'm on Kubuntu by the way.

[Or Schiro (orschiro)]

Dear Vincas,

That's a good catch. It happens to me, too, mostly on resume from suspend.

~Robert

[Vincas Dargis (talkless)]

But wait, you said that WiFi is working? I cannot enable WiFi because WiFi enable checkbox is not available after some reboots. So I man not sure if this is same bug.

Either way, I've want to share some experiment:

First, I had to run this (to disable kill swich?):

rfkill unblock 0:

rfkill list
0: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

*** FIRST REBOOT ***

Now I've rebooted. I can see WiFi switch in network manage KDE Plasma applet (or whatever it is called). It's not on though as I am using ethernet cable.

Attached syslog-0-reboot-with-wifi-enabled with some interesting lines:

Aug 4 12:40:19 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303619.9266] rfkill2: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:04:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill2) (driver iwlwifi)
Aug 4 12:40:19 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303619.9266] rfkill0: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/rfkill/rfkill0) (platform driver asus-nb-wmi)

Aug 4 12:40:20 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303620.9939] manager: WiFi disabled by radio killswitch; disabled by state file
Aug 4 12:40:20 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303620.9939] manager: WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file

Aug 4 12:40:21 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303621.4851] urfkill disappeared from the bus

Aug 4 12:40:29 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303629.8188] WiFi hardware radio set disabled
Aug 4 12:40:29 vinco NetworkManager[2964]: <info> [1470303629.8188] WWAN hardware radio set enabled
Aug 4 12:40:29 vinco kernel: [ 33.002054] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to disable radio.
Aug 4 12:40:29 vinco systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status...
Aug 4 12:40:29 vinco systemd[1]: Started Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.

*** SECOND REBOOT ***

Now rebooted again. WiFi still visible in network manager applet.

Attached syslog-1-reboot-with-wifi-enabled-again . I see same interesting lines as before, looks the same as first reboot:

Aug 4 12:52:15 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304335.4960] rfkill3: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:04:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill3) (driver iwlwifi)
Aug 4 12:52:15 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304335.4961] rfkill1: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/rfkill/rfkill1) (platform driver asus-nb-wmi)

Aug 4 12:52:16 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304336.4929] manager: WiFi disabled by radio killswitch; disabled by state file
Aug 4 12:52:16 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304336.4929] manager: WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file

Aug 4 12:52:16 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304336.6760] urfkill disappeared from the bus

Aug 4 12:52:25 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304345.8185] WiFi hardware radio set disabled
Aug 4 12:52:25 vinco NetworkManager[2976]: <info> [1470304345.8186] WWAN hardware radio set enabled
Aug 4 12:52:25 vinco kernel: [ 34.002468] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to disable radio.
Aug 4 12:52:25 vinco systemd[1]:...

[Vincas Dargis (talkless)]

Yeah, it looks like I lose WiFi connectivity on ever third reboot!. Have to "rfkill unblock 0" to make it work again, for two reboots...

[Vincas Dargis (talkless)]

I did another experiment.

I've remove ehternet cable, connected WiFi to my home router. Now I could reboot as much as I want, WiFi worked, checkbox is visible and is ON inside network manager widget.

BUT, later I disabled WiFi connection, attached etherne cable, rebooted and that's it - wlan0 device missing, no WiFi checkbox!

[Or Schiro (orschiro)]

So, it has to do something with the Ethernet connection in your case?

Weird, I can't test it, unfortunately, as I don't use any Ethernet.

~Robert

[Vincas Dargis (talkless)]

No, not do do with Etherenr, but with the fact that WiFi is not used.

In other words,

WiFi wlan0 interface goes missing after third reboot if it is not used (because I use ethernet instead).

Try to disable automatic connection to your home WiFi, disable WiFi in indicator, and then reboot several times.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Or Schiro (orschiro)]

Doesn't occur to me any longer under 16.10.

[João A. S. Amarante (joaoant)]

it also happen to me, but not every time, when I suspend my laptop and turn it on... usually it comes back when I : "service network-manager restart".
But, it also fails sometimes to restore it.

If I reboot it comes back again, however, sometimes I simply cannot reboot because it is very inconvenient.

Also, sometimes "all of a sudden" it disappears... although it keeps me connected, I feel it is very annoying...

is there a solution already that does not include rebooting the system?

[Dilip (dilip-meet)]

Wifi icon on top panel disappears for me as well (16.04 + Unity). I have to use settings > network to deal with the WiFi connections. Happens mostly when I " suspend " and resume my PC.

I do not use an ethernet cable. So, unable to comment on that.

    sudo service network-manager restart
    nm-applet

These commands, when active on terminal brings back the icon. But, the WiFi network listing are missing at times.

[Dimon2242 (dimon2242)]

I created script in /lib/systemd/system-sleep/ and give it chmod +x, and every wakeup it is run.

#!/bin/sh

# NAME: /lib/systemd/system-sleep/iwlwifi-reset
# DESC: Resets Intel WiFi after a long suspend.
# DATE: Apr 1, 2017. Modified April 8, 2017.

# NOTE: Per AU comment restart network.

MYNAME=$0

restart_wifi() {
    /usr/bin/logger $MYNAME 'restart_wifi BEGIN'
# /sbin/modprobe -v -r iwldvm # This removes iwlwifi too
# /sbin/modprobe -v iwlwifi # This starts iwldvm too
 systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
 nohup nm-applet &
    /usr/bin/logger $MYNAME 'restart_wifi END'
}

/usr/bin/logger $MYNAME 'case=[' ${1}' ]'
case "${1}/${2}" in
    hibernate|suspend|pre*)
      ;;
    resume|thaw|post*)
      restart_wifi;;
esac

[Bharat (zorrothefox)]

I am facing a similar issue in my HP Ubuntu 16.04 laptop... WiFi icon is grayed out, it doesn't show the active connection (though it is actually connected to my WiFi router!) and it shows other Wi-Fi networks. Sometimes, the whole icon disappears and I get the small icon of network (with the up-down arrows)!

As reported by others, I suspect that it is caused due to laptop going to standby.

The "service network-manager restart" command worked for me!

Wish this bug could be fixed though!