Unable to reconnect to a WiFi network on Fedora 20?

Question

Problem

After leaving my Fedora 20 laptop running overnight, I open it back up and it prompts me to re-enter the password for my home WiFi network. The password is already typed in and censored, but it wants me to to confirm and hit Connect.

I have deliberately made sure the password I am typing in is correct.

Once I type the password into the prompt, I press Connect and the prompt disappears. About five to ten seconds later, without displaying an error message of any sort, it brings up the exact same prompt with the password already entered. Just to be sure, I've tried just pressing Connect without editing the password, and I have also retyped the password and tried again to no avail.

Guaranteed Fix

As of right now, the only way I know I can indefinitely fix the problem is by restarting my laptop, which leads me to believe that either my home WiFi network is misconfigured in the WiFi Settings, or there is something that Fedora isn't handling properly.

Ideally, yes, I could just restart my laptop, but for example, let's say I'm uploading a significant amount of files over FTP, and if I restart my computer, that means I have to reupload a few thousand files because I have no idea which ones have been uploaded, which is just a huge delay.

Network Setup

My network is a Westell modem connected to an Apple AirPort Extreme router. As far as I know, it's a pretty standard setup.

The router handles DHCP and NAT, which does cause a small problem with the modem (a double NAT), and AT&T told us that if we want to use the features from our AirPort Extreme, we will have to deal with it. But it hasn't affected Internet usage on any other devices for the past year and a half since we set it up.

This is the AirPort Utility's description of a Double NAT:

This AirPort base station has a private IP address on its Ethernet WAN port. It is connected to a device or network that is using Network Address Translation (NAT) to provide private IP addresses. Change your AirPort base station from using DHCP and NAT to bridge mode.

Using bridge mode disables some of the most important features of our AirPort Extreme base station, including guest networking. But as I said previously, having the Double NAT hasn't affected Internet usage on any other device for the past two years.

i'd encountered similar problem when i connect to another wifi AP in another place. i guess the reason could be weak signal in linux (Fedora 19) caused this problem, because if i switched to Windows system, the connection will be very steady — LiuYan 刘研, Jan 08 '14 at 04:16
@LiuYan刘研 I am located only a couple feet from the router, so I should have a strong signal. However, looking at my bars right now, I don't have the strongest connection possible. — J.W.F., Jan 08 '14 at 04:21
What hardware is the laptop. Please be specific, b/c we're going to need to look up the make/model and ultimately find out what WiFi network card you have. Also are you using Wireless G, Wireless N? Also are you closing the lid and putting the laptop into suspend/hibernate or is it running, and the screen is just locking, prior to you attempting to log back in? — slm, Jan 08 '14 at 07:18
@slm I just ran `fpaste --sysinfo` in the command line, and the results should be able to be viewed [here](http://ur1.ca/gdd0i). The wireless network I am using is using Wireless N. And as of recently (as I continue to use my laptop), this issue is happening during day-to-day usage, whether the lid is shut or not, locked or not. The issue seems to be global. — J.W.F., Jan 08 '14 at 21:44
@slm It appears that the paste expired. [Try this one.](http://pastebin.com/B4xaXkuD) — J.W.F., Jan 09 '14 at 22:24
@slm Did you have any ideas? I am still having this issue. :( — J.W.F., Mar 03 '14 at 23:26
Can you paste the error? The link is gone. Also try answering my Q's in the comment above. I asked about your hardware and I do not see any of my Q's answered. I'd start there. — slm, Mar 03 '14 at 23:33
@slm Sorry, thought the link was still valid. The paste has all of my system info, as I used the `fpaste --sysinfo` command, and I figured this would provide a more in-depth analysis of my system than I could provide. I didn't set an expiry on this one this time, and you should be able to open it [here](http://pastebin.com/2SGYizmv). — J.W.F., Mar 04 '14 at 18:38
@slm I believe my WiFi card is a Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01). That is what my terminal tells me. I've started to notice that usually this happens shortly after startup or returning to the computer, however, it has still happened even while the computer is running. I've also started running into this issue on my school's WiFi, and I'm constantly restarting the Network Manager in order to reconnect. — J.W.F., Mar 31 '14 at 17:36
This sounds like a Network Manager problem. At least it used to do nasty stuff like this some years ago, and probably still does... Try restarting networking (don't remember how to do it Fedora, but should be easy to google). — hyde, May 13 '14 at 20:13
@hyde: Sadly, that is what I am forced to do every time I encounter network issues, but it gets tiring after a while. I wish there was some kind of permanent fix for this. — J.W.F., May 15 '14 at 22:49
Does `dmesg` show anything associated with your connection drops? — drs, Aug 15 '14 at 01:54

J.W.F. · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-05T21:51:20.333

Solution

Description

After many months of having this issue with intermittent WiFi connections and sometimes losing connectivity for hours at a time, Bug 1108801 on the Red Hat / Fedora bug tracker seemed to hold the solution for me.

As described in Comment #12 on that bug, Realtek (the manufacturer of my wireless card) has updated drivers for my RTL8188EE wireless card that are NOT included in the Linux kernel / Fedora by default. So, my solution was to manually download the source code for the drivers, compile and install the code onto my computer, and then reboot. After doing this, I have not had any of the issue that I used to have with staying connected to WiFi networks!

How to fix

The commands I ran to install the drivers from Realtek's GitHub are as follows. Make sure you have already installed the git package from the Fedora software repositories!

$ git clone http://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new.git
$ cd rtlwifi_new
$ make
$ sudo modprobe -rv rtl8188ee
$ sudo make install
$ sudo modprobe -v rtl8188ee

Disclaimer

As of the time of writing this, I haven't had more than a day to ensure that this has resolved the issue entirely for me, but it resolve the issue I was having prior to installing the driver and rebooting. I can only hope this was the final solution, but if my problem continues, I will update the question.

IMPORTANT!

Every time that there is a kernel update for Fedora, you will have to download, compile, and install the drivers each time, as it only installs the drivers for whichever kernel you are currently using.

Edit, Mar. 5 2015

The RTL8188EE driver in Linux kernel 3.18.5 and up is exactly like the one in repository listed above. Depending on your specific wireless card, you may not need to use rtlwifi_new, and you can just upgrade your kernel version! For more info, read the GitHub issue.