Rubin Shrestha
Zend certified PHP/Magento developer
Rubin Shrestha
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Wifi association took too long, failing activation

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I have recently acquired a Dell XPS 15 9500, and also have a Dell XPS 13 9370. They are both running Ubuntu 20.04 as a dual boot.

I have an access point (private, at home) where the 13 has no problem connecting, but the 15 won’t. The 15 has never had any problem with any other access point so far. The output of the NetworkManager logs in the journal is the following:

dec 15 21:15:49 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599349.5607] audit: op="radio-control" arg="wireless-enabled" pid=1808 uid=1000 result="success"
dec 15 21:15:49 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599349.5609] manager: rfkill: Wi-Fi now disabled by radio killswitch
dec 15 21:15:55 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599355.6388] manager: rfkill: Wi-Fi hardware radio set enabled
dec 15 21:15:55 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599355.7779] audit: op="radio-control" arg="wireless-enabled" pid=1808 uid=1000 result="success"
dec 15 21:15:55 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599355.7781] manager: rfkill: Wi-Fi now enabled by radio killswitch
dec 15 21:15:55 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599355.8482] sup-iface[0x55b0b19e0200,wlp108s0]: supports 5 scan SSIDs
dec 15 21:15:55 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599355.8497] device (wlp108s0): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready
dec 15 21:15:55 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599355.8498] device (wlp108s0): state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2385] device (wlp108s0): Activation: starting connection 'wifi_Dehaye' (56fb3abf-fc97-4018-b22e-59fb7f45bcb9)
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2386] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="56fb3abf-fc97-4018-b22e-59fb7f45bcb9" name="wifi_Dehaye" pid=1808 uid=1000 result="succes>
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2387] device (wlp108s0): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2390] manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2393] device (wlp108s0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2396] device (wlp108s0): Activation: (wifi) access point 'wifi_Dehaye' has security, but secrets are required.
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2396] device (wlp108s0): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2413] device (wlp108s0): state change: need-auth -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2415] device (wlp108s0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2418] device (wlp108s0): Activation: (wifi) connection 'wifi_Dehaye' has security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2418] Config: added 'ssid' value 'wifi_Dehaye'
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2418] Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2418] Config: added 'bgscan' value 'simple:30:-70:86400'
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2418] Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'NONE'
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2419] Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2419] Config: added 'wep_key0' value '<hidden>'
dec 15 21:19:07 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599547.2419] Config: added 'wep_tx_keyidx' value '0'
dec 15 21:19:09 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599549.2576] device (wlp108s0): supplicant interface state: ready -> inactive
dec 15 21:19:32 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <warn>  [1639599572.7707] device (wlp108s0): Activation: (wifi) association took too long, failing activation
dec 15 21:19:32 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599572.7708] device (wlp108s0): state change: config -> failed (reason 'ssid-not-found', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:32 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599572.7716] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTED
dec 15 21:19:32 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <warn>  [1639599572.7735] device (wlp108s0): Activation: failed for connection 'wifi_Dehaye'
dec 15 21:19:32 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599572.7737] device (wlp108s0): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
dec 15 21:19:32 vincent-XPS-15-9500 NetworkManager[839]: <info>  [1639599572.7763] device (wlp108s0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> disconnected

The wireless interface is:

description: Wireless interface
       product: Qualcomm
       vendor: Qualcomm
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:6c:00.0
       logical name: wlp108s0
       version: 01
       serial: 9c:b6:d0:3f:90:da
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath11k_pci driverversion=5.11.0-41-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.43.228 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:171 memory:b4200000-b42fffff

I tried a decent number of fixes already, including but not limited to:

  • sudo iw wlp108s0 set power_save off
  • in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, setting managed to true and wifi.scan-rand-mac-address to no
  • checking the mac-address-blacklist in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/wifi_Dehaye.nmconnection (empty)
  • turning on and off wifi, bluetooth
  • forgetting network configuration
  • turning automatic connection off
  • looking for driver updates/additional drivers in Software & Updates, none for this

Happy to provide any additional information needed, I am not very knowledgeable in networking, I am going rather blindly.

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