Hi, I’m running Linux Mint 21.3 with kernel 6.5.0-21 on a Lenovo Thinkpad T14 gen 2 with an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, and most relevant to my question, an Intel AX210 WiFi controller.
It connects just fine to 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, but about 90% of the time it cannot see my 6GHz network, which is operating on a separate SSID. Sometimes it apparently randomly will see the 6GHz network, and it will connect and work fine until the next time the computer goes to sleep, after which it will only see 2.4/5GHz networks again.
I’ve been messing around trying to troubleshoot it, which led me to installing wavemon, and I discovered that if I run wavemon with elevated permissions and make it scan for networks it will see the 6GHz network, and when that happens it immediately becomes available to choose through Cinnamon’s GUI, and it will work fine again until the next time the computer sleeps. If I run wavemon again after waking from sleep and make it scan for networks, 6GHz functionality will work again.
Anyone know what’s going on here? I should add that I am in the US where the 6GHz band is legal and should be enabled in the Intel iwlwifi driver. It’s almost like something needs to happen to trigger the 6GHz radio into waking up or something.
There are a lot of reasons to not background scan, like latency and packet loss - scanning for networks typically takes a few hundred milliseconds and in that time you cannot communicate with the network you’re connected to. If you don’t have the network manager open looking for a network, and you’re connected to a network, background scanning is usually disabled.
When a network with multiple APs or bands is connected, neighbourhood reports inform the device of the neighbouring SSIDs so background scanning doesn’t have to occur and interrupt connectivity.