Ubuntu – My Ubuntu 16.04 keeps disconnecting from the Wi-Fi (eduroam). Why

16.04atherosnetworkingwireless

I haven't noticed any pattern and I'm sure the Wi-Fi works perfectly because I have no problems with the same computer using Windows 10. The Wi-Fi doesn't turn off though, it simply disconnects from the network and reconnects after about a couple of minutes.

I ran this and got:

lspci -knn | grep Net -A2
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0034] (rev 01)
Subsystem: AzureWave AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter [1a3b:2234]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Kernel modules: ath9k

Also running dmesg

Among the many messages the last one is:

[ 3818.806656] wlp3s0: Limiting TX power to 5 dBm as advertised by 00:23:eb:39:28:21

Any idea why this is happening?

Thank you.

Best Answer

I suspect that your wireless card is attempting to roam to another instance of eduroam from among the several that I suspect are nearby. Confirm:

sudo iwlist scan

You can also check:

dmesg | grep assoc

I think you will find that your card is trying to associate with one and then another instance of eduroam. They will each have a distinct MAC address; something like a4:2b:b0:dc:45:99 and a4:2b:b0:dc:45:88 or some such. If that is the case, you may have better luck if you bind Network Manager to the MAC address of the strongest access point: Ubuntu connect drops. Worked for a while then started dropping again

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