WiFi Connectivity Problems with LinuxMint

I found that if I use my laptop in the bedroom where the signal strength is about 50% then the WiFi constantly prompts me for the password which should be automatically stored. Once supplied, I'm often prompted again and again and again. Sometimes it's satisfied but only for a while, then the prompts begins again.

The problem doesn't occur as much where the signal strength is stronger. I turned to Linux Forums and discovered the following suggested fix:

sudo sed -i 's/3/2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/*

echo "options rtl8723be ips=N" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf

After entering this into the terminal and rebooting, all seems well. No more prompts. Fingers crossed that the problem doesn't recur. Oops, just as I typed this the problem did recur. Well, sort off. The connection dropped briefly and then restored itself without prompting me for a password. I can handle those sorts of transient disruptions if they're not too frequent. 

What I'll do is to get on with my normal workflow and I'll report back on what's transpired in an hour or so. It's now 10:51pm ... so it 12:14am and the WiFi did drop out a couple of times but it soon reconnected and I was never once prompted for my password. While things are not ideal, I must say that overall I can live with the current minor disruptions.

Installation of Linux Mint 20.3

You can't say that there's no technological excitement in my life. I finally had to abandon the use of Ubuntu on my 2013 MacBook Pro. The keyboard, trackpad and mouse freezes were becoming too frequent and numerous reboots were required to activate these devices. Finally no amount of rebooting could activate them and so I turned to Linux Mint.

The installation went smoothly enough but the boot up process was, and continues to be, interrupted by a series of error messages. That is a minor irritation but far worse was to come. I discovered that the OS didn't recognise the WiFi adapter in the laptop. So, for the moment, no WiFi but thankfully I have an Ethernet connection. I had an old TP-LINK WiFi dongle that must be at least a decade old and I tried that out but no luck. Perhaps a can buy a more up-to-date dongle that works. This is a matter for deeper investigation but for the moment, as long as the keyboard, mouse and trackpad don't freeze up on me, I'll be happy.

 

 

My initial attempt to install the Chrome browser failed but then I was reminded that flatpak is built into Linux Mint and, by using that, the installation of the Chrome browser and also Calibre was straight forward. So far, after a couple of days of using Linux Mint, I've had no problems and I hope things stay that way.

I've put out a request for help on the Linux Mint Forums and hopefully help will be forthcoming. So far 20 views but no comments. However, it's been up less than an hour. 

I'll add an addendum if help arrives.

ADDENDUM

... and help did arrive! A user called sleeper12 offered two suggestions. The first was:

inxi -Fxxxrz && rfkill list && iwconfig && mokutil --sb-state 

This had no effect but the second suggestion did the trick:

sudo modprobe -r wl && sudo modprobe wl && sudo systemctl restart network-manager.service 

This is great news and my laptop is now fully functional, apart from the webcam that I assume is still not working. I should ask for help with that on the forums as well.