Re: Network hardware disappeared after re-boot
Snipped a lot to address only what I've experienced on my own setup.
On Wed, 2025-08-27 at 13:20 +0100, Gareth Evans wrote:
>
>
> > On 27 Aug 2025, at 07:03, Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@surfnaked.ca>
> > wrote:
> >
> > I have a Lenovo T410 laptop running Bookworm (12.11 according to
> > /etc/debian_version). It's been running perfectly for months
> > without
> > a re-boot - but after a re-boot today (more on this later) it can
> > no
> > longer find network hardware, either wi-fi or Ethernet. "ip addr"
> > and
> > /etc/network/interfaces only contain entries for the loopback
> > device
> > (lo); /etc/network/interfaces.d is empty. Aside from the loss of
> > networking, the machine seems to be running normally (although
> > VirtualBox can no longer bring up a Windows XP virtual machine
> > which uses the networking hardware).
> >
> > This machine also contains Windows 7 in a dual boot (although
> > I seldom use it). When I bring it up it can find and use the
> > networking hardware.
>
>
> If you have a desktop environment then NetworkManager is probably
> managing your network hardware rather than /e/n/i which seems even
> more likely if a backup of /e/n/i is empty of relevant details.
NMTUI.......
If NetworkManager is installed, these days I praise nmtui for helping
me in this type of situation multiple times over when nothing else has
been cognitively friendly. I'm able to use nmtui as normal user. It
presents these two options when fired up:
Edit a connection
Activate a connection
I've randomly poked at both when needing nmtui's help. "Activate a
connection" is likely the first one to try. It will be possible that
nothing will be found there until something else is successfully
triggered elsewhere.
On a related note, I just typed "nm <tab> <tab>" at a command line and
received a few various installed options that begin with that. A couple
go straight to the Edit and Activate pages of nmtui.
NMCLI.......
One result was interesting: nmcli. It presented a lot of connection
information for mine that's working. It will possibly not have much
feedback for disappearing hardware access.
THAT feedback suggested these two:
nmcli device show
nmcli connection show
I didn't get those to work right away so there they are, anyway.
Everything I could think to try did not compute with the command. :D
Based on what I'm seeing on mine, it looks like mncli is just another
way of going some of the other routes that are regularly suggested for
this kind of Internet access issue. It's always good to have that kind
of (cognitively friendly) CHOICE on Debian. Thank you, Developers!
RFKILL.......
As I was finishing this up, rfkill came to mind. It feels like that
might be what helped me initially fix mine a couple of weeks ago.
Rfkill is run as root. I've had to add its package manually during my
debootstrap installs (currently on Forky).
Last afterthought: The above nm* references are accessible if the
network-manager package is installed. Running e.g. "apt-file find
nmcli" brought up some options that look like documentation in addition
to the program itself. Cool. I've never noticed that before.
> Anything in dmesg output?
I was thinking this one, too. I'm able to query mine with a simple:
# dmesg|grep renamed
That provides this feedback which might have something useful IF it's
reported on OP's setup:
r8169 0000:04:00.0 enp4s0: renamed from eth0
lwifi 0000:05:00.0 wlp5s0: renamed from wlan0
If it's not available, I personally would try grepping parts of it (and
parts of the parts e.g. enp, wlp, eth, and wlan) to see if anything
hits since our setups are all personalized. It might not have anything
to report if system is somehow blocked from hardware access. That's
where I would go back to rfkill, but that's just my case usage
experience/success.....
Best wishes..
Cindy :)
--
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA
* runs with birdseed! *
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