Arch Linux

Just as a data point, I don't have systemd in the initramfs, so the misbehaving line in the hook is this one:

add_checked_modules "/drivers/net/"

Are you using iwd by any chance? Just adding a hook on mkinitcpio.conf and rebuilding the initramfs doesn't alter anything on the running system. If you're using iwd, it is expected behavior for it to remove the interface, because it's how it operates.

No, I am not using iwd. And you have apparently misunderstood the bug description, so let me clarify.

If I don't enable the netconf hook, then WiFi works. If I rebuild the initramfs with the netconf hook, then on the next reboot WiFi becomes broken, because now the initramfs (and not the main system) loads iwlwifi, and at that time the iwldvm module is not available, and is never retried.

I understood the bug description, just wanted to make sure you were not using something else that would cause this behavior. I'll try to reproduce this later today, I also have iwlwifi with iwldvm.

It looks like this doesn't have anything to netconf. I am able to reproduce this behavior without netconf. It seems that systemd persistent naming feature is borked. I get a wlan0 card when booting without netconf.

This would be a different bug.

Just to reiterate.

no netconf: I get wlp4s0

netconf + autodetect: I get nothing

netconf + autodetect + manual modprobe of iwldvm: I get wlp4s0

The proper solution would be to include iwldvm + iwlmvm every time autodetection says that iwlwifi needs to be included. These modules are inseparable. Similar case to vfat + nls_cp437 + nls_iso8859-1 which is already handled by add_module() in /usr/lib/initcpio/functions.

I have opened an upstream issue to track this: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/13948

It would be helpful to try to reproduce this with other wireless cards. Here on my system I'm also using iwlwifi with iwldvm, and I can replicate this issue.

You reported a completely different issue. I never see wlan0.

Could you please paste the output of this command, just to see what's different in our setup:

lsinitcpio /boot/initramfs-linux.img | grep iwl

Are you sure you never see wlan0? because this line indicates otherwise:

[ 5960.588337] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0 wlp4s0: renamed from wlan0

The autodetect hook doesn't even care about network modules. netconf uses add_checked_modules because it's the proper way to filter the modules that were detected by autodetect already.

Yes, I am sure. [ 5960.588337] is when I ran "modprobe iwldvm" manually. So it immediately created the interface, wlan0, and then udev renamed it to wlp4s0 according to the usual rules.

> netconf uses add_checked_modules because it's the proper way to filter the modules that were detected by autodetect already.

This "proper way" is buggy, because it separates iwlwifi from its required helpers, iwldvm and iwlmvm. I guess we just need to fix add_module() in /usr/lib/initcpio/functions, i.e. add one more special case, just like the vfat case which is already there.

@Alexander,

I have done a few more tests here. To make sure iwd and any other network managing software had anything to do with it, I have disabled them all on boot.

So, to summarize:

When using netconf:

I don't get neither a wlp2s0 nor wlan0 device. My system boots only with the iwlwifi module loaded.
If I manually load the iwlmvm/iwldvm modules, I *still* get a wlan0 device. It doesn't get renamed as in your case.

When not using netconf:

I get a wlan0 device.

So, it seems to be two separate issues.

The naming issue is related to iwd shipping a link file. I have renamed this task and re-assigned. I'll see if adding the iwl modules is *really* necessary, or if there's a better way to do this on netconf.

Edited to add: my suggestion to you, for now, is to add the modules to the MODULES=() array in mkinitcpio.conf.

I did exactly that, but still thanks ;)

Sure. If a mkinitcpio fix is required, that might take a few weeks to land. If this can be done on mkinitcpio-netconf side, it's a little easier. So, I suggest for now you add them. I'll keep this opened in the mean time, so keep an eye for it.

(writing as requested by the draft of the "bug wrangling day" news item)

Nothing has changed. The iwlwifi module's operation still depends on the iwlmvm or iwldvm (depending on the hardware), but it loads these helpers dynamically at runtime. See https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/iwl-drv.c?h=v5.8#n1603

There is no "softdep" in "modinfo iwlwifi" for the mkinitcpio scripts to catch upon and detect this de-facto dependency, so the workaround still stays here.

I have grepped the whole drivers/net tree for request_module, and found the following cases that might be exposing the same issue:

mlx4_core might request mlx4_en or mlx4_ib
mlx5_core might request mlx5_ib
iwlwifi could request iwlvdm or iwlmvm, as already reported
hostap, ipw2100 and ipw2200 might request lib80211_crypt_wep or lib80211_crypt_tkip or lib80211_crypt_ccmp (but not sure if this could happen during early boot)

Please (as already suggested) handle these cases just like you do the fat -> nls_cp437 hidden dependency, or document (by closing this bug) that autodetection isn't supposed to work on hardware with drivers that load helper modules at runtime, and the user really has to put the required helper modules into MODULES=(...).

I've recently had this issue with an Intel AX201 card. Quite hard to debug, since `lspci -k` reports the iwlwifi module as used for the device, one just won't get an interface without any errors in dmesg. But yeah, adding `iwlmvm iwldvm` to MODULES still works.

This is an automated comment as this bug is open for more then 2 years. Please reply if you still experience this bug otherwise this issue will be closed after 1 month.

Similar issue here: I added netconf to the HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf together with dropbear in order to allow unlocking the encrypted root filesystem over ssh. I have no intention to support this over wifi but it looks like the init ramdisk now tries to load the iwlwifi module. This fails because it does not find the firwmares, which are of course inside the rootfs at path /usr/lib/firmware/.

If I later manually unload the module and reload it, it works fine.

Are there any way yet to exclude the iwlwifi module from the mkinitcpio when netconf is included?
Otherwise, even if I would avoid this, are there any way to include the firmware in the mkinitcpio as well?

Logs:
[ 1.127784] Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
[ 1.127872] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 1.133770] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input3
[ 1.148356] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected crf-id 0x3617, cnv-id 0x20000302 wfpm id 0x80000000
[ 1.148375] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: PCI dev 06f0/4070, rev=0x351, rfid=0x10a100
[ 1.148441] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-78.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148468] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-77.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148493] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-76.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148518] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-75.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148543] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-74.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148568] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-73.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148593] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-72.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148618] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-71.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148642] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-70.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148667] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-69.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148693] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-68.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148718] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-67.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148743] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-66.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148767] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-65.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148793] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-64.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148818] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-63.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148843] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-62.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148867] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-61.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148892] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-60.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148917] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-59.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148943] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-58.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148967] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-57.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.148993] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-56.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149017] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-55.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149042] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-54.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149067] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-53.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149092] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-52.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149121] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-51.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149146] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-50.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149170] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-49.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149195] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-48.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149220] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-47.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149246] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-46.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149271] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-45.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149299] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-44.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149323] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-43.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149348] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-42.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149373] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-41.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149399] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-40.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149424] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-39.ucode failed with error -2
[ 1.149426] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: no suitable firmware found!
[ 1.149427] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: minimum version required: iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-39
[ 1.149429] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: maximum version supported: iwlwifi-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-78
[ 1.149430] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: check git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git