Network issues on 16.04 with RTL8821AE

Question

I've recently purchased an Asus desktop computer and tried to install Ubuntu 16.04 on it. I had no problems to install or make a dualboot with Windows 10, but the real problems started to show up almost an hour after I've finished the system installation.

Basically, my wifi is periodically "freezing" (The wifi signal shows that everything is ok, but I do not have Internet connection), and I am forced to restart the network-manager. Even after restarting the manager, sometimes my wifi won't show up on the list of available networks or will not work at all. I don't have any of these problems on Windows 10, and also my Internet speed is much faster.

I've been trying to find the problem for almost one week, and here are some of the dozens of cases which seemed to be the closest to mine:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1482979
http://askubuntu.com/questions/730430/wifi-connection-keeps-dropping-in-ubuntu-15-10-rtl8821ae
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2245164
http://askubuntu.com/questions/797213/wireless-disconnect-issues-ubuntu-16-04-with-rtl8821ae
http://askubuntu.com/questions/730430/wifi-connection-keeps-dropping-in-ubuntu-15-10-rtl8821ae

Even though I could find several people that had the same problem that I'm having, their solutions did not do me any good, and as a newbie ubuntu user, I'm not sure about how I should proceed in this situation.

My kernel information:

Linux asus-G20AJ 4.4.0-36-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 18:01:55 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

My wireless interface information:

*-network
   description: Wireless interface
   product: RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
   vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
   logical name: wlp3s0
   version: 00
   serial: dc:85:de:ef:89:7b
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8821ae driverversion=4.4.0-36-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.25.177 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
   resources: irq:29 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:f7100000-f7103fff

Can anyone help me to solve these issues?

Answer 1

I couldn't find exactly a solution for this problem, but if someone with the same issues comes to this post in the future, I'm adding here what worked for me.

I had to install Ubuntu 14.04 (which has these very same issues) and followed the instructions given by the user jackie in this question, only changing the driver name (from rtl8188ee to rtl8821ae).

My machine on Ubuntu now can use around 3/5 to 4/5 of the capacity of my internet and my network does not freeze anymore. Thats enough for me.

Answer 2

My workaround is to install older kernel. My ubuntu 16.04 has kernel 4.4.0-31 & 4.4.0-36. Both of them have problem with networking (either wired or wireless).

I have searched around the internet for a solution and I have given up (at least until someone confirms that the problem has been solved and the solution works for everyone).

Now I'm using older kernel (3.19.8) and networking is working normal. Here's how to install an older kernel. Note that you need "module-init-tools" package installed on your computer.

I also made my grub to load that older kernel as its default. Here's how to set older kernel as grub default.

Answer 3

I have an Asus x555LA laptop which has the RTL8821ae pci device, the lwfinger drivers have helped with the frequent disconnects from wifi on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks I've been working on. The only times I've needed to restart the network-manager service has been after resuming a session on opening the laptop, and that has been very few times while running the kernel module for RTL8821ae.

I hope this helps: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new

Answer 4

I finally learned to use the following to resolve this issue (in ubuntu 16.04) that bugged me for months.

The following assume you have sudo priority.

1. Update the kernel: sudo apt-get update --fix-missing

   sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic 
   

2. Update the rtlwifi driver:

   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential git 
   
   git clone http://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new.git
   
   cd rtlwifi_new
   
   make;  sudo make install
   

3. Replace NetworkManager by WICD:

   See here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WICD

(I edited the order to take into account of ravery's comment)