My wifi is suddenly terminally slow, on Linux Mint with the RTL8723BE chipset

[moonbat]

I have an HP laptop running Mint 21.3 with the rtl8723be wireless chipset. So I think it was due to a recent kernel update and even rolling back the kernel doesn't help.
It isn't an ISP or router issue as my Windows laptop works great with it. Even LAN file copying between my phone and this laptop is dead slow. All the online guides for fixing slow wifi on Linux talk about either setting the antenna using ant_sel=1 (that's not the problem here, doing this only degrades the wifi signal which was already 100%) or disabling power management (which was already off).
The latest trick I saw was to create rtl8723be.conf in modprobe.d with this line -

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options rtl8723be fwlps=N ips=N

to turn off link and FW power save mode.

Doing a general modprobe -r and restarting the network manager also doesn't help. There's also links to a long gone github repo by lwfinger with custom drivers for this chipset.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Pasting my configuration below:

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inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-100-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0
    Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
    base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Notebook v: Type1ProductConfigId
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 80C1 v: 96.31 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde
    v: F.11 date: 07/23/2015
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 0% condition: 33.9/41.6 Wh (81.5%) volts: 9.6 min: 14.6
    model: COMPAL PABAS0241231 status: N/A
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-5200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Broadwell rev: 4 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1227 high: 2218 min/max: 500/2700 cores: 1: 2218
    2: 1094 3: 798 4: 798 bogomips: 17558
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: Microdia HP Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-5:4
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
  Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-100-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 4000 bus-ID: 07:00.0
  IF: enp7s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtl8723be v: kernel port: 3000
    bus-ID: 0d:00.0
  IF: wlp13s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: br-1d8f0a5660fe state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-3: veth7673560 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 2-4:3
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 623.97 GiB (134.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS545050A7E680
    size: 465.76 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 453.26 GiB used: 360.3 GiB (79.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 453.26 GiB used: 360.3 GiB (79.5%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 12 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C pch: 41.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 262 Uptime: 23h 27m Memory: 11.6 GiB used: 3.51 GiB (30.3%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 clang: 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
  Packages: 4899 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13

iwconfig, my adapter is wlp13s0 -

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iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

enp7s0    no wireless extensions.

wlp13s0   IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"Zinj"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.427 GHz  Access Point: 10:27:F5:A5:34:01   
          Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-34 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:123   Missed beacon:0

br-1d8f0a5660fe  no wireless extensions.

docker0   no wireless extensions.

veth7673560  no wireless extensions.

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rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

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lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8001 Intel Corp. Integrated Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0c45:651b Microdia HP Webcam
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:b006 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 03f0:6e4a HP, Inc HP Unifying Dongle
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

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lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Host Bridge -OPI (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500 (rev 09)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Audio Controller (rev 09)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP USB xHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP MEI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev e3)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev e3)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev e3)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP USB EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Thermal Management Controller (rev 03)
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 07)
0d:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

[Night Wing]

Since you are using Mint 21.3 as your preferred linux distro, if you are a member on the Mint forums, I think it would be prudent to ask this question over there if you come up without a fix here on the Pale Moon forum site.

[Pentium4User]

Please specify "slow" more precisely. The rate is Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s

[moonbat]

Since you are using Mint 21.3 as your preferred linux distro, if you are a member on the Mint forums, I think it would be prudent to ask this question over there if you come up without a fix here on the Pale Moon forum site.

Already did that and got nothing but crickets after pre-empting any suggestions that I've already tried.

Please specify "slow" more precisely. The rate is Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s

That's the theoretical bit rate; I haven't seen the actual speed even hit 1 Mbps since this problem started

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speedtest
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from TPG Internet (203.221.32.46)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Exetel (Sydney) [0.09 km]: 296.004 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 0.96 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 9.98 Mbit/s

The same test on my Windows laptop gets around 96 Mbps, or 100x faster, for a 100 Mbps connection plan.

[Moonchild]

Your ping is also 300 ms?... Are you being proxied or something?

[Pentium4User]

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traceroute google.de
traceroute -6 google.de

[moonbat]

Your ping is also 300 ms?... Are you being proxied or something?

That's just the ping to the local speedtest mirror, but in general one can see the effects of 1 Mbps average speed. Streaming video is impossible for example.

DNS queries resolve fast, so doesn't seem to be a problem with that.

@Pentium4User - traceroute also times out.

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traceroute google.de 
traceroute to google.de (172.253.63.94), 64 hops max
  1   192.168.1.1  2.718ms  1.480ms  1.976ms 
  2   *  *  10.20.26.135  36.525ms 
  3   203.29.134.125  8.140ms  7.305ms  * 
  4   *  209.85.149.84  11.446ms  7.271ms 
  5   192.178.97.145  9.771ms  9.099ms  8.885ms 
  6   192.178.97.68  10.876ms  *  10.909ms 
  7   142.251.239.181  9.372ms  11.428ms  8.163ms 
  8   *  *  * 
  9   *  *  142.251.226.163  186.844ms 
 10   *  *  * 
 11   209.85.252.57  228.860ms  222.250ms  199.172ms 
 12   *  *  * 
 13   *  *  * 
 14   *  *  * 
 15   *  *  * 
 16   *  *  * 
 17   *  *  * 
 18   *  *  * 
 19   *  *  * 
 20   *  *  * 
 21   *  *  * 
 22   *  *  * 
 23   *  172.253.63.94  198.350ms  202.191ms 

The main thing here is that it is terminally slow even for copying files to my phone over the same wifi network, so it's not just the internet that's slow. I use Syncthing to sync between them and a simple 10-20 Mb file takes ages.

[Moonchild]

That's just the ping to the local speedtest mirror

My point is that is much too high for the type of connection you're indicating you have.

A traceroute as suggested may help to see what's going on on your path and if you're going through the expected hops or not.

[moonbat]

Edited to add the traceroute above.

[Moonchild]

Seems to be a local problem. what's hop with IP 10.20.26.135 ? (It's a LAN class address)
The slowness is because you seem to have a lot of packet loss

[Pentium4User]

@Pentium4User - traceroute also times out.

Most likely because that uses UDP and a random high port that is being filtered by Google.

Although, it shows that the problem doesn't seem to be related to your NIC.


Tell us more about the first hops. Who operates them?

[moonbat]

My local ISP operates them, TPG internet in Australia. But then why do I face problems only on this device and not on a Windows laptop or my phone, and why is even local LAN traffic slow? I haven't changed anything on the router.

[andyprough]

I'd put something on a USB stick like MX Linux or even a fresh copy of Linux Mint and try it with a live USB. Could just be that some config file got terribly corrupted somehow. In the past I've done a 'sudo apt purge network-manager' and everything that comes with it and then reinstalled.

Also, some distros have power management settings now that really screw up some wifi cards. I've use a graphical program called TLPUI to disable the USB sleep function in order to get wifi to start acting correctly: https://github.com/d4nj1/TLPUI
I don't have TLPUI installed at the moment, but I recall there are global settings to disable all USB sleep, and also the ability to blacklist specific devices such as wifi and bluetooth from sleep or low power modes.

[moonbat]

I'd put something on a USB stick like MX Linux or even a fresh copy of Linux Mint and try it with a live USB.

That's an idea..but not sure if the disk image would be up to date; given I haven't changed anything on my end other than kernel updates it's likely that an older disk image would work. But that won't tell me what went wrong with my installation.

In the past I've done a 'sudo apt purge network-manager' and everything that comes with it and then reinstalled.

Does that purge the drivers as well, and did it help?

[athenian200]

Well, the way I usually approach problems like this is process of elimination. You know your WiFi itself is fine, so it's not the WiFi or the ISP end. That narrows the issue down to your laptop, either a software problem or a hardware problem... either something is wrong with the WiFi drivers for your card on Linux, or your WiFi module itself is starting to give up the ghost.

I would probably recommend trying to find a way to run Windows on it at least temporarily, to rule out a hardware problem. In my experience, the Linux drivers for various pieces of hardware can be... wonky, in fact back in the old days with modems I remember you wanted to go out of your way to get a hardware modem and not a "winmodem" or a software modem, because the firmware on them was only properly tested with Windows and the Linux drivers were kinda hacked together, not as well tested, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if Linux kernel updates are still randomly breaking drivers...

The reverse happens as well, mind you, but it's much more common that Linux drivers are deficient in some way. I've even see these odd situations where the hardware gets into a state the Linux drivers don't know how to cope with, but the Windows drivers do, and then booting into Windows "resets" the hardware in some way I can't explain, and it starts working on Linux again after booting into Windows and using the device there... it usually happens for me with sound cards, and most commonly when it's a "community-supported" driver rather than something from the original OEM.

But yeah, if you're going Linux or any kind of alternative OS, it's usually safer to stick with Intel stuff for NICs and WiFi chipsets, because that stuff is a lot better tested, and I think (if I'm not mistaken) Intel themselves contribute to the Linux kernel.

[moonbat]

I don't have any copies of WIndows here
I replaced Windows 10 with Linux on this laptop 5 years ago and tripled the RAM to 12 GB, and I've never looked back at Windows for home use since.
The other WIndows laptop I referred to is my work laptop, fully locked down - can't do anything with it other than confirm that the network is otherwise ok.

[athenian200]

I don't have any copies of WIndows here
I replaced Windows 10 with Linux on this laptop 5 years ago and tripled the RAM to 12 GB, and I've never looked back at Windows for home use since.
The other WIndows laptop I referred to is my work laptop, fully locked down - can't do anything with it other than confirm that the network is otherwise ok.

The fact that the laptop is 5 years old does suggest to me it's possible this is a hardware issue anyway... laptops don't last as long as desktops, and Wi-Fi chipsets fail surprisingly often compared to, say, wired NIC.

Since your options are limited and you absolutely need your laptop to work with Linux and can't/won't do much testing outside of trying other Linux distros, your best bet is probably to just replace the laptop when you get the chance, if your only other option is to speculate about iffy hardware you can't test against another OS. Being limited to one OS really hurts your ability to troubleshoot weird issues like this, because now if something isn't cooperating with Linux, you have no easy way of determining if it's a hardware problem or not. Which means you probably would want to be running a laptop that comes with Linux from the manufacturer, using whatever distro they recommend so you can get support from them.

If you really want to keep the laptop, I guess another option you could try is opening it up and seeing if the Wi-Fi module is replaceable, in like an M.2 form factor. If replacing the Wi-Fi module with another one fixes it, I guess that is one way to determine if it's a hardware problem without resorting to using Windows. But it sounds like you're in one of those situations where you might be stuck trying to debug all this purely from inside the broken/suspect Linux installation with your existing hardware, which is the absolute hardest thing to do because it doesn't let you narrow things down much, and requires you to do lots of really fiddly little things from within the OS that don't have a very high chance of working, until one of them either works or you break down and get a new laptop/new Wi-Fi module.

[moonbat]

Which means you probably would want to be running a laptop that comes with Linux from the manufacturer, using whatever distro they recommend so you can get support from them.

I was afraid it's come to this; though I've been thinking of a dedicated designed for Linux laptop for a while. Had my sights on Starlabs, but they take six months to ship.

[andyprough]

I'd put something on a USB stick like MX Linux or even a fresh copy of Linux Mint and try it with a live USB.

That's an idea..but not sure if the disk image would be up to date; given I haven't changed anything on my end other than kernel updates it's likely that an older disk image would work. But that won't tell me what went wrong with my installation.

But it would tell you a bit more about if something is wrong with your hardware or not.

In the past I've done a 'sudo apt purge network-manager' and everything that comes with it and then reinstalled.

Does that purge the drivers as well, and did it help?

No, I just did a dry run and it does not purge the drivers, and since you think this happened after a kernel update it may not be the best way.
Otherwise, 'sudo apt install --reinstall [driver-package]' should reinstall your driver package, although it may be a good idea to download a copy of the driver package locally before trying this in case it causes you to lose network connectivity altogether.

This ubuntu forum post recommends going through and deleting your wifi connections and then reconnecting to each one. Might be worth trying first if there's a chance the NetworkManager settings for your connections have gotten corrupted:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/637637/ ... 683#637683

I was afraid it's come to this; though I've been thinking of a dedicated designed for Linux laptop for a while. Had my sights on Starlabs, but they take six months to ship.

We bought a new laptop last December at my company from NovaCustom.com, arrived in about 5 days shipping from the Netherlands to America. It came with the distro of our choice pre-installed and Coreboot. Price was good, and I don't think we had to pay any shipping or VAT taxes outside of Europe. They are worth checking out.

[fatboy]

I was afraid it's come to this; though I've been thinking of a dedicated designed for Linux laptop for a while. Had my sights on Starlabs, but they take six months to ship.

New Linux laptops are way overpriced.
I have been using Dell laptops with linux since 2012, almost all their Latitude models work OOTB with Linux, always double check that it can run Ubuntu before buying. But I would suggest you buy a Dell Latitude. I actually have one that I want to get rid of, I can mail it to you, but the shipping might be insane. It is a Dell Latitude E7270.

Buy a used laptop, update the bios with MS/Ubuntu, install Mint/distro of choice.