I have a Framework 13 with the lower performance AMD CPU running Fedora 38. I aam currently traveling and the WiFi at the hotel is very flaky. I tried tethering it through my local phone (Motorola E13) and it doesn’t see it as an access point. My US phone finds it just fine. I have connected to both 2.4 & 5 GHz access points, so it isn’t a frequency issue. I’m not sure what to look at next. Thoughts?
Why are you running Fedora 38? The newest version is Fedora 40 and Fedora 39 is the latest supported version (barely). It’s very possible that the newer version has better drivers for that module.
My mistake. My previous notebook had Fedora 38. This one is running Fedora 40.
I really would like to know why it can’t see my phone as a hotspot.
Sorry no idea. The only thing I can tell you is that my Framework (same edition and also Fedora 40) can see my Pixel 7a phone hotspot without any issue.
You can try to ask support, but this looks like an unusual issue.
Hi Matt,
Sounds like you’re able to connect to your other phone’s hotspot, but it’s not connecting to the Motorola E13.
Did some digging, I found indications that this is specific to the phone itself. The most common fix for your E13 to get the wireless hotspot working is as follows:
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On the E13, Settings, Network & Internet. Select Data Saver, then toggle Data Saver to disabled/off.
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Back in settings on your E13, select on System, Reset Options.
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In Reset Options, select “Reset Wi-Fi mobile & Bluetooth.” The when asked, click the Reset Settings button for the Reset Wi-Fi mobile & Bluetooth section.
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Restart your phone.
On Fedora, remove the previous connections to the E13 if they are there.
- On Fedora, Settings, Wi-Fi, select Saved Networks, locate the E13 related network, select the trashcan icon for that network.
Now let’s connect to the E13.
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On your E13, turn on the hotspot. Make a note of your password for this network you created.
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On Fedora, use network manager to locate the new hotspot network. Connect to it using the E13 hotspot password you set.
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Nothing to add on the WiFi side of things, but: Does the E13 support USB tethering? In recent android versions, with the phone connected to the laptop over USB:
Settings → Network & internet → Hotspot & tethering → enable USB tethering
In Fedora GNOME you should get a new Wired connection on the quick settings dialog.
Edit: If the E13 doesn’t support USB tethering you could (warning, slightly demented approach here) daisy chain:
E13 WLAN hotspot to your US phone, then US phone hotspot/tethering (WLAN or USB) to laptop.
There’s also Bluetooth tethering but it tends to be painfully slow, at least with my combination of Fedora and Pixel 7.
Went through all of that. My notebook still doesn’t even see it and won’t connect to it as a “Hidden Network” either. I’m wondering if there is a problem with the chipset or a problem with Fedora 40. I don’t really want to nag support with it, but it is getting really frustrating. Sometime it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t. I haven’t been able to get it to work since I went through the above process.
I found the problem. By default, my notebook is using the US WiFi channel definitions, but the phone was using the Thai channel definitions. Occasionally the phone would pick a channel that was common to both and would be found. Most of the access points where I was staying seem to have been set up on channels that were common. The solution was to run:
sudo iw reg set TH
So now I have a good explanation for the intermittent failure (or success) of being able to tether. Living out of a suitcase halfway around the world did make troubleshooting a lot more difficult.
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Yeah, sometimes “travel” seems like a foreign concept to (some) vendors. Too much lawyering…
You can make that permanent via module parameters as described here. This is what I’ve done on my machine:
$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211_regdom.conf
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=US
$ cat /sys/module/cfg80211/parameters/ieee80211_regdom
US
That file doesn’t exist on my machine. I’m back home now, so it won’t matter until I head overseas again. I suspect most access points I saw in Thailand are still on the US bandplan or are set to the common channels among most of the Anglosphere. It’s frustrating that no one I asked even suggested this could be the problem.
Might want to try my solution here
You can compare the differences with
iw reg get
and
cat /sys/module/cfg80211/parameters/ieee80211_regdom