Intermittent Wifi Issues on Dell XPS 9305

[istvan-derda]

Describe the bug

My wifi frequently disconnects and reconnects, sometimes multiple times a minute, sometimes just once in 10 minutes, so the laptop is on the verge to unusable. Did some research, but got no conclusive answers.

It works fine on Ubuntu 22.04 with Kernel 6.8.0-40-generic, but I love bluefin and don't want to use an ancient ubuntu. ':)

It would be amazing if someone could help me triage this bug to determine what exactly causes this.

What did you expect to happen?

I expected stable wifi connections

Output of bootc status

● Booted image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx:lts
        Digest: sha256:889373f746a7eccd0613dd10426cc4c660d0b68d7499f1f11ef6db7a408b74c6 (amd64)
       Version: stream10.1 (2025-12-04T17:41:54Z)

  Rollback image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin:lts
          Digest: sha256:9986acb32fa3655be416fcaad7959eddfcdff2616e33c06467ab316e94cc8723 (amd64)
         Version: stream10.1 (2025-12-04T17:40:03Z)

Output of groups

istvan wheel dialout docker

Extra information or context

journalctl output: https://pastebin.com/QY1nkpjY

sudo lshw -C network
  *-network                 
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Wi-Fi 6 AX200
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:a5:00.0
       logical name: wlp165s0
       version: 1a
       serial: dc:21:48:53:c4:65
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=6.12.0-164.el10.x86_64 firmware=77.30b1cbd8.0 cc-a0-77.ucode ip=192.168.222.193 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes
       resources: irq:19 memory:ba100000-ba103fff

[repires]

AI generated ( ask.projectbluefin.io )

There are currently no documented fixes or workarounds for Intel Killer AX1650 (iwlwifi) Wi-Fi disconnects on Bluefin LTS. Your logs point to iwlwifi firmware crashes and resets, which are often caused by kernel or driver regressions. Since your hardware works on Ubuntu 22.04 with kernel 6.8.0-40, the issue is likely kernel or driver related on Bluefin.

Bluefin LTS offers two kernel options: the default CentOS kernel and an HWE/CoreOS kernel with additional hardware enablement modules. If you haven't already, try switching to the HWE/CoreOS kernel (bluefin:lts-hwe), as it may have newer drivers or better compatibility for your Wi-Fi card. This can be done using the kernel swap script described in the Bluefin LTS documentation.

If the problem persists, standard iwlwifi troubleshooting steps include: updating system firmware, disabling Wi-Fi power saving, and testing kernel parameters like iwlwifi.power_save=0 or iwlwifi.disable_11ax=1. Since no similar issues are tracked in Bluefin's support threads or recent pull requests, this may be a new or rare regression.

If you try the HWE kernel and still see disconnects, let me know your exact kernel version (uname -a) and any mitigation steps you've tried so far. This will help narrow down the root cause.

[castrojo]

Yeah I would try the hwe branch so you pull in a newer kernel.