Fix: Wi-Fi Not Working After Arch Linux Installation (2026 Guide)
The install ran clean, you rebooted into your fresh Arch system, and the Wi-Fi icon never appeared. Ethernet works, the router blinks a metre away, and every guide tells you to "check your drivers" — which drivers? Start where the answer actually lives: the kernel log. Almost every dead laptop radio after a first Arch boot leaves a signed confession in dmesg.
Ask dmesg before anything else
sudo dmesg | grep -iE 'iwlwifi|mt79|brcm|rtl|firmware|wlan'
Hunt for a line like firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-ty-a0-gf-a0-89.ucode. That translates to: the kernel driver loaded, asked for its firmware blob, and got nothing back. One package fixes it:
sudo pacman -Syu linux-firmware
Reboot afterwards. And let that full -Syu run to the end — a half-updated system mismatches kernel and firmware more reliably than anything else you can do to it.
Match the blob to your chipset
If dmesg stays quiet about firmware, identify the card (lspci -nn for internals, lsusb for dongles) and pick your lane:
- Intel AX210 / AX211 / BE200:
iwlwifiis in the kernel; it only wants a currentlinux-firmware. The BE200 wants kernel 6.7 or newer. Reload without rebooting viasudo modprobe iwlwifi. - Broadcom (older MacBooks, some Dell and HP): the out-of-tree module has to be built.
sudo pacman -S base-devel linux-headers broadcom-wl-dkms
sudo modprobe wl
- Realtek RTL8821CE / RTL8812AU: lives in the AUR —
yay -S rtl8821ce-dkms-git, orrtl88xxau-aircrack-dkms-gitfor the USB stick. - MediaTek MT7921 / 7922 / 7925 (most Ryzen laptops):
mt7921eships in-kernel. If it vanishes between reboots, do a full power-off cold boot — a known quirk on some Lenovo machines. - Qualcomm FastConnect (Snapdragon X laptops): support arrived around kernel 6.10; try
linux-firmware-gitfrom the AUR if the card sulks.
Now the service layer
Driver loaded, radio visible, still no networks? The installer does not enable a network manager for you — that part is on you:
sudo pacman -S networkmanager
sudo systemctl enable --now NetworkManager
nmcli dev wifi connect "YourSSID" password "YourPassword"
ping -c 4 archlinux.org
If it is still dead
Read the service's own log with journalctl -u NetworkManager --since "1 hour ago". For a truly stubborn blob, the kernel.org firmware repository at https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/ carries every .ucode file ever shipped, and dropping one into /usr/lib/firmware beats a full reinstall every time.
It humbles me a little that this entire fix assumes a connection you can take for granted. In Gaza, developers keep committing code through blackouts, over whatever tethered signal survives — a quiet argument that free software and free people belong in the same breath.
And when your machine finally connects again, consider disconnecting properly for a weekend: we run mountain trips out of Sialkot where the strongest signal for miles is the river — HTG Travels handles Hunza, Skardu and Swat runs, hotels booked, jeeps arranged, with someone at the desk who answers even when your Wi-Fi does not.
