# Wi-Fi gone or dropping after a kernel update (iwlwifi, mt7921, brcmfmac)
Wi-Fi disappears or drops after an Omarchy kernel update: boot the previous Limine kernel entry, install matching headers, rebuild DKMS modules, fix firmware.
> **Short answer:** Boot the previous kernel entry in the Limine menu to get a network back. Then check whether the driver is out of tree: install the headers for every installed kernel and run sudo dkms autoinstall. If dmesg shows firmware load errors instead, update linux-firmware and the vendor split package such as linux-firmware-intel. Reboot and verify with nmcli device status.
- Applies to Omarchy: 3.x and later
- Status: workaround
- Last verified: 2026-09-16
- Canonical: https://omarchylinux.org/fix/wifi-drops-after-kernel-update-iwlwifi/
_Unofficial community page. Not affiliated with 37signals or the Omacom Foundation. Omarchy is a registered trademark of 37signals LLC._

Your machine updated, rebooted, and now there is no Wi-Fi at all, or it connects and falls over every few minutes. This page covers the case where a kernel or firmware change is the trigger. It was checked against 4.0.4 (2026-09-15), with notes where 3.x behaves differently.

## The fix

**1. Find out what broke.** Run these before changing anything:

```bash
uname -r
nmcli device status
rfkill list wifi
lspci -nnk | grep -A3 -i 'network\|wireless'
journalctl -k -b | grep -iE 'iwlwifi|mt7921|brcmfmac|rtw89|firmware'
```

Three outcomes matter. No `wifi` row in `nmcli device status` and no `Kernel driver in use` line from `lspci` means the driver never loaded. A driver line plus `failed with error -2` in the log means the firmware blob is missing. A device that appears and then drops means the driver loaded but cannot hold the link.

**2. Get a network back first.** Everything below needs packages. At the Limine menu, stop the countdown and arrow down to your previous kernel entry, usually `linux`. Since 4.0.4, migration `1789325478.sh` installs `linux-omarchy` and puts it first in `BOOT_ORDER`, but it does not remove the kernel you were running, so that entry is still in the menu. If no entry boots with Wi-Fi, use a pre-update snapshot entry, plug in Ethernet, or tether a phone over USB.

**3. If the driver is out of tree, fix the headers and rebuild.** This is the common one on Broadcom Macs and on any machine that carried `broadcom-wl`, `rtl8821ce`, `nvidia` or similar. List what is installed, then install headers to match:

```bash
dkms status
pacman -Qoq /usr/lib/modules/*/vmlinuz
sudo pacman -S --needed dkms linux-headers linux-omarchy-headers
sudo dkms autoinstall
```

Trim that `pacman -S` line to the `-headers` packages matching kernels the previous command actually printed. The `dkms autoinstall` at the end is not optional: the DKMS pacman hook only fires while a package is being installed or upgraded, and a build it skipped for lack of headers is never picked up again. Installing the headers afterwards, on its own, leaves the module missing.

On 4.0.2 and earlier, `install/hardware/fix-bcm43xx.sh` asked for `broadcom-wl`, which Arch stopped building for Linux 7.2. Release 4.0.3 switched that to `broadcom-wl-dkms`. If you are still holding the old package:

```bash
sudo pacman -R broadcom-wl
sudo pacman -S broadcom-wl-dkms
sudo dkms autoinstall
```

**4. If the log shows a firmware load error, update firmware, not the driver.** An `error -2` is a missing file:

```bash
sudo pacman -S --needed linux-firmware linux-firmware-intel
```

Substitute your vendor's split package, for example `linux-firmware-mediatek` or `linux-firmware-marvell`. Reboot and read the log again. If the machine has no network at all, copy the package files over on a USB stick from another machine and install them offline with `sudo pacman -U ./<file>.pkg.tar.zst`, which is what issue #6551 did on a Dell XPS 13 with an Intel BE213.

**5. If new firmware broke a card that used to work, downgrade only that package.** In issue #1829 an Asus Vivobook with an MT7921 lost Wi-Fi after an update. The reporter recovered by downgrading both the kernel and `linux-firmware-mediatek`; a later comment traced it to an upstream firmware bug and narrowed the downgrade to `linux-firmware-mediatek` alone, and the `20251011-1` build was reported working. Add the pinned package to `IgnorePkg` in `/etc/pacman.conf` while you wait, then remove the pin.

**6. If the new kernel itself is the regression, stay on the old one.** Edit `/etc/default/limine`, put your working kernel first in `BOOT_ORDER`, and run `sudo limine-mkinitcpio`. The steps and the exact syntax are in [kernel panic after update](/fix/kernel-panic-after-update-limine/). This is the shape of discussion #3053 on 3.x, where iwlwifi stopped working on 6.17.2 and later and the reporter went back to 6.17.1.

**7. If the radio is simply blocked,** run _Update > Hardware > Wi-Fi_ from the Omarchy menu. That is `omarchy-restart-wifi`, which does `rfkill unblock wifi`, turns NetworkManager's radio back on, and rescans.

## Verify it worked

```bash
uname -r
dkms status
nmcli device status
journalctl -k -b | grep -i 'loaded firmware version'
```

`dkms status` should list your module as `installed` against the running kernel, not only an older one. `nmcli device status` should show a `wifi` device in state `connected`. For an out-of-tree Broadcom module, `modinfo wl | grep filename` should point into `/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/dkms/`. Then reboot once more and check again, because the first boot after a rebuild is the one that proves the module survives.

## Why it happens

Kernel modules live under `/usr/lib/modules/<version>`, so every kernel update needs its own copy of anything out of tree. DKMS rebuilds those during the package transaction, and only if headers for that exact kernel are present. `omarchy-update` calls `pacman -Syu --noconfirm`, and the DKMS hook's `Missing kernel headers for module` line is not fatal to the transaction, so the update finishes green with a module that was never built. You find out at the next boot when there is no Wi-Fi. That is the sequence in issue #10975 on 4.0.3 and, with a kernel-specific `broadcom-wl` instead of a skipped DKMS build, in issue #9386 on a BCM4360 MacBook Air.

Firmware is separate again. It ships in `linux-firmware` and its per-vendor split packages, versioned on their own schedule. A newer driver can ask for a ucode revision your firmware package does not carry yet, which is the `no suitable firmware found!` case, and newer firmware can break a driver that was fine, which is the MediaTek case.

Two things changed in 4.x. Quattro replaced iwd with NetworkManager and wpa_supplicant, so a post-upgrade outage may be lost profiles rather than a dead radio. And 4.0.4 installs `linux-omarchy` and makes it the first boot entry on every x86_64 machine that is not a T2 Mac, so an update can hand you a different kernel even when the stock `linux` package did not move.

## If that did not work

If Wi-Fi only dies after sleep, this is not your page. Issue #8461 describes iwlwifi failing to reinitialize after wake with repeated `-110` timeouts; see [suspend will not resume](/fix/suspend-wont-resume-s2idle/) and [Bluetooth stops after resume](/fix/bluetooth-stops-after-resume/).

If the link is up but unusable, with high jitter rather than low throughput, check roaming. Issue #7311 traced constant reassociation on an MT7922 to wpa_supplicant electing a 6 GHz radio it could not hold, fixed by pinning the band. Omarchy has a command for that, documented in the manual's [Networking](https://omarchy.org/manual/networking/) chapter:

```bash
omarchy network band
omarchy network band 5
```

Intel BE200 and BE211 cards get an EHT workaround from Omarchy at install time, written to `/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi-disable-eht.conf`. If you have one of those cards and the file is missing, rerunning hardware detection with `sudo omarchy-apply-hardware --install-user $USER` reapplies the quirks.

If the machine upgraded from 3.x and every saved network vanished, the profiles are still in `/var/lib/iwd` as root, one file per SSID.

Evidence on the Omarchy kernel specifically is still thin. It reached everyone on 2026-09-15, one day before this page was checked, so treat reports about it as early.

## Related

- [Kernel panic after an update](/fix/kernel-panic-after-update-limine/)
- [Suspend will not resume](/fix/suspend-wont-resume-s2idle/)
- [Wi-Fi hardware notes](/hardware/wifi/)
- [Before you update checklist](/upgrade/before-you-update-checklist/)
- [Rollback with Snapper and Limine](/upgrade/rollback-with-snapper-and-limine/)
- [Releases and channels](/releases/channels/)

## Sources

- [Issue #10975: 4.0.3 upgrade replaces broadcom-wl with DKMS without installing kernel headers, breaking Wi-Fi after reboot](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/10975)
- [Issue #9386: Kernel 7.2 update leaves BCM4360 Macs offline: wl module missing and DKMS fails to build](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/9386)
- [Issue #6551: Wifi (Intel BE213 on Dell XPS 13) doesn't work out of the box - linux-firmware on install media too old](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/6551)
- [Issue #1829: Wifi - Mediatek 7921 / Asus Vivobook S14 (possibly others)](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/1829)
- [Issue #8461: System hangs on second suspend when iwlwifi firmware fails to reinitialize after wake](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/8461)
- [Issue #7311: Quattro iwd to NetworkManager migration: wpa_supplicant roam-thrashes onto AP 6 GHz radio it can't hold (MT7922/mt7921e)](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/7311)
- [Issue #8996: Quattro upgrade silently drops all saved Wi-Fi networks in the iwd to NetworkManager switch](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/issues/8996)
- [Discussion #3053: iwd doesn't connect to my wifi [RESOLVED]](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/discussions/3053)
- [Release v4.0.4: Install our bespoke kernel and set linux-omarchy as the default boot option](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/releases/tag/v4.0.4)
- [Release v4.0.3: Switch Broadcom Wi-Fi to the DKMS driver after Arch dropped the prebuilt module](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/releases/tag/v4.0.3)
- [Omarchy manual: Networking](https://omarchy.org/manual/networking/)