WiFi drops every ~10 minutes due to FT-PSK/SAE roaming loop on MT7922 (mt7921e driver)

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1

**I’m not most linux savvy, so got claude to diagnose my journalctl’s. Here is its summary. (issue is still persistent)

System:**

  • Distro: CachyOS (Arch-based)

  • Kernel: 7.1.1-2-cachyos

  • Desktop: KDE Plasma 6.7.1 (Wayland)

  • WiFi Card: MediaTek MT7922 (driver: mt7921e)

  • Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI

  • NetworkManager version: (check yours with nmcli --version)

Description:

WiFi connection drops and reconnects approximately every 10 minutes with no user interaction. Issue started approximately one week ago with no deliberate system changes. Ethernet began dropping first, WiFi followed shortly after.

What’s happening:

NetworkManager initiates a roaming handoff between two BSSIDs on the same network (two bands of the same router). The mt7921e driver fails to complete authentication with the target AP, cycling through all 3 attempts before timing out. This triggers a full disconnect/reconnect cycle. On reconnect, NetworkManager negotiates FT-PSK and FT-SAE (Fast Transition) key management, which the router and/or driver appear to handle unreliably, causing the cycle to repeat indefinitely.

Relevant journalctl output:

device (wlan0): link timed out.
device (wlan0): state change: activated -> failed (reason 'ssid-not-found', managed-type: 'full')
device (wlan0): Activation: failed for connection 'BeepBoop'
device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) access point has security, but secrets are required.
Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK WPA-PSK-SHA256 FT-PSK SAE FT-SAE'

dmesg pattern:

wlan0: disconnect from AP [BSSID-1] for new auth to [BSSID-2]
wlan0: authentication with [BSSID-2] timed out
wlan0: deauthenticated from [BSSID-1] while associating (Reason: 2=PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID)

What was tried:

  • Disabled MAC address randomization via /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/no-mac-randomization.conf — changed failure reason from supplicant-timeout to ssid-not-found but drops continue

  • Locking BSSID to single AP via nmcli connection modify resolves the drops as a workaround

Suspected cause:

A recent update to NetworkManager, wpa_supplicant, or linux-firmware appears to have enabled or exposed Fast Transition (802.11r) roaming negotiation on the mt7921e driver. The driver and/or router cannot complete FT handoffs reliably, causing the loop. Issue did not exist prior to approximately June 18, 2026.

Attempted Workaround:

Lock connection to a single BSSID:

bash

nmcli connection modify [SSID] 802-11-wireless.bssid [preferred-AP-MAC]
nmcli connection up [SSID]
2

Hello and welcome,

This is the first thing I would try;

I know its not a perfect match for your issue but it might still have a positive impact.

For general system info then the thing to do is share the link resulting from;

sudo cachyos-bugreport.sh
3

I had the 7921e wifi chip and I was getting up to 7+ system freezes a day. I tried a bunch of different stuff I saw recommended all over the web and in the end nothing stuck. I switched to an Intel wifi chip and not one problem. The MediaTek chips are very Linux-unfriendly so it’s hard to get a reliable driver.

Having said that they are doing new work on that driver now. Unfortunately it looks like your case may be a result of that. If you can disable that feature mentioned it may suffice.

Good luck

4

I’m experiencing a similar issue with these disconnections on a Realtek RTL8852CE, but only on the newer kernel. They do not occur on 6.18.36-1-cachyos-lts (64-bit).