I have this problem too. Adding wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no to NetworkManager.conf does resolve it.
A relevant question: Why does this only affect usb wifi dongles? My internal iwl3945 chip was/is not affected. How does Network Manager treat pci and usb devices differently? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to network-manager in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1681513 Title: Ubuntu 17.04: New privacy feature in NetworkManager stops some USB WiFi adapters from working (mac address randomization) Status in network-manager package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: According to https://blogs.gnome.org/thaller/2016/08/26/mac-address-spoofing-in-networkmanager-1-4-0/ there is a new privacy feature in the new version of NetworkManager. This privacy feature can cause some USB WiFi adapters to stop working while they used to work with older versions of NetworkManager (Ubuntu 16.10 or older). The purpose of this privacy feature is to get your computer to report a new random MAC address whenever you connect to a WiFi network. This privacy feature is especially useful when you connect to public WiFi networks, so that the operators cannot identify you when you connect multiple times. The downside of this privacy feature is that some USB WiFi adapters misbehave when NetworkManager tries to change their MAC address repeatedly. The result is that those USB WiFi adapters cannot connect anymore to the WiFi network. Original report follows: My Panda USB wi-fi adapter works just fine on 16.10, but when I try to connect to my wi-fi router in 17.04, GNOME network manager reports "Connection failed." I did some tinkering, and noticed that my MAC address for my wifi adapter, according to GNOME, is DIFFERENT every time I make it forget my wifi settings and try to reconnect. Weird, right? Any leads on a possible fix or work-around? I'm running the latest beta of Ubuntu GNOME 17.04, kernel 4.10.0-19-generic, GNOME 3.24.0. https://blogs.gnome.org/thaller/2016/08/26/mac-address-spoofing-in- networkmanager-1-4-0/ To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1681513/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp