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I have an old stationary pc that is about 12 or 11 years old and is running the latest version of lubuntu .

Its a dell dimension e520 machine that used to run xp without any problems with the wifi.

I have had this issue for quite some time the issue being that the wifi network tab is greyed out along with active connections and known connections.

When I run iwconfig I get the no wireless extensions message and the devices are listed as lo and enpos25.

My wifi adapter might have stopped working which might explain why I had this issue when I used other linux distros like the regular version of ubuntu.

There could be some missing drivers but I can only find windows drivers no linux drivers.

Here is the ubuntu pastebin output http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/bpQcW86pVc/

Swedish ubuntugeek
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1 Answers1

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Determine if the device is being recognised

First you need to determine whether the OS can even see the wifi adapter. If you can't find it using either the PCI(e) method or the USB method (depending which it is) then I think your problem is more likely hardware related. Devices will show up in lsusb and lspci even if there are no drivers installed for them.

A helpful read, which probably explains this better than me in the Ubuntu Help here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported

PCI(e)

If your wireless adapter is built into the motherboard or it's a PCI(e) card, use lspci in a terminal to list all the PCI devices detected by the system. Does it show up? (look for key words like 'Wireless Controller'

For example, for me, I have this appear in my list.

3b:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)

USB

If it's a USB wireless adapter, instead use lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null and search the list again looking for similar clues. I don't have a USB wireless adapter on hand but this is an example of my bluetooth adapter from the list.

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0cf3:e300 Atheros Communications, Inc. 
  bDeviceClass          224 Wireless
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Bluetooth
  iProduct                0

Install drivers

If the device is recognised, then we really need to know the vendor/manufacturer and model to assist further. However you can also try checking its compatibility with Ubuntu if it is in the table in the above link, or see if it's one of the adapters listed here on the Arch wiki under the Troubleshooting section. That has info on how to get various troublesome adapters working.

Hopefully that gets you pointed in the right direction!

Missing/Broken Hardware

From the output of the wireless script you posted, I can't see a wireless card anywhere in there so it's most likely either the card has died or malfunctioned or it's not plugged in correctly. Try unplugging/replugging it back in again and see if that makes a difference. If not I think you're going to need a new wireless card.

Jamie Scott
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