3

Computer: Acer Aspire 7730. Only Ubuntu installed.

Hi, I installed Ubuntu 12.04 yesterday and WiFi worked out of the box. But now the WiFi does not work anymore. It was after I did a 

sudo apt-get update

in order to try to fix Spotify (native) (couldn't start it), but I've since learned that update does not actually update any packages (correct me if I'm wrong). But if was after the reboot (Ubuntu wanted me to reboot) that my WiFi no longer works.

If I type 

sudo lshw -c network

This is the output: 

   *-network UNCLAIMED     
       description: Network controller
       product: WiFi Link 5100
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:c0a00000-c0a01fff

So my WiFi adapter is unclaimed, which I've read means that no driver is associated with it.

Also:

iwconfig

gives

lo        no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.

This is the link that I wanted to use to try to install iwlwifi (I first wanted to try a Linux driver instead of the whole Windows wireless Driver thing. Plus when I tried to find the driver for this adapter, I could only find .exe files, while it said that I should find .inf files).

Running this 

cd /lib/firmware
ls *.ucode

gives

iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode  iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode  iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
iwlwifi-100-5.ucode   iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode  iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
iwlwifi-105-6.ucode   iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode  iwlwifi-6000g2a-6.ucode
iwlwifi-135-6.ucode   iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode  iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode  iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode  iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode

Notice the iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode. This looks very similar to the file(s) that I downloaded from the previous website that I showed. So since it is already there, I haven't tried to install it to that directory yet (and I'm not quite certain how to do it). Maybe the kernel/system/whatever simply doesn't load the driver on boot-up?

Most of the problems I've had with Ubuntu so far have been solved with copy pasting terminal commands without knowing what they do, but it feels like the more I do this the more brittle the whole system becomes (because I don't know what I'm doing). It seems that installing and updating software can lead to unforeseen, bad side-effects that I don't have the skill to foresee. So for this problem I want to ask someone directly before I proceed.

Thanks!

BuZZ-dEE
  • 14,533
Guildenstern
  • 789

3 Answers3

4

The driver for your card, iwlwifi, is already present in the 12.04 kernel, as is the required firmware. Let's load it and see if your wireless springs to life:

sudo modprobe iwlwifi
iwconfig

Did a wireless interface wlan0 get created? If not, check the message logs to troubleshoot:

dmesg | grep iwl
rfkill list all

The pipe symbol | is on the right side of my US keyboard on the same key with backslash.

chili555
  • 61,330
0

The problem is not with the driver or any packages. The kernel is not able to load the driver.

The solution that worked for me is that I upgraded the Kernel to 4.2.042 and rebooted. I had problem with ethernet as well as wifi. This one upgrade solved both the issues without installing any additional packages.

PC Model is Dell Optiplex 5040.

These kernel packages are upward compatible with ubuntu server 12.04 to ubuntu 16.04.

keshav
  • 1
-2

Your problem looks similar to mine, and I think the new kernel and broadcom drivers are the problem. I ran this, restarted, and it fixed it:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
sudo apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe wl

If that does not work then you can look at these two links for some other ideas:

If you use the #6 solution please also run the commands found at this link:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966012#9

Hope this helps!

Shannon Duncan
  • 147