No (Qualcomm Atheros) Wi-Fi on Lenovo G50-45 after 16.04 install

Question

So I've just performed a "clean" install of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ("Xenial Xerus") on my son's Lenovo G50-45 to Ubuntu and as you can see here, I had problems in the past with Wi-Fi disappearing... Previously, I was able to solve this problem and this was the same thing I have tried under Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, however this time round, that solution did not work.

Any ideas?

Update 1: I have tried a "clean" install in both "UEFI mode" (with Secure Boot disabled via the UEFI setup), and also a second "clean" install with "Legacy Mode" enabled... The ethernet cable was connected both times between multiple restarts (i.e. the laptop had Internet access), however this laptop still has no Wi-Fi.

Update 2: Having performed a "clean" install, dkms status now shows nothing... With (using an ethernet cable) or without Internet access, nothing is shown except a new Terminal prompt (This is after I had to install dkms using sudo apt-get install dkms ).

Update 3: sudo lshw -C network displays:

  *-network               
       description: Network controller
       product: QCA6164 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 20
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=ath10k_pci latency=0
       resources: irq:37 memory:f0800000-f09fffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: enp2s0
       version: 10
       serial: 50:7b:9d:45:9b:62
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl8168g-3_0.0.1 04/23/13 ip=10.0.0.22 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:33 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0c04000-f0c04fff memory:f0c00000-f0c03fff

If I'm not mistaken, this means that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS can "see" the (integrated) wireless card... It just can't use it.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 28 '16 at 13:12

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1436940 is probably what you are looking for.

Proposed fix from this link (step 1 is unnecessary for 16.04):

2) Get rid of the firmware folder for this card that's included with Ubuntu:

sudo rm -r /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/

3) Download the latest firmware:

wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/archive/master.zip

4) Unzip the downloaded file. Inside the ath10k-firmware-master folder is a folder named QCA6174. Copy the QCA6174 folder to /lib/firmware/ath10k:

unzip master.zip
sudo cp -r ath10k-firmware-master/QCA6174/ /lib/firmware/ath10k/

5) Rename two of the firmware files like so:

cd /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/
sudo mv firmware-5.bin_SW_RM.1.1.1-00157-QCARMSWPZ-1 firmware-5.bin
cd /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/
sudo mv firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 firmware-4.bin

6) Reboot your computer. Run "lshw -C network" to see if your card is recognized. You can delete the files you downloaded earlier:

cd ~
rm master.zip
rm -r ath10k-firmware-master/

Verified to work on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (with kernel 4.4.0-21-generic)

Last updated April 22, 2016

No (Qualcomm Atheros) Wi-Fi on Lenovo G50-45 after 16.04 install

1 Answers1