Linux Mint does not recognise Wifi card?

[Digitalbanana]

We have an old HP laptop that works OK with Windows but when we install Linux Mint the WiFi card is intermittent or mostly off completely and wont turn on on the Linux desktop interface. The HP also has a on/off function key that also doesn't seem to work (change color) and is default to off. Sometimes when Wifi is working the HP function button shows the wrong 'off' color.

 

I don't think this is a hardware issue as the thing works OK in Windows.

 

Should we just buy a USB wifi dongle instead? How do we pick a USB dongle that will work with Linux Mint or do most of them work these days?

[scooterboy]

Yes, much the same sort of problem I was having, after recently installing Linux Mint 20 on a desktop - I just couldn't get the wifi to work at all. Ended up installing Mint 19 - seems installing earlier versions can often help the problem (but no guarantee, at all!).

 

I am using a wifi usb adaptor - and even now the wifi occasionally doesn't connect at startup, though I find it usually helps just to remove and replace the usb adaptor again - then it connects without any further problem.

 

Good luck solving your problem ,,,,,

 

[userabcd]

What model and chipset version for the wireless card is in your pc... Is it realtek, intel or broadcom? Maybe linux wifi drivers need to be updated.

 

USB adapters:

b,g,n USB Wifi adapters - Most of the usb wifi dongles 150 and 300 mbps work plug and play in Linux (realtek chipsets). TP Link wifi adapters are usually a good stable brand for that.

 

AC  USB Wifi adapters - If you want AC dual band wifi adapters then the dual band drivers need to be downloaded and installed to get them to work. (usually install through the terminal. Need to know which realtek chipset driver is in the adapter to install the correct driver. Simple terminal commands can find the usb chipset model and then download and install the right drivers.

 

 

In Manjaro (arch) it is quite easy installing drivers for AC wifi adapters from AUR.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by userabcd

[cleopatra2]

Try using the command line to see if the wifi can be detected and if so try enabling the wifi. from the command line. 

Edited November 20, 2021 by cleopatra2

[Digitalbanana]

On 11/19/2021 at 3:16 PM, scooterboy said:

Good luck solving your problem ,,,,,

We solved it by just buying a USB WiFi and it worked immediately. No idea why the built in one doesn't work, Linux Mint 20.2 says drivers up to date. This is an old PC the kids use for online schooling and it works fine again now.

 

We bought https://shopee.co.th/Mini-Wifi-USB-2.0-Wireless-Mini-Wifi-Adapter-802.11N-600Mbps-i.10931876.1633146646

for only 86THB inc delivery. I could have gone for a 5GHZ version, but not necessary for this PC requirements.

[fdsa]

If Broadcom chip:

- just buy a USB wifi dongle

If not Broadcom:

- the wifi card could have been turned off by BIOS and could require to be "manually" turned on from the command line, because sometimes a network manager could not handle such situation itself.

Try executing this command:

rfkill list

find the number of WLAN module and if it is "blocked". If yes, unblock it with:

rfkill unblock 2

replace "2" with the number from the list command.

 

If rfkill list shows nothing it means that the required kernel module (driver) is not loaded.

You could post here an output of these commands:

lspci -v
lsusb

maybe we'll find out what's wrong.

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by fdsa

[Digitalbanana]

On 11/27/2021 at 1:00 PM, fdsa said:

If Broadcom chip:

- just buy a USB wifi dongle

 

Try executing this command:

Thanks.

 

When I try your commands there is no reference to any wireless, the wireless on/off light on keyboard stays default off and will not turn on. I opened up the laptop to see inside and see it is a Broadcom chip.

 

This laptop WiFi used to work on Linux and then one day stopped.  Any idea why it worked before?

 

LinuxReport.txt

 

[Pravda]

Installed Linux the first time 20 years ago. Couldn't be bothered. 10 years ago.... Same problem can't detect wifi. Every year since then tried installing Linux "for fun" just to find it completely useless. Five years ago installed chrome os. Liked it, but still use winblows

[fdsa]

 

40 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

I opened up the laptop to see inside and see it is a Broadcom chip.

well, then it will be easier to buy a USB WIFI or replace the internal WIFI card with another one, preferrably from Atheros or Intel.

Broadcom chips are a huge PITA to make them work under Linux.

 

 

40 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

This laptop WiFi used to work on Linux and then one day stopped.  Any idea why it worked before?

magic ????‍♂️

 

 

39 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

LinuxReport.txt

strange, the WiFi card is not listed in lspci, it could mean that it is not powered at all.

Check the BIOS settings - maybe WiFi got disabled there?

 

 

also try running

sudo powertop

- press Tab until you get to "Tunables" page, and look for something like "Autosuspend for device Broadcom Wireless" or Wifi or something like this.

If there is such line and it says "Good" (power saving) on the left - select this line and press Enter to make it "Bad" (not power saving).

 

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by fdsa

[Digitalbanana]

30 minutes ago, fdsa said:

also try running

sudo powertop

Thanks very helpful. Didn't know about powertop. The turnables doesn't mention any 'Good' power saving devices and doesn't mention WiFi card at all.  There is also no setting in BIOS for WiFi.

 

So the USB Wifi or Ethernet cable is the way forward. Appreciate the feedback.

 

My main new PC is a Win11 device, just keeping the old ex Win7 laptops going on Linux for extra jobs so will buy USB WiFi for each of them.

 

LinuxReport_powertop_turnables.txt

[fdsa]

You might try to replace the WiFi card with another one, preferrably made by Atheros or Intel. It will be more convenient than losing an USB port.

 

for example these models should work: AR5B22 or AR5B225, average price is 300THB : https://shopee.co.th/search?keyword=ar5b22+pci-e&locations=%E0%B8%A0%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A8&noCorrection=true&page=0

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by fdsa

[cleopatra2]

2 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

Thanks.

 

When I try your commands there is no reference to any wireless, the wireless on/off light on keyboard stays default off and will not turn on. I opened up the laptop to see inside and see it is a Broadcom chip.

 

This laptop WiFi used to work on Linux and then one day stopped.  Any idea why it worked before?

 

LinuxReport.txt 7.42 kB · 4 downloads

 

Try the following in the terminal command line

inxi  -Nn

You should see your devices that are detected. 

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by cleopatra2

[cleopatra2]

48 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

Try the following in the terminal command line

inxi  -Nn

You should see your devices that are detected. 

 

Edit

 

Make sure Secure Boot is disabled. 

The Broadcom devices are problematic with secure boot and ubuntu based linux

[Digitalbanana]

1 hour ago, cleopatra2 said:

Try the following in the terminal command line

inxi  -Nn

You should see your devices that are detected. 

Thanks - only Ethernet and Wireless USB detected, not the Broadcom card.

[Digitalbanana]

2 hours ago, fdsa said:

You might try to replace the WiFi card with another one, preferrably made by Atheros or Intel. It will be more convenient than losing an USB port.

That sounds reasonable idea and price. Do you know if these are more reliable with Linux than Broadcom?

[Digitalbanana]

52 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

Make sure Secure Boot is disabled. 

The Broadcom devices are problematic with secure boot

I am not sure Secure Boot is an option on this laptop, its 11 years old. Cannot see it mentioned anywhere in BIOS?

[cleopatra2]

24 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

I am not sure Secure Boot is an option on this laptop, its 11 years old. Cannot see it mentioned anywhere in BIOS?

Try the following command

 

lspc -nn -d 14e4:

 

To check secure boot run

 

mokutil --sb - state

Edited December 1, 2021 by cleopatra2

[cleopatra2]

9 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

Try the following command

 

lspc -nn -d 14e4:

 

To check secure boot run

 

mokutil --sb - state

Correction

 

lspci - nn -d 14e4:

[cleopatra2]

The following would be the normal command to resolve a wifi card that can be detected. 

 

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source && sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

[fdsa]

1 hour ago, Digitalbanana said:

That sounds reasonable idea and price. Do you know if these are more reliable with Linux than Broadcom?

much more reliable. Broadcom wireless chips always were cráppy, only ethernet chips work well.

 

49 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

mokutil --sb - state

mokutil --sb-state

[userabcd]

You could also try to remove the wireless card and clean it and reseat it.

 

Carefully detach the 2 antennae, take out the two screws and pull out the card and clean.

 

Reinstall.

 

If there is still no wifi then it could be the wifi card has failed.

Edited December 1, 2021 by userabcd

[Digitalbanana]

18 hours ago, cleopatra2 said:

To check secure boot run

 

mokutil --sb - state

Thnks, I get result:

>EFI variables are not supported on this system

 

So presume secure boot isn't available from this?

[Digitalbanana]

17 hours ago, cleopatra2 said:

The following would be the normal command to resolve a wifi card that can be detected. 

 

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source && sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

Interesting thanks. Tried that and worked (attached log) but still not recognizing the Broadcom card, so I will try and get a new brand card as suggested by @fdsa.

 

Really appreciate the feed back guys. Linux isn't my forte so all good stuff to know.LinuxReport_resolveWiFicardDetection.txt

[Digitalbanana]

On 12/1/2021 at 3:04 PM, fdsa said:

You might try to replace the WiFi card with another one, preferrably made by Atheros or Intel. It will be more convenient than losing an USB port.

 

for example these models should work: AR5B22 or AR5B225, average price is 300THB

Just out of interest I tried your idea of getting a Atheros card. I already had a spare Atheros AR5B195 card from a similar HP Pavilion g4 series laptop (AMD CPU and Atheros Wifi) that was spare and on which Linux wifi ran OK. So swapping the Atheros card into the troublesome laptop (Also a HP Pavilion g4 series but with an Intel CPU and Broadcom Wifi original)

 

I found that the laptop would not boot past the BIOS saying the Atheros card Fix Wireless Module not Supported WWAN Module ID 703. It's my understanding there is a Whitelist of acceptable  Wifi cards hard coded by HP - the BIOS says to visit the HP web site to get the list, but when I tried HP site it said this laptop series was not on its database.

 

So looks like USB wifi is the only way as I cannot blindly buy new cards without knowing if they will work or not.

[Digitalbanana]

14 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

So looks like USB wifi is the only way as I cannot blindly buy new cards without knowing if they will work or not.

And then I found another spare Wifi card lying around made by Intel, popped that in, the BIOS accepted it and Linux works as well.

[Digitalbanana]

On 12/18/2021 at 9:12 AM, Digitalbanana said:

And then I found another spare Wifi card lying around made by Intel, popped that in, the BIOS accepted it and Linux works as well.

Spoke too soon, it worked after first install and then it didn't get recognized by Linux on subsequent reboots. So Broadcom and Intel don't work with Linux and Atheros not accepted by BIOS! Back to USB.

[fdsa]

On 12/17/2021 at 6:21 PM, Digitalbanana said:

I found that the laptop would not boot past the BIOS saying the Atheros card Fix Wireless Module not Supported WWAN Module ID 703. It's my understanding there is a Whitelist of acceptable  Wifi cards hard coded by HP

lol thanks, will know that HP laptops are a P.o.S (their servers are too, btw)

 

On 12/19/2021 at 11:41 AM, Digitalbanana said:

Spoke too soon, it worked after first install and then it didn't get recognized by Linux on subsequent reboots.

this is very strange because Intel usually has good drivers for Linux. Have you tried rfkill  and other commands from the posts above?

[userabcd]

For your broadcom wifi (looks like 4313) card did you try removing and reinstalling the broadcom drivers using your terminal

In a terminal type the following command

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source

then

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

This will then rebuild your driver.

 

You can either restart your pc or if this is a pain type the following commands in the terminal which will 'switch on' your wireless

sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl

then

sudo modprobe wl 

 

Sometimes, the Additional Drivers Utility will fail to install a Broadcom STA Wireless Driver. When that happens, first check if your card is indeed supported by the STA driver, and to do that, open a terminal window (ctrl-alt-t) and run

lspci -nn | grep -i BCM

The output will include the wireless card model, make sure it is among the models listed below.

Broadcom wireless cards supported by the STA driver:

BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4313, BCM4321, BCM4322, BCM43224, BCM43225, BCM43227, BCM43228

If the card is supported, try installing the driver manually. Open a terminal window (ctrl-alt-t), and run

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

You may need to reboot at this point.

Edited December 21, 2021 by userabcd

[Digitalbanana]

On 12/20/2021 at 2:01 PM, fdsa said:

Have you tried rfkill  and other commands from the posts above?

Yes, tried the ideas listed in posts above and rfkill gave no response. I couldn't seem to get the Intel wifi card card recognised. So then I put the original Broadcom card that stopped working back in and .... see next post below..

[Digitalbanana]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:05 AM, userabcd said:

For your broadcom wifi (looks like 4313) card did you try removing and reinstalling the broadcom drivers using your terminal

In a terminal type the following command

OK, I was going to try all of your points, but as soon as I put the Broadcom wifi card back in it started working again without doing anything, the keyboard function key to turn it on/off was working again, and a reboot of the laptop has it working again. I will see how long it lasts before following up with your driver rebuilding idea if needed.

 

Thanks to both @userabcd and @fdsa for your helpful replies guys.