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PCI WiFi card provided with mobo with radio socket connection and external antenna. Intel Wireless 3165. Ubuntu Linux Server (Bionic, I believe). Any other details I need to provide?

The commands and output:

lspci -v | less

Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165 (rev 81)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless AC 3165
Memory at ef000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernel modules: iwlwifi


sudo lshw | less

network DISABLED
  description: Wireless interface
  product: Wireless 3165
  vendor: Intel Corporaiton
  physical id: 0
  bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
  logical name: wlp8s0
  version: 81
[etc.]


ifconfig -a

wlp8s0: flags=[etc.]

ifconfig up wlp8s0

wlp8s0: Host name lookup failure

So I was under the impression this was generally the way to bring a wifi card online, but it doesn't look like it's working. Any help is much appreciated.

Mike

Edit:

Per chili's request, here is the output of cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml:

# This file is generated from information provided by
# the datasource. Changes to it will not persist across an instance.
# To disable cloud-init's network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
   ethernets: {}
   version: 2

Okay, so it was working for a while, but I couldn't apt install packages because of package dependencies / version incompatibilities. All of these were resolved (by me, manually (tedious) (see Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) Server Unmet dependencies "are not going to be installed" and Can't apt-get install packages (perl warnings, dpkg warnings, PATH warnings)) and wpa_supplicant is reinstalled (it was uninstalled on its own for some reason?), but now when I go lshw the Wireless 3165 Network Controller doesn't even HAVE a logical name, so I can't even execute any of the commands you guys have suggested anymore! When I go ifconfig -a it shows lo and enp0s31f6 (Ethernet) so I don't know if that is the WiFi device or not. It no longer shows wlp8s0, even though it is in the netstat plan file. I'm thoroughly confused. I'll keep crunching, but also thanks for any further help.

Sorry! It was so promising! How success is fickle. u.u

UPDATE: This post is relevant but I don't think I can connect via ethernet and reinstalling the OS would be a hassle but I could probably do it eventually: Network unclaimed on Ubuntu

Michael Starr
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  • Do I need to upgrade to a newer more specific firmware provided by Intel? I already found which one it is, I just thought maybe I didn't need to. If so, where would I upload the firmware files on the server? – Michael Starr May 05 '20 at 18:16
  • Please edit your question to include the result of the terminal command: cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml – chili555 May 05 '20 at 18:18
  • Please edit your question to show the result of the terminal command: sudo modprobe iwlwifi && dmesg | grep iwl – chili555 May 12 '20 at 00:34
  • Sorry, the server doesn't even power on anymore. I don't know what I did. Do you have any leads on where to go for resources regarding hardware issues? – Michael Starr May 14 '20 at 20:32
  • I suggest that you contact the manufacturer of the server or, possibly, in your case, the motherboard. Sorry for your troubles. – chili555 May 14 '20 at 21:00

2 Answers2

1

The terminal command ifconfig doesn't enable a wireless connection because there is no mechanism to specify the access point name, or SSID, nor the WPA2 password.

The usual way to enable wireless in recent Ubuntu versions, including Bionic or Ubuntu 18.04 is with netplan.

First, find the exact name of your netplan file:

ls /etc/netplan

It may be called 01-netcfg.yaml. Whatever it is called, please amend it as follows:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

Change it to:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  wifis:
    wlp8s0:
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp6: no
      access-points:
        "network_ssid_name":
          password: "**********"

Of course, substitute your exact details here. Please note that the name of the access point as well as the WPA2 password are enclosed in quotation marks ". Netplan is very strict about indentation, spacing, etc. Please proofread carefully twice. Save (Ctrl+o followed by Enter) and exit (Ctrl+x).

Follow with:

sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

Did you get an IP address?

ip addr show

Can you reach the internet?

ping -c3 www.ubuntu.com
chili555
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  • Okay the indentation looks correct (per https://askubuntu.com/questions/1148642/netplan-indentation-error). I modified the netplan file per your instructions and no errors at generate or apply, and ip addr gives an IPv6 IP address which I guess is good? When I ping www.ubuntu.com it says "Temporary failure in name resolution". – Michael Starr May 05 '20 at 23:09
  • I'm going to try the solution @ [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53687051/ping-google-com-temporary-failure-in-name-resolution]. – Michael Starr May 05 '20 at 23:36
  • NO!!! Please stop. That is definitely not the solution. Did you try a reboot? – chili555 May 05 '20 at 23:58
  • I didn't try it yet. Thanks for stopping me. I did prefer hearing from you yourself. I haven't rebooted yet. I'll do that now. – Michael Starr May 06 '20 at 00:20
  • I rebooted it and I still get "Temporary failure in name resolution". Is something wrong with the DNS setup? – Michael Starr May 06 '20 at 00:28
  • As a note, wlp8s0 now shows up in ifconfig, which is good. – Michael Starr May 06 '20 at 00:29
  • The name resolution problem is a direct result of not being connected at all. Is wpa_supplicant installed? sudo dpkg -s wpasupplicant | grep Status If it is not, we'll need to install it with the aid of a USB key. – chili555 May 06 '20 at 00:36
  • Okay, I checked with your command; wpasupplicant (or wpa_supplicant (neither, not sure what is the correct spelling)) is not installed. I would assume it would be installed on my PC. What command can I use to find it? I know how to copy files and mount a USB drive, but then, where do I copy it to on the server? Thanks so much for all your help. – Michael Starr May 06 '20 at 00:45
  • I suggest that you copy it to your /home/user directory and then install with the command: sudo dpkg -i ~/wpa*.deb There may be a few missing dependencies. Here is where you can find the deb file: https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/wpasupplicant Ask if you get stuck. – chili555 May 06 '20 at 00:49
  • Okay! All the packages are installed, including wpa_supplicant, and wpa_supplicant can be successfully initialized. However, when using it, regardless of which wifi driver I use (wext or nl80211) I get an error. For wext: lots of ioctl [blah]: Operation not permitted (about 10 lines? of similar/identical errors?); for nl80211: wlp8s0: Failed to initialize driver interface. – Michael Starr May 07 '20 at 15:25
  • Where and why are you selecting wext or nl80211? That shouldn't be necessary at all. Simply reboot and see if you are connected: ping -c3 www.ubuntu.com We only installed wpasupplicant so that your server and your wireless access point, usually a router, both know how to speak WPA2. – chili555 May 07 '20 at 16:05
  • Hah, ubuntu lost all my packets, but a pinc -c3 to www.msn.com worked just fine. I rebooted, and it works! Thank you so much for all your help! =D – Michael Starr May 11 '20 at 19:45
  • Awesome! Glad it's working. – chili555 May 11 '20 at 19:59
0

In one command line

sudo ip link set wlp8s0 up

And to get wifi interface names I recommend to use iw which is here for that...

iw dev
kcdtv
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  • Thanks. I've already gone through most of the above guidance so I'm not sure which is the "right" way to do things, but this certainly doesn't throw any errors! n.n – Michael Starr May 07 '20 at 14:55