ubuntu 20.04 cannot connect to wifi (wifi settings not visible)

Question

I have a new laptop (MSI GE66 raider) and recently installed ubuntu (dual boot with windows 10).

I noticed that my wifi download speed was slower on ubuntu than on windows 10. I tried reinstalling the adapter and so I followed the instructions on this answer: No WiFi Adapter Found with fresh Ubuntu 20.04 install on MSI GE66 Laptop, and other strange behavior

When I rebooted, my wifi settings disappeared and now I have no access to wifi.

Output from sudo lshw -C network

*-network                  
   description: Network controller 
   product: Intel Corporation 
   vendor: Intel Corporation 
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
   version: 1a
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list
   configuration: driver=iwlwifi latency=0
   resources: irq:16 memory:a1500000-a1503fff   
*-network
   description: Ethernet interface
   product: Intel Corporation
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
   logical name: enp5s0
   version: 03
   serial: d8:bb:c1:20:82:b6
   size: 100Mbit/s
   capacity: 1Gbit/s
   width: 32 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
   configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=igc driverversion=5.11.0-25-generic duplex=full ip=192.168.1.8 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
   resources: irq:18 memory:a1200000-a12fffff memory:a1300000-a1303fff

Output from lspci

  00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9b44 (rev 02)
  00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 02)
  00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics (rev 05)
  00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 02)
  00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Thermal Controller
  00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
  00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Shared SRAM
  00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #0
  00:15.2 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #2
  00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake HECI Controller
  00:1b.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #17 (rev f0)
  00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)
  00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 06b4 (rev f0)
  00:1d.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 06b6 (rev f0)
  00:1d.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 06b7 (rev f0)
  00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake LPC Controller
  00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH cAVS
  00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH SMBus Controller
  00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH SPI Controller
  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 2520 (rev a1)
  01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 228e (rev a1)
  02:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. Device 3242
  03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Sandisk Corp Device 5006
  04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Device 2725 (rev 1a)
  05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Device 3101 (rev 03)
  06:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS525A PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

Output from lspci -knn | grep Net -A3; rfkill list

  libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-config.c:656 kmod_config_parse: /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf line 8: ignoring bad line starting with '“options'
  04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:2725] (rev 1a)
      Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:0024]
      Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
      Kernel modules: iwlwifi
  0: hci0: Bluetooth
      Soft blocked: yes
      Hard blocked: no

Also, this message is being displayed during boot: error message

If you need any additional information or would like me to run any command to help you help me please do not hesitate to ask. thx

I missed important info in your question yesterday. Check edit 2. I am pretty sure this will fix it. If not, post output to question as usual and maybe it will provide us another string at which to pull. — Nate T, Aug 08 '21 at 20:48
As for the error message you linked, it more or less usually just means that your UEFI is disabled. See here. If rfkill doesn't fix the answer, try enabling UEFI in BIOS settings. It is supposed to work properly now. Just be sure to keep SecureBoot option OFF! XD — Nate T, Aug 08 '21 at 21:03
Also, which commands did you use to load the iwlwifi backport. The answer you linked shows two methods. One uses dpkg / apt and the other builds from source with make. I'd like to update my answer once more and provide a fix that concentrates more on the problem source, but I need to know what that is. Could you add the exact commands you used? — Nate T, Aug 08 '21 at 22:09

Nate T · Answer 1 · 2021-08-08T20:44:50.833

It seems like you've swapped your default driver for a legacy version of the same. The old one should still be on your machine. To load it, first run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Theoretically, this should fix it, I believe. dpkg, the known-packages database, looks for the most current versions with the update and installs them with the upgrade.

Check your wifi. If it still doesn't work, reboot and try wifi once more. If you still cannot connect try this:

If you go into the applications menu, there should be a program called ubuntu update or similar. Go here and run the program to look for new drivers. It should find the original drivers.

. EDIT 1

Okay, if the settings are't showing, you can should be able to pull them out manually with this:

nmcli networking on 
nmcli radio wifi
nmcli connection show

This is shorthand for network-manager cli. It was written by a 3rd party as an "interface" to network-manager and subsequently included in the default build because network manager, the program that is probably failing you is so frustrating to work with from the command line. However you can use either tool to solve your issue. I recommend checking out the man pages with man nlmcli.

Anyway, confirm that, all fields contain values for the output row that contains your router's name. If you have colored output, you will need two values from the output of nmcli. The first item you need is your UUID for your device (router) connection. It's the long string of random hex digits from the nmcli command's stdout. Copy with [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[C].

The second command is as follows:

nmcli connection up --ask uuid <UUID> ifname <DEVICE>

..where is the name of the interface, which is just an abstraction that udev (device manager) uses for your physical router. Youv'e likely already noticed, but that can be copied from the same output above.

If everything goes well, the output for this one should be internet!

If you get an error on the last one, check spelling of the device name. The '1' and 'l' characters are almost identical in my default font in Bash.

If it still doesn't work, post output to a comment or question if it is long. I still have a few more angles.

. EDIT 2

I didn't notice yesterday that your wifi is soft blocked.

Try this:

sudo rfkill unblock wlan

then, if it doesnt start automatically, first rerun the lspci command to ensure that the soft block was not reinforced. if it still says soft blocked: yes then run these commands to unblock:

rfkill unblock wlan
systemctl enable wlan.service
systemctl start wlan.service

otherwise, if lspci is showing soft blocked: no, but your wifi is still disabled, then you can use the steps laid out in edit #1 above to get it back.

Unfortunately nothing changed, wifi settings still not visible... Also, I updated the question with a picture of an error message displayed during boot — atfortes, Aug 07 '21 at 18:23
I actually managed to solve the problem by making the inverse instructions on the link I had previously followed (step by step) and then reinstalling the related libraries just to make sure everything was clean. Thank you very much for your support Nate! — atfortes, Aug 10 '21 at 18:21

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 10 '21 at 18:30

I managed to solve this problem by executing the inverse of the instructions that I had followed step by step from the link (No WiFi Adapter Found with fresh Ubuntu 20.04 install on MSI GE66 Laptop, and other strange behavior):

deleted all the files I added
sudo make uninstall where I had previously used sudo make install
etc.

And finally I reinstalled all the libraries that were related to this changes just to make sure I cleaned up everything.

When I rebooted my computer, everything was ok again.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 23 '23 at 10:36

I'm dual-booting with Windows.

I was able to fix this issue by booting into Windows, performing the Windows Update if it there was one, making sure all the Windows Updates are complete using as many restarts as necessary, then finally performing a clean shut-down of my Windows, then booting into Ubuntu.

Then the Wifi networks suddenly started appearing again.

ubuntu 20.04 cannot connect to wifi (wifi settings not visible)

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