New HP laptop, Ubuntu does not recognize Wireless Adapter

Question

I'm on Xubuntu (Ubuntu 14.04), kernel 3.19.

None of the network related interfaces give me any indication that my computer is capable of detecting or connecting to WiFi networks.

This is an HP ENVY - 15t Slim Quad Laptop Product number: T1P54AV, the specs they provided me with are:

HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Dual Digital Microphone
8GB DDR3L System Memory (1 Dimm)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
6-cell 47WHr Lithium-ion Battery
Backlit Keyboard
6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ Quad Core Processor + Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1]
No DVD or CD Drive
15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit IPS Display (1920x1080)

lspci -nn gives me:

01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
02:00.0  Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:522a] (rev 01)
08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:3165] (rev 81)

ifconfig does not give me any connection other then Ethernet or lo:

eth0
...  
lo
...

iwconfig similarly:

eth0      no wireless extensions.
lo        no wireless extensions.

The rfkill list output is:

0: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no

lshw -C network yields:

*-network description: Ethernet interface product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 0c serial: dc:4a:3e:62:f2:83 size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: 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-2_0.0.1 02/06/13 ip=192.168.2.111 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:124 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:a3200000-a3200fff memory:a3000000-a3003fff *-network UNCLAIMED description: Network controller product: Intel Corporation vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0 version: 81 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:a3100000-a3101fff

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net yields:

01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:8154] Kernel driver in use: r8169

08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:3165] (rev 81) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:4010] Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

I'm kind of lost here. I've tried several things including installing drivers backported to my kernel version but none of it changed the behaviour I've described above.

Something that I believe is of note is that I've ran archlinux on this machine before and it was able to detect my wireless card without problems during installation. I looked up the realtek wireless drivers it provides and attempted to install them from a package of backports (possibly incorrectly though and it didn't help)

Any help would be appreciated, I've been stuck here for a while.

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) Actually the Intel 8086:3165 is your wireless adapter. Could you please go to a terminal by pressing [Ctrl][Alt][T] and type sudo rfkill list. Then [edit] your question and copy-paste the output of the command into your question so we can see what exact hardware you have. Then leave a comment @Fabby. — Fabby, Dec 21 '15 at 23:36
Woa! You're quick! ;-) What's the exact model number of HP Envy? — Fabby, Dec 21 '15 at 23:39
HP ENVY - 15t Slim Quad Laptop
Product number: T1P54AV

I'm not sure whether the product number correlates directly to the model, so I will post the specs I got in the receipt into the OP. — ururururur, Dec 21 '15 at 23:44
Searching your device ID brought me to this page: http://askubuntu.com/questions/682658/intel-corporation-device-3165-wifi-doesnt-work . Seems like you have a Intel 3165, and the solution presented is to update your kernel or upgrade to 15.10. — G Trawo, Dec 22 '15 at 00:13
Wow, thank you so much. I followed the instructions for upgrading the kernel to 4.23 minus the nvidia (i'm using an integrated intel video card) after I did it I had some expected graphical glitches I purged and reinstalled the entire X stack and it seems to work with both no graphical glitches and a working wifi now. I can't green-check your response, because it's a comment rather than answer, I'm new to this what do I do? — ururururur, Dec 22 '15 at 01:53
It's a duplicate: no action needed: it will be closed as such. @GTrawo: next time use the [Flag] button below the question when this happens again! ;-) — Fabby, Dec 22 '15 at 09:35
I would like to see the results from lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net as it gives the subsystem ID of the wifi card — Jeremy31, Dec 22 '15 at 22:50
@Jeremy31 posted it, although I have solved the wifi problem last night via kernel upgrade (on 4.3 currently) — ururururur, Dec 23 '15 at 01:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 24 '20 at 11:27

1

You can use ndiswrapper. It allows you to install Windows drivers of wireless cards.

Before installing:

Type lshw -C network in a terminal. You can also try lspci -vvnn look for the wireless card. It looks like this in my terminal:

 *-network               
       description: Wireless interface  
       product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
       physical id: 0

Installation

If you have wired access to internet:

sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

If you don't you can find the packages you'll need at http://packages.ubuntu.com. Here are the 3 packages you'll need:

Now you can download the Windows driver. You can find it on the manufacturer's website and install it with ndiswrapper.

You should also read this for more details

edited Jun 24 '20 at 11:27

karel

114,770

answered Dec 21 '15 at 23:43

albertoefg

161
1
1
8

1

ndiswrapper is a last-ditch solution: only if nothing else works, should you try this solution. – Fabby Dec 21 '15 at 23:59
I would also prefer to wait on importing windows drivers, however, I will post the output to lshw -C network into the OP. – ururururur Dec 22 '15 at 00:04
@Fabby - i am also facing the same issue. Is kernel upgrade to 4.2 or 4.3 the only solution for this intel wireless 3165 wifi issue? I want to be on 14.0.4 due to some software compatibility. Don't know what all i need to make the changes for this kernel upgrade? – Ashu Jan 20 '16 at 19:34
@Ashu: this is not a good place to put another question. So please first look over the existing answers and if none of them work, ask a new question and refer back to this question and explain what went wrong. ;-) I posted an answer that helped some people, but not the OP itself, and custom kernels are off-topic here... – Fabby Jan 20 '16 at 20:46

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 21 '15 at 23:49

1

From your HP ENVY Manual page 11: press the F12 (or FnF12 depending on BIOS settings) to turn on WiFi... (Do this after the computer has fully booted)

answered Dec 21 '15 at 23:49

Fabby

34,259

1

As you've never accepted an answer on this site before: If this answer helped you, don't forget to click the grey ☑ at the left of this text, which means Yes, this answer is valid! ;-) – Fabby Dec 21 '15 at 23:50
My f12 button is lit up with the color that would indicate that wireless is already turned on. When I was on Arch it was also lit up the same color (and the wireless worked,) when I press it, it doesn't toggle colors like it's supposed to and makes absolutely no difference in the behavior of my network interfaces, so I do not believe that the problem is that the hardware is chip isn't powered, nor that I'm somehow unable to power it on using the method prescribed in the manual. – ururururur Dec 22 '15 at 00:00
Nor [F12] on its own nor [Fn][F12]? If not: try sudo rflist unblock all then... – Fabby Dec 22 '15 at 00:01
I'm really going to sleep now... To be continued, hopefully the information I requested will allow someone else to come up with a better solution then ndiswrapper... – Fabby Dec 22 '15 at 00:03

New HP laptop, Ubuntu does not recognize Wireless Adapter

2 Answers2

Installation