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I got a new ThinkPad E460 with no OS installed, but had an ubuntu 13.10 USB stick around which I used to install ubuntu 13.10.

The OS works fine, however I can't connect to the internet through Ethernet or Wireless. (Also the clickpad won't work.)

I am not very used to linux, but know a little how to use a shell.

So far, to solve my problem, I googled and found numerous approaches, of which none worked for me, but I found some things out.

ifconfig -a returns:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:cd:fe:b5:c4:17  
          inet addr:172.20.10.3  Bcast:172.20.10.15  Mask:255.255.255.240
          inet6 addr: fe80::cd:feff:feb5:c417/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:18970 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:18365 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:12962022 (12.9 MB)  TX bytes:2967244 (2.9 MB)

lo    Link encap:Local Loopback

      inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
      inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
      UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
      RX packets:4564 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:4564 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
      RX bytes:451662 (451.6 KB)  TX bytes:451662 (451.6 KB)

The eth0 should be my iPhones Mobile Hotspot via Bluetooth.

sudo lshw -c network returns:

 *-network UNCLAIMED     
   description: Network controller
   product: Intel Corporation
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
   version: 99
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: memory:f1200000-f1201fff
 *-network UNCLAIMED
   description: Ethernet controller
   product: Intel Corporation
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 1f.6
   bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
   version: 21
   width: 32 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: memory:f1300000-f131ffff
 *-network
   description: Ethernet interface
   physical id: 2
   bus info: usb@1:3
   logical name: eth0
   serial: 02:cd:fe:b5:c4:17
   capabilities: ethernet physical
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipheth ip=172.20.10.3 link=yes multicast=yes

From what I understood, the UCLAIMED means a driver issue, however I failed to load them through backport. Loading a new Version of Ubuntu or any other OS is not possible, since I don't want to blow my phones data plan.

For now I have to leave, but will be back in about 2 hours. Any help will be greatly appreciated and any information needed to solve the problem, I will provide.

Andreas
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  • "... however I failed to load them through backport." Tell us more. What version of backports did you try to install? What went wrong? What is the result of this terminal command: sudo modprobe iwlwifi Welcome to askubuntu. – chili555 Apr 08 '16 at 14:32
  • To your command there is no result at all. I'll check again with loading drivers through backport as I can't remember, but I think the repository couldn't be found. – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 16:29
  • I just see, it's Ubuntu 13.10, not 13.04, sorry – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 16:36
  • I downloaded the driver for my ethernet adapter at https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/15817 and built it according to this http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005480.html#build_e1e. There I have a problem at step 4: I can find the e1000e folder, but there is no file in it. – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 17:53

1 Answers1

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According to the technical specifications, the ThinkPad E460 has newer intel networking hardware that (according to intel) is only properly supported in Linux kernel versions later than 4.2.

To see your exact networking hardware, open a terminal and run:

lspci

and look for "Network Controller" or "Ethernet Controller". Your wifi controller will either be Intel 3165 (requires kernel 4.2 or later) or Intel 8260 (requires kernel 4.1 or later).

To see your current kernel version, run

uname -r

Since you are using Ubuntu 13.10, you will have kernel 3.11 by default.

There are several ways to upgrade your kernel, but the safest way is to use packages from the Ubuntu repositories. Unfortunately, 13.10 has already reached end of life, and there do not appear to be any 4.2 kernel packages for that release. You could try using the 14.04 packages, but they may or may not work. If you want to try that, I would recommend you try to install these packages and restart:

If the packages successfully install, but something goes wrong, and you restart and are not able to boot into the OS, hold down shift while booting up to get the Grub boot menu, and choose your old kernel version (3.11) from the menu. You will then be able to remove the 4.2 kernel packages if they are not working.

blendenzo
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  • lspci: Wifi is Intel 3166 and Ethernet 1570. Kernel is 3.11.0-12-generic. So I understand I am stranded here. I will try to install the packages you recommended, thank you very much! – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 18:57
  • May I ask, I was able to get a CentOS Distribution as .iso, which I could burn onto USB with UNetbootin, correct? I downloaded it and installed it, but I get a dependency on p7zip which is not installable, a recommendation on extlinux which is not installable and unetbootin-translations wich is not going to be installed. Is it worth going through alternatives? – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 19:01
  • It works! The last package didn't seem to install, but I restarted. Trackpad and mouse don't work but I can use terminal and the working ethernet connection to upgrade Ubuntu. Thank you very much for your help! – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 19:20
  • The mouse not working seems to be the Usb ports, as it wont work after reboot and neither does usb storage – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 20:01
  • Glad to hear you were able to get you that far! If you keep having trouble with the trackpad after updating, the solution here might be able to help you: https://askubuntu.com/questions/262287/synaptic-touchpad-on-laptop-not-working – blendenzo Apr 08 '16 at 20:06
  • What USB controller does your computer have? "lspci | grep USB" should reveal that. – blendenzo Apr 08 '16 at 20:08
  • 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device 9d2f (rev 21) – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 20:10
  • The trackpad fix didn't work. xinput also doesn't show a trackpad, only the virtual core xtest pointer – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 20:25
  • In my ThinkPad, the trackpad may be enabled or disabled in the BIOS. Is yours enabled? – chili555 Apr 08 '16 at 21:17
  • There's no setting for the trackpad in the BIOS in mine. – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 21:26
  • I was able to upgrade again to from 14.04 to 15.10 and tried this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2291555. Trackpad still not working, but USB is working again and that's enough for now. Thank you both very much! – Andreas Apr 08 '16 at 22:05