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I am running Ubuntu 14.04 on a 2015 Macbook Pro. I am able to see and connect to other wifi networks via the network manager. I have set up a 5GHz network with security disabled on the AC1750 router. I am able to connect to the network on another device (an Intel NUC also running Ubuntu 14.04). However, on my Macbook the network does not appear on the list of networks in the network manager, nor am I able to connect to it as a hidden network. Additionally, I've tried rebooting my computer and configuring /etc/network/interfaces to connect to the network to no avail.

Here is the output of sudo lshw -C network:

*-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:90:4c:0d:f4:3e
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=brcmfmac driverversion=n/a firmware=01-e4dc15b ip=128.31.35.31 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:62 memory:c1400000-c1407fff memory:c1000000-c13fffff

The 5GHz wireless network is in 11a/n/ac mixed mode and SSID broadcast is enabled (configured through the router settings). Note that the lshw output above has wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn in the capabilities field, whereas the NUC that is able to connect has wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn - perhaps this is related to the issue?

I tried installing a proprietary driver with sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source as per an answer to this question, but that left me unable to connect to any wireless networks.

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MattG
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    Remove bcmwl-kernel-source. It does not support this adapter and enable security. – Pilot6 Jul 08 '16 at 20:56
  • Thank you, I was getting desperate and foolishly installed it. – MattG Jul 08 '16 at 20:58
  • Could you try this sudo iwlist wlan0 freq in your pc with issue and this sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning from the pc which could connect. Please, scramble the info you don't want to share before posting. – user.dz Jul 11 '16 at 11:56
  • Please connect your Intel NUC to the wireless network through your AC1750 router, then run the command ifconfig on your NUC, in order to see what's the name of your NUC's wireless device. Assuming that its name is wlan0, in such case run the command iwlist wlan0 channel in order to see which channel and corresponding frequency your NUC's wireless device is using to connect to the router. Take note of this info (channel and frequency), then on your Macbook run iwlist wlan0 channel to check if your Mac's wi-fi device's using the same frequency. If it is, maybe it's an interference. – Yuri Sucupira Jul 15 '16 at 05:59
  • Anyway, I'd suggest that you start a shell terminal window on your Macbook and then run sudo iwconfig wlan0 channel auto in order to force your Mac's wi-fi device to automatically change its operating channel in case of interference. Then run iwlist wlan0 channel to check if your Mac's current channel/frequency's now different from the one used by your NUC. If it's not, run e.g. sudo iwconfig wlan0 channel 64 (assuming that channel 64's listed on the output of the command iwlist wlan0 channel and its corresponding frequency isn't the same used by your NUC)... – Yuri Sucupira Jul 15 '16 at 06:05
  • ...or run something like e.g. sudo iwconfig wlan0 freq 5.0G to force your Mac's wi-fi device to operate on 5.0GHz. The channel and frequency must be different from the ones used by your NUC. Then, go to your router's advanced settings and change the WLAN parameters. Set Mode to 11a/n/ac mixed, Channel to 5GHz (802.11ac's default), Channel Width to mixed mode (enable all widths). In 802.11ac, the commonly used widths are 20, 40 and 80 MHz. If mixed mode isn't available, select 80MHz-only mode, because it's the default mode for 802.11ac modulation. – Yuri Sucupira Jul 15 '16 at 06:12
  • After performing all these changes, reboot your router and right after please force your Macbook to switch to runlevel 6 (just run the command sudo telinit 6). Your computer will reboot/restart. Wait for your router to finish rebooting and then try to connect to the WLAN. If it still doesn't work, I think we can then assume that this issue isn't related to frequency/channel. – Yuri Sucupira Jul 15 '16 at 06:16

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Are you sure you have a 5GHz card?
if Mermoy serves, You should have 802.11ac for 5GHz, as I seem to remember wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn is for 2.4GHz and the other NIC is wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn that has the 'a' for 5GHz

802.11a - 54 Mbps standard, 5 GHz signaling (ratified 1999), but elsewhere it is stated the 54 Mbps standard is for 2.4GHz

802.11g - 54 Mbps standard, 2.4 GHz signaling (2003)

802.11ac is the specification for 5GHz
The newest generation of Wi-Fi signaling in popular use, 802.11ac utilizes dual-band wireless technology, supporting simultaneous connections on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands. 802.11ac offers backward compatibility to 802.11b/g/n and bandwidth rated up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band plus up to 450 Mbps on 2.4 GHz
RE: https://www.lifewire.com/wireless-standards-802-11a-802-11b-g-n-and-802-11ac-816553
James Niland

James N.
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