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Laptop: HP Notebook HP-BA061DX w/ AMD12

Ubuntu: 16.04 LTS w/ kernel 4.8.0

I'm aware there are older posts about the Intel Dual Band Wireless AC-3165 2.4Ghz Wifi card, such as this one. In the older posts, it appears the users had kernels older than my kernel 4.8.0. My post is because I'm not clear on which fixes in the older posts I may (or may not) need with my newer kernel 4.8.0. I also have additional questions about driver file names for the 3165 card. Any help with the questions further below would be greatly appreciated.

I plan to replace my current Wifi card with the Intel Dual Band AC-3165 Dual Band 2.4Ghz card to use available faster Wifi service. As a first step, I plan to simply install the 3165 card without installing any additional Wifi drivers and just hope my laptop detects the card and supports 2.4Ghz.

This post and the questions below are in case the install doesn't go smoothly.

More details: -I checked my directory /lib/firmware. There are no iwlwifi "3165" drivers. -there are several iwlwifi "7165" and "7165D" drivers with numbers "13", "14", "16", etc. (ex. iwlwifi-7165-16.ucode, iwlwifi-7165D-16.ucode).

Questions:

  • for my 3165 card to work correctly for 2.4Ghz, will I definitely need to add drivers named "3165" and "3165D" to my firmware directory? Or will the 3165 card somehow work with the 7165 drivers already in the directory? I'm not sure about this because older posts have mentioned "better support" for the 3165 card with my newer kernel 8 than with older kernels.

  • in the driver names, what does the "D" mean?

  • in the driver names, what do the numbers such as "13", "14", "16", etc. mean, and which driver numbers will I need for my Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel 4.8.0?

In the older post I mentioned above, users are instructed to copy and rename the two drivers named "7165" to "3165", as follows:

rename iwlwifi-7165D-13.ucode to iwlwidi-3165-9.ucode

rename iwlwifi-7165-13.ucode to iwlwidi-3165-13.ucode

I have these questions about the above instructions and driver file names:

-why is the driver 7165D-13 being renamed without the "D"?

-why is the driver 7165D-13 being renamed to number "9"? The instructions to rename the other driver 7165-13 preserves the number "13" when renaming. That seems odd, as keeping the same number when renaming seems more intuitive.

Lastly, any comments on these possible next steps if the Intel 3165 card install and fix attempts don't work?

  • try using Ubuntu Software Updater to install 3165 card drivers before trying to add the drivers manually.

  • as a "plan B", replace my Ubuntu 16.04 with 15.04. I saw an older post stating the 3165 card is "known to work well" with 15.04.

  • I've seen some instructions on older posts about manually "compiling" drivers. Is compiling drivers applicable in my situation?

Thanks all.

Salem022
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    See this post and edit the question to include results of the wireless script and we should be able to get your wifi working. If it doesn't work in 16.04, installing 15.04 isn't going to help at all. I don't think you need to rename the firmware in 16.04 as there was a fix committed to the kernel a while back – Jeremy31 Jul 20 '17 at 23:01
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    What do you mean by 'kernel 8'? Do you mean 4.8.0-xx? Confirm: uname -r Then edit your question to correct. – chili555 Jul 20 '17 at 23:27

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I assume, by kernel 8, you refer to kernel version 4.8.

Your proposed device is covered by the driver iwlwifi since kernel version 4.1. It requires firmware which is included by default in the latest versions of the Ubuntu package linux-firmware.

This site suggests that the 3165 device requires iwlwifi-7265-16.ucode. https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi It is present in all recent versions of linux-firmware. Check to see if you have it:

ls /lib/firmware | grep 7265

Therefore, assuming that you have the firmware and you are running kernel version 4.8, your new device is plug and play.

chili555
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  • Thanks a lot chili555. You're of course correct I made an error in the kernel name. I should have said 4.8.0-58. I just confirmed the iwlwifi-7265-16.ucode drivers are already present in /lib/firmware, as expected. That's good news the 3165 device is plug and play. Since I've never installed a Wifi card, I'll take this opportunity to ask should I attach both the #1 and #2 antenna cables to the 3165 when I install? That's the one thing I'm not clear on from reviewing the HP service manual. If yes, does it matter which cable goes to which terminal on the card? – Salem022 Jul 21 '17 at 03:10
  • update - now that I've had a chance to check the new 3165 card, I can see the terminal labels "Main"/2 and "Aux"/1. The HP manual says the #1 cable is the one connected to the current wifi card. So, am I correct I should attach that #1 cable to the #1 terminal on the 3165, and also attach the currently unattached #2 cable to the #2 terminal? – Salem022 Jul 21 '17 at 03:33
  • That's exactly what I'd suggest. If you get good speeds, you are all set. If my answer has been helpful, please accept it: https://askubuntu.com/tour – chili555 Jul 21 '17 at 18:50
  • The install was successful. It was plug and play as chili555 predicted, and I'm getting my faster wifi speed as hoped. One thing of note is there was only one antenna. Looking online now I see that's common for newer HPs. Thanks again chili555 and all. – Salem022 Jul 23 '17 at 22:03