1

I've bought a new laptop - the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon - and dual-booted Ubuntu 14.04 (I need to stick with 14.04) with Windows 10. Ubuntu could not detect any WiFi networks, and in Software & Updates > Additional Drivers there are no proprietary drivers in use.

The PC has the Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 8265: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html.

I believe the kernel needs to be updated. But I am not sure of this or how to do it as I am new to Ubuntu. Also, I need to do this offline as the laptop has no Ethernet port. (I could also use another laptop to download any files).

Any help to fix this would be highly appreciated!


Edit: I tried updating the kernel by following http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2017/02/install-kernel-4-10-ubuntu-linux-mint/

I then downloaded firmware from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html, and copy-pasted the files to /lib/firmware.

After this, WiFi networks could be detected and I even connected to my home network.

Please let me know if this is a good solution given that I want to stick to 14.04 (it's working fine now but I don't know how stable the connection is and whether it'll randomly disconnect from time to time)

Tushar
  • 11
  • 1
    Is there some reason that you can't install Ubuntu 16.04.3? Your wireless will work perfectly. – chili555 Jan 01 '18 at 22:05
  • I think your method to update the kernel is perfectly fine. That's about what I would have proposed, in fact. – chili555 Jan 02 '18 at 14:12
  • @chili555 I ended up removing Ubuntu 14.04 and installing Ubuntu 16.04. Will stick to 16.04 itself. Didn't have any issues initially, but the WiFi connection keeps getting disabled now and then; sometimes it doesn't even detect networks (basically the same issue as before). Could this have something to do with the kernel update I tried earlier? – Tushar Jan 25 '18 at 15:12
  • Any clues as to why it is disabled? rfkill list all Or else: dmesg | grep iwl – chili555 Jan 25 '18 at 15:17
  • @chili555 It's working fine right now (it's off and on). I'll check what you suggested the next time it happens (probably in the next 24-36 hrs :P). Any suggestions on what to do based on the output of dmesg and rfkill? – Tushar Jan 25 '18 at 15:47
  • Nope. We'll have to see the output to know how to proceed. If the result is lengthy, post it here and give us the link: http://paste.ubuntu.com – chili555 Jan 25 '18 at 16:03
  • @chili555
    Here is the output: paste.ubuntu.com/26470501. Also, if I simply reboot, it gets fixed (temporarily).
    – Tushar Jan 28 '18 at 18:15

1 Answers1

0

Intel 8265 is only supported on Ubuntu 16.10 and above (link).

I was in the exact same boat as yours. I needed to run a collaborator's codes that requires an older version of Ubuntu. If you have a strict constraint on the Ubuntu version, one way around this problem is to buy a USB wireless adapter and plug it in. Make sure that the wireless adapter is supported for the version of Ubuntu that you want to use before buying. Some adapters (such as those from Panda Wireless) are plug-and-play on Ubuntu, which can save you a lot of time. Panda PAU05 from Amazon works perfectly on Ubuntu 14.04 on my new laptop. From the reviews, PAU06 should also work.

Vicon
  • 127
  • 2
  • 9