No wifi functionality in Ubuntu 16.04 upon fresh install

Question

I just installed a new Ubuntu system on a partition on my ASUS GL502. During the 'test ubuntu' option where I was installing the full OS, wireless capabilities worked perfectly. I am on kernel 4.13

Upon full install, I have no option to connect to wireless. Under network settings, it does not show up. I've spent a few hours searching through the askubtuntu forums and found no solutions that have worked.

Here are some readouts. Edit - I have progressed past this point but am now receiving a different error. See below

The device shows up correctly during an lspci call

    $ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net; uname -a
    02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 [8086:24f3] (rev 3a)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 [8086:0010]
Kernel modules: iwlwifi

rfkill list does not show a wifi option however

  rfkill list; dmesg | grep iwl
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
[    6.673882] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673890] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-33.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673896] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-32.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673918] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-31.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673922] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-30.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673929] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-29.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673934] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-28.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673938] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-27.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673943] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-26.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673948] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-25.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673953] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-24.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673958] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-23.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673962] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-22.ucode failed with error -2
[    6.673963] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: no suitable firmware found!
[    6.673965] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: minimum version required: iwlwifi-8000C-22
[    6.673966] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: maximum version supported: iwlwifi-8000C-34
[    6.673967] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: check git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

lshw output

$ sudo lshw -C network
*-network UNCLAIMED     
   description: Network controller
   product: Wireless 8260
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
   version: 3a
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: memory:df200000-df201fff
*-network
   description: Ethernet interface
   product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
   logical name: enp3s0
   version: 10
   serial: d0:17:c2:28:f8:13
   size: 100Mbit/s
   capacity: 1Gbit/s
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd 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-3_0.0.1 04/23/13 ip=169.230.106.41 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
   resources: irq:124 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:df104000-df104fff memory:df100000-df103fff

iwconfig also seems to not display my wireless device

$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

enp3s0    no wireless extensions.

Wifi works on my windows 10 partition. Ethernet works, but extremely slowly, especially for downloads. I think this is a separate issue, however, and I would like to deal with it later after wifi is solved.

what I have tried:

1) Compiling a driver for iwlwifi per this post: Intel wireless 8260 - unclaimed network MY pci id was already listed in the file that is to be changed, so I left it alone and followed the rest of the instructions.

2) I have downloaded the ipw2200 intel driver from here: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi and placed it in my /lib/firmware directory. (Note: There are many types of iwlwifi files here, is this expected or problematic?)

3) The driver does not show up in Additional drivers no matter which server I choose.

EDIT

I attempted --reinstall linux-firmware and now have the following files:

ls /lib/firmware | grep 8000
iwlwifi-8000C-13.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-16.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-21.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-27.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-31.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode

As you can see I am still missing the -22, -23, and -24.ucodes. Upon restart the Wifi option appears on the network pane, and it shows up during rfkill list. But I cannot see any available wifi networks, and it says 'Wifi disconnected'.

rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

sudo lshw -C network
  *-network               
   description: Wireless interface
   product: Wireless 8260
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
   logical name: wlp2s0
   version: 3a
   serial: 44:85:00:62:8f:b8
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=4.13.0-26-generic firmware=34.0.1 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
   resources: irq:127 memory:df200000-df201fff

'rfkill list; dmesg | grep iwl' gives a very long line of code ending with: [ 3428.012482] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Scan failed! ret -110

Any further suggestions for what to try next would be great. I assume its solvable because wifi worked fine during the boot from USB when I was installing!