Doing Updates lost wireless

Questions about Grub, UEFI,the liveCD and the installer
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
muka

Doing Updates lost wireless

Post by muka »

Have just installed LMDE 201101 32 bit [had the same problem happen with 64 bit].

So I go to do the huge update list, and it all goes well. Eventually the system hangs and hangs and hangs.
Do a Force Quit, reboot and NO wireless - just not finding the router.

Seems the system stopped about some sound files reconfig or similar.

What gives? It was all working downloading that near Gb of updates? And this happened as well with the 64 bit version - hung big time.

Doing a dual boot with Windows 7 btw.
This is the worse ever bug I have seen yet with Mint.

Wonder if installing Mint 11 would make a difference.

So Clem or someone please, what can I do here?

Cheers muka
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
TBABill
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1355
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:02 pm
Location: Leonardtown, MD

Re: Doing Updates lost wireless

Post by TBABill »

If it were mine I'd do a couple things. First, do you have more than one kernel listed in Grub to select from? If you do, select the older one and see if wireless works with the old kernel. It's possible if the update borked during a kernel upgrade that it didn't impact the one you were using.

Second, I'd look at the hardware by checking what type it is (using LSPCI in lowercase in a terminal if it's internal or LSUSB in lowercase if it's USB), then make sure your driver is active by reviewing the output of LSMOD in lowercase in a terminal.

I'd take it in baby steps. First make sure your kernel is in working order (boots fine and other hardware seems ok), then see if the driver for your card is active, then make sure nothing is blacklisted for your card in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

If you see anything out of line, perhaps, reconfigure it using the steps in the Debian wiki by just going through the setup steps again.
Gee7

Re: Doing Updates lost wireless

Post by Gee7 »

Hello Muka

Everybody has different software needs and opinions, I guess, for me I like trying new things sometimes and currently I have a choice of different Linux systems at boot. I'm multi-booting but LMD is my favourite distro: I find it lean, quick and responsive. Everything so far has worked out ofthe box (except for setting up my Japanese keyboard, but that's a bit of a specialist area).

The reason why my LMD stays fast and lean is because I keep updates to a minimum: most of the updates are for applications that I don't use anyway. Do you actually need updates for Pidgin, Giver, Gnome Dialup tool, Libeoffice Math or whatever else those gigabytes of updates are for? My Update Manager settings are for Levels 1 and 2 only, and after installing a few megabytes of updates, my system is up to date and secure. Yesterday I installed Firefox 5 before it is ready for LMD, but usually I stick with recognised packages.

Maybe some people like the minimalist approach and others like to install everything that's going, just in case they will need it in the future. But if you are having problems, it might be worth re-installing and changing your preferences in Update Manager. You can make your settings just level 1 and Level 2 and also add the names of files that you don't want in Preferences/ignored packages. For example - big files for "mint-artwork-debian" and "pidgin" are currently in my ignored packages, so packages connected to them no longer show in Updates. I think Mint artwork is great but I really like the visual look of my system as it is, so do not need more choice at this time. The ignored packages facility was a great idea from the Linux Mint team. It is there to be used.

With a lean re-install, your wireless connection should be found immediately again.

Good luck in sorting out your problems.
muka

Re: Doing Updates lost wireless

Post by muka »

Well thanks for all that good advice.
I have to admit that the solution seems a bit too complicated for me.

The tho is, what on earth in those Level 3 updates took the wireless out?
It got stuck on some sound re-config, and then after reboot [like I said] the internet went AWOL.

One suggestion I read was to install only Level 1 & 2 updates, hence a lean OS.

One other thing I noticed was that if you do the Level 1 & 2 updates first, there is a fix there for the broken packages that show up in level 3 as 0KB and so removes that.

Anyway we'll see how we go.

Cheers muka
Gee7

Re: Doing Updates lost wireless

Post by Gee7 »

You can take it bit by bit, Muka, rather than installing all your upgrades at once.

If you select to do only Level and Level 2 upgrades, it doesn't mean that you never get the Level 3 upgrades, only that you aren't downloading them at this time.

What I do is download Level 1 and level 2 updates and then update other applications only as and when needed.

If you update too much at one time, there is sometimes a conflict of applications, usually kernel-related, I think, and this can cause malfunction or kernel panic.

Some examples of recent upgrading not in level 1 or 2, I have upgraded to the recent Libreoffice and upgraded Iceweasel browser to Iceweasel 5 (it was 3.6 before) and today I was checking my wireless software in Synaptic Package manager and noticed that network-manager and network-manager gnome had the Upgrade sign on them, so I clicked to upgrade them. Synaptic Packet Manager can be very useful for upgrades too, so don't forget what a useful tool it can be to keep you up to date. You can enter a general phrase into Synaptic Search such as media player or wireless or office and if any of your applications in these categories need updating, they will display a yellow star on them (yellow star= ready for upgrade).

I'm pleased you are going to give LMDE another go, wish all goes well :)
TBABill
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1355
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:02 pm
Location: Leonardtown, MD

Re: Doing Updates lost wireless

Post by TBABill »

muka wrote:Well thanks for all that good advice.
I have to admit that the solution seems a bit too complicated for me.

The tho is, what on earth in those Level 3 updates took the wireless out?
It got stuck on some sound re-config, and then after reboot [like I said] the internet went AWOL.

One suggestion I read was to install only Level 1 & 2 updates, hence a lean OS.

One other thing I noticed was that if you do the Level 1 & 2 updates first, there is a fix there for the broken packages that show up in level 3 as 0KB and so removes that.

Anyway we'll see how we go.

Cheers muka
I think there could be some confusion about using MintUpdate with LMDE. A new MintUpdate is being developed and tested because the current Mint Update is not meant to manage updates in levels for LMDE. It's normally recommended to take ALL updates in LMDE, which is basically like checking all levels 1-5, because packages change regularly. For example, the kernel has updated since the iso released to 2.6.39. That alone will bork your wireless if you have a driver that has to be rebuilt for the new kernel and it fails (or you fail to configure it).

Since you are new to LMDE it may be easier to just accept all updates so you have a current system by doing

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
(or you can aptitude instead if you prefer)
Locked

Return to “Installation & Boot”