[SOLVED] Wifi controller not recognised

[maniac_a]

Hi everyone,

I just got my new notebook with Windows 10 preinstalled, so the first thing I did was to install dual boot Linux Mint.
After a lot of annoyance I finally got to get Ethernet to work, but I still do not have Wifi (which - contrary to my first ideas - appears to be an entirely separate problem).

More precisely, my wifi controller does not show up in the task bar.
It seems this is a more or less common problem with thousands of questions and answers about it all over the web, but so far I have not found any that could help me.

Information about my system:
I am running Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon (64 bit)

My first diagnostic steps yielded the following:

Code: Select all

ag@Ag ~ $ ifconfig
eno1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr ac:e2:d3:0a:01:e5  
          inet addr:10.0.0.30  Bcast:10.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::6fa1:b095:9a14:5629/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:92264 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:37430 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:129825132 (129.8 MB)  TX bytes:3044744 (3.0 MB)
          Interrupt:33 Base address:0x9000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:2322 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2322 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:219173 (219.1 KB)  TX bytes:219173 (219.1 KB)

Code: Select all

ag@Ag ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:b009 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0438:7900 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0408:5220 Quanta Computer, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 093a:2521 Pixart Imaging, Inc. Optical Mouse
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 8644:8005 Intenso GmbG 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Code: Select all

ag@Ag ~ $ sudo lshw -C network
  *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: eno1
       version: 15
       serial: ac:e2:d3:0a:01:e5
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8168 driverversion=8.045.08-NAPI duplex=full ip=10.0.0.30 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:33 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:f0b04000-f0b04fff memory:f0b00000-f0b03fff
  *-network UNCLAIMED
       description: Network controller
       product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0a00000-f0a0ffff

Due to the "unclaimed" part, I assume that this is a driver problem. I already reinstalled the appropriate driver from the Realtek homepage and blacklisted one that Linux automatically uses insteaby default, still there is no Wifi device showing up in my network manager.
In

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep r8168
r8168                 520192  0

the model number (r8168) is printed in red - I do not know what that means.

Everything works fine on Windows, so the hardware itself appears to be ok.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[ClixTrix]

Please run the following command from Terminal and post back the results.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

I think this is a combined Wifi-Bluetooth device. There is fairly recent discussion at Ubuntu and Fedora around lack of driver and firmware support, i.e. it's very new hardware.

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:b009 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

If I'm correct on device, this thread at Ubuntu has perhaps the most relevance.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2367405

[maniac_a]

YES, it works now! Thank you very much, ClixTrix!

[ClixTrix]

YES, it works now! Thank you very much, ClixTrix!

You're welcome.

[JeremyB]

I imagine it was this post that worked https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php ... st13723594