Can't get laptop online (it worked before) [solved...maybe]

[jrandallg]

I have a Toshiba Satellite A505. I used it a few months ago, and it got online. It started out giving me trouble and I finally got it to work. I don't know anymore how I got it to work, but I set it down a few weeks ago and didn't come back to it until yesterday. Now it won't go online.

[Larry78723]

Without some technical information, we can’t help you. Please post an inxi -Fxxxzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and how Mint sees it.

Here is how to generate the report and post it:

Boot from your installation media (USB/DVD)
Open a terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-t). Make it fullscreen to avoid unneeded linebreaks or chopped lines. Execute the command

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 inxi -Fxxxzr 

exactly as it has been typed here.

Mark the complete text output which the command will display with your mouse.
Press the keyboard shortcut <Shift><Ctrl>C to copy the marked text into the clipboard.
Enclose the results between the code markers by selecting </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply then paste <Ctrl>V them in your reply between the code markers [code]Results [/code].

The results will help us to help you.
Larry

[jrandallg]

I entered earlier
Inxi -Fxxxz && rfkill list && mokutil --sb-state

This is the results I got from that:

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System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 info: mate-panel 
           wm: marco 1.24.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: Satellite A505 v: PSAT9U-00F004 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: TOSHIBA model: Portable PC serial: <filter> BIOS: INSYDE v: 1.10 date: 11/25/2009 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 49.6 Wh condition: 49.6/71.3 Wh (70%) volts: 10.8/10.8 model: PA502 type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3 M 330 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem rev: 2 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 17066 
           Speed: 1467 MHz min/max: 933/2133 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1467 2: 1467 3: 1467 4: 1467 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GT218M [GeForce 310M] vendor: Toshiba driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0a75 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa compositor: marco v: 1.24.0 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVA8 v: 3.3 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:3b56 
           Device-2: NVIDIA High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
           chip ID: 10de:0be3 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-74-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Toshiba driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 4000 
           bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN driver: rtl8192se v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
           chip ID: 10ec:8172 
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 217.53 GiB (11.7%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD20SPZX-22CRAT0 size: 1.82 TiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 45.58 GiB used: 15.17 GiB (33.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-2: /boot size: 922.0 MiB used: 804.0 MiB (87.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-3: /home size: 686.53 GiB used: 201.58 GiB (29.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 14.90 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 56.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 58 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 221 Uptime: 1h 05m Memory: 3.71 GiB used: 1.18 GiB (31.8%) Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
bash: mokutil: command not found 

[jrandallg]

Do I still need to run Fxxxzr? I'll do that if necessary. It's just complicated, because I have to run it on my laptop and then hook my phone to it, copy the document and paste it to on here. If what I have isn't enough, then I will run it.

[jrandallg]

Apparently the part that was missing from that was the list of repos, so I ran that and got:

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Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.advancedhosters.com/linuxmint/packages ulyana main upstream import backport
           2: deb http://ubuntu.mirror.constant.com focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://ubuntu.mirror.constant.com focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://ubuntu.mirror.constant.com focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner

[jrandallg]

Oh, and that was from my system, not my install cd. Is that ok?

[sleeper12]

Have you tried restarting your router & machine? Also, post result of:

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 iwconfig 

[jrandallg]

I started my laptop this morning, and now it's working. I do not have slightest idea why. but I also don't know why the laptop says it's hooked up to the WIFI hotspot on my phone when the hotspot on my phone isn't even on.
So, anyway, here is the readout from iwconfig:

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tun0      no wireless extensions.

wlp3s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"JRG24"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 48:00:33:B3:03:01   
          Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-36 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:92   Missed beacon:0

enp2s0    no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

If this will explain anything about what's going on now, maybe I can figure out how to get this to do it everytime I want it to.

[sleeper12]

Turn power management off & see if that helps any:

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 sudo sed -i 's/3/2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf 

Reboot

[jrandallg]

Ok I'll give it a shot and see what happens.
Question: why "default-wifi-powersave-on.conf" if I'm turning it off?

[jrandallg]

Ok, I put in the code you gave me and then rebooted. I'm online again. I won't know if it worked until the next time I try to get online and fail.
I think I need a new laptop. This one is ancient. I suspect a lot of things will work better once I do that.

[sleeper12]

That may help, but as you said, give it some time. You can read more of what you did here:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... html#ID2.1

[jrandallg]

Thank you. I checked it out. This may have solved the problem. It certainly didn't hurt. I guess I'll mark this as "solved...maybe"