[Solved] Laptop cannot pick up/connect to any Wi-fi and mobile usb internet

[miw2n]

Hii,
So, I am new to the Linux eco-system and decided to try Linux Mint. So, I downloaded the ISO image a month back, flashed on USB and booted it along with normal Windows 10 in my Laptop. Everything worked fine the first day I operated Mint, it could connect to my home wifi.

Few weeks later on(i.e. this week) I decided again to try more of Mint and booted it with USB. Now, it cannot pick up any internet connection. Not any wifi signals like from my home wifi or not even neighbours wifi. Then somehow I connected my mobile internet by usb, and started figuring out what is going on. Then, it too stopped working for God knows what reason. I was going back and forth between windows and linux and for a single day, Wifi connected to mint (I don't know how). The next, I again went back to Mint and this time it did not connect to wifi nor via usb internet.
I have already put few commands like $ rfkill, $ inxi -Fmpmrz, $ lsusb, $ lspci etc after reading old similar posts. I even tried disabling secure boot and hoped that it will work, but nada.

I can provide more data if the below is not sufficient.

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$ rfkill
ID TYPE      DEVICE                 SOFT      HARD
 0 wlan      ideapad_wlan      unblocked unblocked
 1 bluetooth ideapad_bluetooth unblocked unblocked
 2 bluetooth hci0              unblocked unblocked

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$ inxi -Fmpmrz
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.4 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81NG v: Lenovo IdeaPad S540-15IML D serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0Q55722 WIN serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO v: CNCN19WW date: 06/17/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 53.0 Wh condition: 53.0/52.5 Wh (101%) 
Memory:    RAM: total: 7.52 GiB used: 812.1 MiB (10.6%) 
           RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-10210U bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
           Speed: 900 MHz min/max: 400/4200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 802 2: 887 3: 887 4: 900 5: 873 6: 721 7: 900 8: 900 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX250] driver: nouveau v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-74-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 9462 driver: N/A 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.17 TiB used: 63.7 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLB256HBHQ-000L2 size: 238.47 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10SPZX-24Z10 size: 931.51 GiB 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra size: 28.64 GiB 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 3.76 GiB used: 19.1 MiB (0.5%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
           ID-2: /cdrom raw size: 2.01 GiB size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> fs: iso9660 
           dev: /dev/sdb1 
           ID-3: /rofs raw size: 1.90 GiB size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs 
           dev: /dev/loop0 
           ID-4: /var/log size: 26.08 GiB used: 44.6 MiB (0.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 27 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 20.2 _Uma_ - Release amd64 20210703]/ focal contrib main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu 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
Info:      Processes: 230 Uptime: 17m Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.38

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$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:558a SanDisk Corp. Ultra
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 248a:8366 Maxxter Wireless Optical Mouse ACT-MUSW-002
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 13d3:56b2 IMC Networks Integrated Camera
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 06cb:00be Synaptics, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 8087:0aaa Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

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$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9b61 (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics (rev 02)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 0c)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Thermal Subsytem
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device 02ed
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Device 02ef
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless-AC 9462
00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Serial IO I2C Host Controller
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Management Engine Interface
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode]
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 02bb (rev f0)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 02bc (rev f0)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 02b4 (rev f0)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 0284
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 02c8
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SPI (flash) Controller
01:00.0 SD Host controller: O2 Micro, Inc. SD/MMC Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
02:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP108M [GeForce MX250] (rev a1)
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983

[sleeper12]

Disable fast boot & secure boot in Bios & see if that helps.

[miw2n]

I disabled fast boot and secure boot and turned on mint, it got started showing wifi. Connected to wifi, and internet started working normally.

so, as experiment, I enabled secure boot again and then went back to linux, could connect to wifi and internet. Then, again I enabled fast boot from control panel of windows and moved to linux, could connect to wifi and internet.

So, should I keep both of them enabled, as I can connect to internet as of now. Or should I keep it disabled so that it will not give any problem again.
Also, as stated in my post, I had already disabled secure boot 2-3 times to try to connect to internet but after that it still could not connect. Seems disabling fast boot along with secure boot was needed.

[sleeper12]

Keep both disabled.

[miw2n]

Also, last question:- is it safe to keep secure boot disabled?? (answer may be opinionated)

Thank you for your help.

[sleeper12]

Also, last question:- is it safe to keep secure boot disabled?? (answer may be opinionated)

Thank you for your help.

Yes, perfectly safe, it's just a Windows nuisance on Linux.

[AndyMH]

Then, again I enabled fast boot from control panel of windows and moved to linux, could connect to wifi and internet.

With fast boot enabled in win it never really shuts down. This leaves any windows filesystems in a locked state and read-only to linux. With fast boot disabled, linux can read/write windows filesystems like ntfs.

[miw2n]

Update:- seems the problem has been solved by turning not only secure boot but fast boot too.

[Larry78723]

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