Linux Mint Forums

I downloaded and installed the beta version of Mint 18 Sarah. all successful except that Mint 18 no longer includes the third party
firmware that I need for my wifi. My only internet connection is wifi, I don't have a wired ethernet connection, this makes it unable to access the internet at all. I have searched various forums, but no one seems to have addressed this issue yet.
Where and how do I get the missing firmware?
I could take my laptop to the public library and use the ethernet connection there, then do a new install while connected to the internet, would this enable me to download the missing firmware during installation?
Has anyone else experienced this problem.
During the installation you are asked if you want the third party software installed, which I consented too, but the firmware just isn't
there.
Al help appreciated.

At the very least we'd need to know which wireless chipset you're asking about. Open a terminal and run the command inxi -Fxz and copy the output here so we have the basics of your system.

I tryed the command as suggested, I get this result.
bin@bin-ThinkPad-L512:~$ inxi -Fxz
The program 'inxi' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install inxi
bin@bin-ThinkPad-L512:~$ sudo apt installinxi
[sudo] password for bin:
E: Invalid operation installinxi
bin@bin-ThinkPad-L512:~$

Sorry, I typed it wrong.
Here is the second result.
bin@bin-ThinkPad-L512:~$ inxi -Fxz
The program 'inxi' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install inxi
bin@bin-ThinkPad-L512:~$ sudo apt install inxi
[sudo] password for bin:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package inxi

Are you sure you're using Linux Mint 18? inxi is installed by default on all releases of Linux Mint 18 beta.

you have to be connected to internet to download inxi - are you connected via your network cable?

xenopeek wrote:Are you sure you're using Linux Mint 18? inxi is installed by default on all releases of Linux Mint 18 beta.

I wonder about the same. Open the system settings and go to system information. Post a screenshot with it.

From where did you download LM 18 Beta? Did you check the hash sum?

Or just post results for The only wifi cards that I know of that don't have firmware included are some older Broadcom cards and the newer Qualcomm Atheros QCA

Using Belarc advisor, I found this info. regarding my machine.
Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter

Thank you all for the input, perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear in my original post, my apologies.

Thank you to everyone, I am marking this as solved.
The issue with Mint 18 is not solved but I have deleted Mint 18 and re-installed Mint 17.3, which I am using to post this.
Mint 17.3 has always worked flawlessly for me, as it has again, instantly recognizing my network hardware and wifi
AirCard. I wanted to stay current with the new version of Mint, but I have to stay with what works.
Thanks again for your time.

Now that the stable version of Mint 18 is available, I will try the upgrade once the instructions become available.
Normally I never upgrade any linux system, just install the new version but in this case the upgrade may be the way to go
as 17.3 already has the firmware I need, hopefully it will carry over to 18.

Having used Ubuntu / Mint since 10.04, I'm inclined to be on side with the skeptics of "in place" upgrades as opposed to fresh installs, but two things are causing a rethink: 1) I've been impressed with the smoothness of the 17.x series of large Mint "in place" updates, which have simply worked one after the other, so my estimation of how well 17-18 might work has gone way up, and 2) with increasing use of and dependence on Mint instead of Windows, my investment of time and effort is much heavier for third-party software than it is fiddling with installs or setting up the OS itself. A fresh install versus in place install process is small potatoes as compared with the time and trouble of installing and reconfiguring software and peripheral support - I noticed that more than ever with the fine 17.x series and am reminded with my two test installs of M18 on thumb drives..

All that said, Softpedia is reporting that Mint 18.1 is when Snap package support (and yet another fresh DE) are coming, and it may be that's the logical time for a fresh install, since Snap-compatible third party software is likely to be more time consuming a shift than the OS itself:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/linux-mi ... 5852.shtml

I can probably live comfortably with 17.3 in the meantime and plow into the new Snap experience when it's available.

Thanks for the input 12k4. This is an interesting perspective.

bin_bash wrote:Using Belarc advisor, I found this info. regarding my machine.
Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter

Thank you all for the input, perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear in my original post, my apologies.

I found this...

"I have a Acer Aspire V3-771G with Atheros AR9462 Wireless. The wireless card appear to be "Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter"

So if your NIC has the AR9462 chip then this uses the ath9k driver. It's possible this can be fixed on LM18 with just some configuration changes. I'm not an expert and don't know what needs to be done but @jeremyb can prob tell you what to do.

bbaker6212 wrote:

bin_bash wrote:Using Belarc advisor, I found this info. regarding my machine.
Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter

Thank you all for the input, perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear in my original post, my apologies.

I found this...

"I have a Acer Aspire V3-771G with Atheros AR9462 Wireless. The wireless card appear to be "Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter"

So if your NIC has the AR9462 chip then this uses the ath9k driver. It's possible this can be fixed on LM18 with just some configuration changes. I'm not an expert and don't know what needs to be done but @jeremyb can prob tell you what to do.

I don't think any AR chip that uses ath9k needs any firmware only the USB devices that use ath9k_htc need firmware

So @bin_bash if you'd like to try to get this to work on LM18 you should start by posting the data that @JeremyB asked for above.
The output from running this in the terminal...

Thank you for this. I will have to re-install Mint 18, which I intend to do, but have been having difficulties due to
my laptop overheating during the download. I will get to it asap.

Just an update here. After failed attempts to upgrade from 17.3 to 18 and no success at downloading and saving the
Mint 18 iso. I have installed my Mint 18 beta version again.
This time during the install I switched on my private network AirCard and it was recognized by Mint 18, connected
flawlessly.
I am using Mint 18 beta to post this.
Soon I will upgrade form the beta version to the stable, which hopefully will work better than the upgrade from 17.3 to
18, as the beta version is built on ubuntu 16.04.
For now, I am up and running with Mint 18 beta.

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