Wifi won't turn on, on a Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook

[SlappySquirl]

Got two old cheap Dell Latitude 2100's (2 Atom CPUs @ 1.60GHz, and 2051MB RAM) from a friend, initially installed Win 7 on one and Win 10 on another, found Win 10 too slow and bloated, wanted to try Linux anyway. After some distro hopping with live versions I decided on Mint 18.3 XFCE, I just installed it on top of the Win 10 like 30 minutes ago, after playing around with it I realized I had to internet connection.

On these laptops the wifi antenna gets turned on by using the Function key (Fn) and the F6 key (which has a little antenna icon on it, there's no switch). I've been using the first laptop with Win 7 (they are both identical, I'm using this one to post this now) to find any info online but I can't find anything. Basically the Fn+F6 combination works flawlessly on this laptop (Win 7) and used to work flawlessly on the laptop that had Win 10 (the freshly installed Mint).

I can't see any networks on that (Mint) laptop, no matter how many times I press the Fn+F6 key, I do it on this Win 7 laptop and the wifi light goes on and off (along with the connection) the way it's supposed to be, and the way it was when that other laptop had Win 10. Since I don't have any internet access on that Mint one, how can I solve the problem if I need to download drivers or anything? I've used the flashdrive that I used to install Mint as a Live Session, but still, the wifi light will not come on no matter how many times I press Fn+F6.

I'm a n00b, so please take that into account, I don't think I'll be able to write any scripts or sudo this or sudo that. If need be, I learned how to install packages from offline (by copying the *.deb files needed from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and doing sudo dpkg -i packagename), but that's about all I know how to do on the terminal.

Any ideas??
Thanks!

[asinoro]

Run this command and the output post inside code brackets not to take space like the command below.

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nmcli radio wifi on ; inxi -Fnxxxz ; rfkill list all

[SlappySquirl]

Run this command and the output post inside code brackets not to take space like the command below.

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nmcli radio wifi on ; inxi -Fnxxxz ; rfkill list all

If I understand correctly, you want me to copy and paste that command to the terminal, run it, and then copy and paste the output on this thread, in code brackets like this:

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 sudo this would be the output 

Ok, I'll try that, just remember that I'm doing this on a Win 7, while the problem is on the Mint laptop with no wireless, so I guess I'll have to use a flash-drive to save paste the output of the terminal into a file and bring to this Win 7 to post.

(Also, I have to run some errands now, so I might do that in a couple of hours. I'll post back later, thanks!)

[asinoro]

You can not boot on Mint?

[SlappySquirl]

Hey man, thanks for helping, sorry it took me a bit to reply, have work to that and that Mint laptop is not my main system so I'm in not much of a rush to fix it, but here's the output for what you asked:

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slappy@dell-L2100 ~ $ nmcli radio wifi on ; inxi -Fnxxxz ; rfkill list all

System:    Host: dell-L2100 Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.28) info: xfce4-panel dm: lightdm Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Latitude 2100 Chassis: type: 8
           Mobo: Dell model: 0M536R Bios: Dell v: A04 date: 02/02/2010
CPU:       Single core Intel Atom N270 (-HT-) cache: 512 KB flags: (nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 3192 
           clock speeds: min/max: 800/1600 MHz 1: 1067 MHz 2: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:27ae
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x600@60.31hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GME x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:27d8
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
           driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1684
           IF: enp9s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Broadcom BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
           driver: b43-pci-bridge bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:432b
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (2.9% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST250LT003 size: 250.1GB serial: W041R0LL
Partition: ID-1: / size: 228G used: 4.9G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.14GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
           Unused Devices: none
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 156 Uptime: 15 min Memory: 237.1/2003.3MB
           Init: systemd v: 229 runlevel: 5 default: 2 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481 running in xfce4-terminal) inxi: 2.2.35 
slappy@dell-L2100 ~ $ 

[SlappySquirl]

You can not boot on Mint?

Yes. Like I said on the first post, I got 2 laptops that are identical, one is running Windows 7 (the one I'm using now), and the other one I just installed mint and I can't turn on the wifi radio with it's key combination, and there's no physical switch. Yes, it does book perfectly and everything seems to be running just fine except for that problem. I also booted from the flashdrive I installed Mint from, so I was running a Live session, just to see if the wifi would turn on that way, but no, still nothing.

[JeremyB]

Can you connect to the internet in Linux Mint using phone tethering or ethernet? If so try

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sudo apt-get update && sudo apr-get install firmware-b43-installer

Reboot

[SlappySquirl]

Can you connect to the internet in Linux Mint using phone tethering or ethernet? If so try

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sudo apt-get update && sudo apr-get install firmware-b43-installer

Reboot

No, I currently don't have a smartphone and will look on info on how to ethernet.
But, I do know how to install packages and move them no an offline computer.
On my Win 7 I can run Mint as Live session, maybe download the components and move
them to the Mint offline system and install them?

I have moved programs like htop or hardinfo or klavaro offiline. I sudo apt install on the
Mint Live session, go to /var/cache/apt/archives/, copy the *.deb packages from there to
a flash drive and move them, then install on offline system with:

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sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb

But I don't know if that will work with whatever you want me to install. Any other ideas??

[SlappySquirl]

Can you connect to the internet in Linux Mint using phone tethering or ethernet? If so try

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sudo apt-get update && sudo apr-get install firmware-b43-installer

Reboot

Also, I just noticed, it might be a mistake, but since I'm a n00b I don't know, is that
supposed to be " sudo apr-get install firmware-b43-installer" ?

[SlappySquirl]

Also, I ran the

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nmcli radio wifi on ; inxi -Fnxxxz ; rfkill list all

command on the terminal on a Live Session on my Win 7 machine, since they Mint and Win7 are identical laptops, I was curious if the Wifi would have a problem on Mint on that Live Session on the Win7 machine and it works just fine, like I said, I ran that command and the output was almost identical except these last couple of line which were NOT present on the output from the Mint machine:

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Info:      Processes: 174 Uptime: 2:25 Memory: 1288.5/2003.2MB
           Init: systemd v: 229 runlevel: 5 default: 2 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481 running in xfce4-terminal) inxi: 2.2.35 
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

those last 3 lines are missing from the Mint machine output posted on the post above, I don't know the importance of that.

[SlappySquirl]

Just occurred to me, shouldn't the drivers needed for the Wifi be on the installation media? That laptop is not at all new, so the drivers are not new and should be one the iso/installation flashdrive.

Are there any commands to extract/install drivers or trouble-shooting software from the installation media?

[JeremyB]

It isn't the driver that is the issue, it is the firmware. The Broadcom license doesn't allow the firmware to be distributed

[Moem]

since I'm a n00b I don't know, is that
supposed to be " sudo apr-get install firmware-b43-installer" ?

You're not wrong! That should be apt-get.