SOLVED - Upgraded to Kernel 4.13 and lost WiFi

[AZgl1800]

as a result of trying to figure out why the new kernel did not show, I got a lot of help.
Thanks to all for that,

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=261497&start=40

My current question is, can we somehow suck out the WiFi configuration in 4.10 and then apply it to 4.13 ?

that would really help me a lot if we can, I have not been able to follow the install steps so far in restoring the WiFi configuration

This is what I have:


*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: MT7630e 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: MEDIATEK Corp.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
logical name: wlp3s0f0
version: 00
serial: 10:08:b1:45:12:3b
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=mt7630e driverversion=4.10.0-38-generic firmware=112.3 ip=192.168.1.67 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11



This is the ReadMe provided by the author of the guy who built the module that will use the Windows WiFi adapter and make it work in Linux.
But, I am not following what he wants me to do.
I won't be using Bluetooth with this laptop.



Easy installation package for Mediatek MT7630E Wifi + Bluetooth Combo Linux Driver. The official driver was found at http://www.mediatek.com/en/downloads/mt7630-pcie/


# Component


* rt2x00: Wi-Fi driver source code
* btloader: Bluetooth firmware loader source code
* firmware: Firmware binary code (MT7650E234.bin is for Wi-Fi, mt76x0.bin is for Bluetooth)


# Installation

**You need kernel headers to build the driver**

As an example, on Debian and derivatives, assuming you're on an amd64 system:

```sh
sudo apt install build-essential linux-headers-amd64
```

That's all for dependencies.

First give some file execution permission:

chmod +x install test uninstall bpatch

Now to install it, run:

./install

To test it without installing, run:

./test

To uninstall, run:

./uninstall

To install with dkms:

sudo make dkms

The driver will automatically load at startup...

# Installing inside a container (chroot) environment

Pass the kernel version as an argument with install or uninstall script:

```bash
sudo ./install kernel-version
sudo ./uninstall kernel-version
sudo ./test kernel-version
```
With `make`, the argument shall be `KERNEL=kernel-version`

```bash
sudo make dkms KERNEL=kernel-version
sudo make install KERNEL=kernel-version
```

### Bluetooth

For kernel 3.13 - 3.16 bluetooth may work without any extra efforts, but for higher kernels it may not work at all. A kernel patch for the bluetooth driver may be needed to get it up and working.

If wifi works after installing the driver but bluetooth doesn't, you should first check if bluetooth is hard/soft blocked. If it is blocked then remove the block, but if that's not the case then we have a patch for you that you can apply to your kernel.

#### Test blocking state:
To check if bluetooth is hard/soft blocked, run `rfkill list`. It will show you something like this:

```sh
1: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
```

If it is soft blocked, you can unblock it with:

```sh
sudo rfkill unblock bluetooth
```
If it is hard blocked then check if your PC has some kind of switch to turn it on or may be a key combination or a little haggle in the BIOS settings (you will have to investigate).

If there is no block or unblocking from blocked state didn't do any good, then you should try the [patch](https://github.com/neurobin/MT7630E/wik ... th-mt7630e).

**Without running all those commands manually, you can use the bpatch script to automatically patch it for you.**

#### Try the bpatch script
The **bpatch** script downloads the kernel source and tries to patch the bluetooth driver and insert the compiled module in the right place automatically. To apply patch with the **bpatch** script all you need to do is run it with root privilege.

```sh
sudo ./bpatch
```
If you want to undo this patch:

```sh
sudo ./bpatch -u
```

If you have already downloaded the kernel source, then give the source directory path as an argument to the **bpatch** script with `-sd` option:

```sh
sudo ./bpatch -sd /path/to/kernel/source/dir
```

**Note:** The **bpatch** script is for debian based systems and make sure to enable source code repository before running it. For Ubuntu this [link](http://askubuntu.com/questions/158871/h ... positories) may help you enabling the source repository.

# Troubleshooting when upgrading kernel

### Install script

If you installed the driver with the `install` script, you will have to reinstall the drivers when you upgrade your kernel.

To do so, run:
```sh
./uninstall
./install
```

If you don't uninstall, you will face problems like this:
```
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'mt7630e': Exec format error
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'mt76xx': Exec format error
```

### DKMS

If you install with dkms then you won't need to uninstall/install for minor kernel updates. Major kernel updates may still need update/uninstall/install though.


## Secure Boot

Not being signed, this driver is **not expected to work on secure boot**.


## Source:

The original source was taken from https://github.com/kuba-moo/mt7630e
Some patches for extended kernel support are taken from https://github.com/benjarobin/MT7630E

**Note:** Even though the original source was taken from kuba-moo, it no longer resembles that of the original. If you want to apply a patch that works with other sources, be ware that the line number and content may or may not match i.e you will have to be careful applying patches.

# Pull Requests

Please do all pull requests against the master branch. The default (`release`) branch is for releases only.



End of his ReadMe

[AZgl1800]

Without messing up the previous post, this is the screenshot of the files that he provided in the download.

[gld59]

It may be possible to bypass all of this by using a different kernel series.

Reasoning: because Meltdown is so serious a problem, these new kernels have been pushed out the door very quickly. Lots of people are finding problems, especially with wi-fi or AMD graphics when going from 4.10 to 4.13. These problems usually go away when they switch to the older (and therefore less bleeding-edge) 4.4. Of course this won't help if you specifically moved to 4.10 to fix something else, but if you're only using it because that's what was installed by default, you probably won't lose anything by "dropping back" to 4.4.

Now that your boot / kernel selection problems have been sorted out, it should be easy. Open up the Update Manager, go to the View menu, and then Linux kernels. There'll be a warning screen to get past (unless you've already disabled that), and then you can click on the appropriate kernel series on the left (but it should already be on 4.4). Click the topmost one (currently 4.4.0-109, I think) and click install.

Because it's the same age as 4.13.0-26, that later series one will still be default, so when you reboot you'll have to use the boot menu to select 4.4.0-109. If everything works in 4.4, you can if you want go back to the Update Manager and uninstall the 4.13 one.

Edit: correct grammar

[AZgl1800]

When I installed Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, the kernel was 4.10

There never was an older version of the kernel on this laptop. It has 4.10 which I am using now because it has WiFi.... It shows me 4.13 at the Grub Menu, and of course, if I don’t force it to select 4.10 it will boot up into 4.13 and no WiFi.

So, if I read you correctly, maybe I should just forgo trying to use 4.13?
I so far have not had any operational problems with 4.10 other than me trying 'new things' and needing to figure them out.

4.10 even has Wine installed with PlayOnLinux and it seems to work with the only 2 programs that I loaded into it. "IrFanView" which was my favorite image viewer under Windows. It works under Wine just fine, maybe even faster than it did on the Win7 desktop. Haven't done a "stop watch" to see, but it is good enough.

I am not into surfing the 'bad areas of the Internet'. I am a moderator of a couple of motorcycle forums and spend most of my time on my own websites. I follow Google links when researching information, read a lot of news sites that I find referenced on new.google.com


So, I can either remove 4.13 or edit Grub to select 4.10 by default and move on.


Opinions on this?

[gld59]

18.3 was built/tested with 4.10 and shipped with that, but the original 18 and 18.1 came with 4.4. For most software, there wouldn't be much difference, and (barring the current problems due to urgency over-riding quality control) the differences in hardware support should not affect older equipment. Yes, there is a small chance some software packages updated between 18.1 and 18.3 won't like 4.4, but it's worth trying. If you do find everything works, this will have been the simplest way for you to have both wi-fi and a kernel patched against Meltdown. If it was me, I'd at least try it.

(Note that patches against Spectre are still being worked on, so the next kernel updates may also be a bit rushed.)

[AZgl1800]

After using this laptop today and going through at least a 100 reboots and having to manually select the 4.10 kernel instead of the newer 4.13,

I just simply removed 4.13 so that only 4.10 is in Grub now....

Problem is resolved IMO....

thanks to all.

newer is NOT always better, even if the Car Salesman swears to you that it is.

[Superannuated]

Running kernel 4.10 is a bit of a gamble. It is either at its end of life this month
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack (see bottom of page)
or life ended in May 2017.
http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kern ... 04097.html
Further, it will not be patched for the Meltdown issue.

You tried 4.13, as you should have, but it screwed up your wifi. Subsequent updates to 4.13 may work for you. You can try them later. At this time you are safer going back to the newest version in the 4.4 kernel series, a series with an end of life of April 2021, assuming wifi and other functions work for you.

[AZgl1800]

I am going to wait a while and see if 4.13 is enhanced a bit more, then try again.

Since I have learned about TimeShift, making changes is not nearly as nervous for me as before.

[AZgl1800]

Since my last post, opened up my email and from what I can glean from this article,
my laptop is not vulnerable to the Spectre and Meltdown issue anyway.

https://www.lifewire.com/cpu-bugs-flaws ... =onetapLTT


Various patches were released to work around this bug:

Microsoft released patches for the Windows OS and Microsoft Excel. These files are titled WW1140.EXE and WE1136.EXE, respectively, and can still be downloaded from this Microsoft Software Library Mirror website.
Wolfram released this patch for its Mathematica computation program.

In December of 1994, Intel announced a lifetime replacement policy to replace all processors that were affected by the bug. CPUs shipped out later were no longer affected by this bug, so devices using an Intel processor created after 1994 aren't affected by this particular floating point unit problem.

[Superannuated]

my laptop is not vulnerable to the Spectre and Meltdown issue anyway.

Doesn't your Asus TP500L have an Intel processor?
https://www.techarp.com/guides/complete ... -cpu-list/
(click on desktop or mobile?)

Microsoft released patches for the Windows OS

Yes, but (unless I am mistaken) that doesn't help anyone running Linux even from a dual boot machine.

In December of 1994, Intel announced a lifetime replacement policy to replace all processors that were affected by the bug.

The Pentium FDIV bug is a completely different bug/flaw than Meltdown or Spectre.