update trashed wifi ability

[Tom_ZeCat]

Somehow updates have trashed my Lenovo laptop’s ability to access wifi. I’m in a pickle because I just moved back to Omaha, NE from Boise, ID and I don’t have Internet access yet. All my Internet supplies are in the moving pod which has not arrived yet, so I’m not hooking it up until that arrives. I’ve been using the apartment complex’s wifi in the clubhouse. On my Lenovo, everything was going fine until a big update was offered. I clicked to accept it and waited till it was done. It spent a long time downloading until it was finished … sort of. I got an error message saying a couple things did not install. I figured it would not be a big deal. I could always install that next time. Turns out it is a big deal After I rebooted per instructions, the ability to log into any wifi network was gone. Here’s a screen shot:


hosting images

Normally I would just plug into via ethernet and go:

sudo apt-get install -f
(Among some other commands.)

However, all I have is this public wifi. I have no wired network access. Fortunately, I can still post this with my Asus netbook.

Btw, I thought I had a solution. I figured it was a Clonezilla rescue time. I could just restore the drive to the state it was in when I made a Clonezilla ghost image of it. No can do. I looked at my Clonezilla stores folder on my external hard drive and I only have a ghost of my desktop Kubuntu PC, the one that’s in the moving pod. I did not make a ghost of the Lenovo laptop, @#$% it.

Can I do one of two things?
1. Download the wifi tools needed by using the Asus netbook and then put them on the Lenovo laptop?
2. Is there a System Restore somewhere in Kubuntu that I haven’t found? I mean a revert to restore point thing like Windows 7 has?

Or is there some other solution short of installing Kubuntu from scratch (groan) and re-setting up all my settings and software?

[jlittle]

A long shot, but...

Updates recently trashed my wired connection, during a release upgrade that failed because my ISP had issues that evening. As well, plasma was borked. I gave up on the install (it has had some trials) but yesterday I logged into it by mistake and managed to get KDE running, creakily, by restarting kwin and plasma. I noticed the networks applet was more functional, went into the "connection editor" and edited the wired connection (right click on the connection) and noticed the "restrict to device" field was set to something awful I didn't understand. I cleared it and that fixed the problem. Nice plain old "eth0" has become "enp0s7" but I think the restrict to device field had the MAC address appended.

So, maybe the updates have populated that field incorrectly, and you could clear it.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I'm still struggling to fix this thing. I've gone into the connection editor. Here's what I'm seeing. The one showing as AppleCreekApts is the wifi I was using yesterday when the update @#$%ed me over. I'm surprised that it's saying I used a wired connection 27 minutes ago. There is no wired connection here for me to use.

Is there some way I can grab an install package with my Asus netbook and then use that to just reinstall the wifi module on the Lenovo? I'm severely handicapped without the ability to plug into a wired connection. Arg. So frustrating.


upload an image

[Tom_ZeCat]

I've solved the problem, thank God! I booted to my Kubuntu install USB stick to find that the wifi problem persisted there too. This told me it wasn't anything to do with a driver install. Somehow I must have accidentally it Fn+F5 that shuts off the wireless card. I feel like a goof. But thank God this @#$% is over.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
I have EXACTLY the same problem, exactly the same presentation in the menu(first post), I'm going to disentangle the wires and haul it downstairs this week to try an update using a cable.

But, if nothing else, I can use it as a "storage drive", I regularly copy all data off the device, so I could do that, slowly moving stuff onto the present Kubu as needed.

I'm going to try "Fn+F5"............dunno........ lol if that is it..........lol...

woodsmoke

[Tom_ZeCat]

Hi
I have EXACTLY the same problem, exactly the same presentation in the menu(first post), I'm going to disentangle the wires and haul it downstairs this week to try an update using a cable.

But, if nothing else, I can use it as a "storage drive", I regularly copy all data off the device, so I could do that, slowly moving stuff onto the present Kubu as needed.

I'm going to try "Fn+F5"............dunno........ lol if that is it..........lol...

woodsmoke

Fn+F5 is the command on my Lenovo Z570. It might be a different command if you have a different model. Also, on the Z570 there's a little switch on the front that shuts the wifi on and off. You're laptop might have that also.

[vinnywright]

you can always check rfkill

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

if your switch is turned off you will get "Hard blocked: yes"

and if software/system has it off you will get "Soft blocked: yes"



VINNY

[Tom_ZeCat]

you can always check rfkill

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

if your switch is turned off you will get "Hard blocked: yes"

and if software/system has it off you will get "Soft blocked: yes"



VINNY

Thanks for the tip. I've saved that in my CherryTree database for future reference.