Upgrade from 14.04 to 18.04 stops WiFi internet access eeePC

[frankus333]

G'day folks

Just upgraded my Kubuntu 14.04 to 18.04 and seems to be mostly working, but have lost internet access via WLAN. Ethernet working normally [Edit; not sure of this now, see note to jglen490 in post #6 below]. The WLAN is connecting to the router, but won't reach internet sites.

Other OSes on this machine continue to work fine on WLAN. Reverting to kernel 4.4.0-128 does not fix the problem. GRUB Recovery options of dpkg and fsck also not fixing; fsck failed, saying the partition was already mounted, which seemed odd. Does this mean the recovery software could not unmount it?

During the update, I was asked about replacing or retaining just one configuration file, and I opted to replace it with the latest. I think it had something to do with networking, but can't remember for sure. Hopefully my choice was not automatically applied to any other files/configurations replacement options. Maybe I should have opted to retain the existing file?

Firefox and Chromium can't get out, and neither can software updater or Muon. Chromium shows DNS_PROBE_BAD_CONFIG. Everything in Connections-System Settings Module seems normal.

Other posts here seem to relate to total WiFi failure, not just internet access loss, so haven't found anything useful there.

Information requested for posts here:
eeePC 1000H 32 bit notebook, quadruple booted: Kubuntu 18.04, LM17.3KDE, LM18XFCE, Win7 Pro. HDD SATA 160GB total; 57GB NTFS shared Data partition, no opotical drive.
Kubuntu kernel 4.15.0-43-generic, Plasma 5.12.17, RAM 2GB DDRII-533/CL4 Single channel, Processor Intel Atom CPU N270 @ 1.6GHz, Graphics Intel Mobile 945GSE. GRUB 2.02. WiFi card Ralink RT2790 Wireless 802.11n 1T/R2 PCIe, driver rt2800pci.

I'm hoping there is something simple I can rectify, maybe with that configuration file?

Many thanks for any suggestions.

EDIT: Ultimately not solved, so transferred to new thread:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ia-missing-DNS

However, this did not lead to a solution either, so the resolution was a complete reinstall of KU 18.04.1.

[v7peer]

I do not know an answer so I cannot help you. Perhaps a fresh install of 18.04 will help.
I also have a EEE 100OH. I changed the WIFI card for an Intel, added some memory and changed the disc for a ssd. And it is still a slow pc..
In the past I ran Peppermint five, Android 6 and now I have a minimal Debian 8 os installed (with debian 9 I got a black screen so I went back to debian 8).
In my opinion is KDE much to heavy for this pc.

[jglen490]

Open a konsole and enter:

inxi -Nx

The copy and paste the output into a CODE box (# button) in your reply.

[oshunluvr]

GRUB Recovery options of dpkg and fsck also not fixing; fsck failed, saying the partition was already mounted, which seemed odd. Does this mean the recovery software could not unmount it?

I'm not sure why you think GRUB recovery or dpkg of checking the file system will fix your wifi config, but you can't run fsck on a mounted file system - probably why you got this result.

Other OSes on this machine continue to work fine on WLAN. Reverting to kernel 4.4.0-128 does not fix the problem.

During the update, I was asked about replacing or retaining just one configuration file, and I opted to replace it with the latest. I think it had something to do with networking, but can't remember for sure. Hopefully my choice was not automatically applied to any other files/configurations replacement options. Maybe I should have opted to retain the existing file?

Yes, you probably should have retained your old config file or at least made a backup of it. All the above points to a mis-configuration.

Start by figuring out what wifi card you have and research on how to configure it. Once you have it working, it's a good idea to make a backup of the config. BTW, networking is quite a bit different on 18.04 than is was on 14.04. Interfaces are defined (if needed) in /etc/netplan and the format is totally different. Hopefully, you'll just need a few adjustments to your wifi driver and NetworkManager will take over.

[mastablasta]

the fastest way would be to test a live session. if it works in live session you could do a backup of home and fresh install.

the 14.04 to later versions upgrade seems very messy. i had an even worse time and decided to go fresh.

but i still have a laptop to test and do the "upgrade" - again maybe fresh would be more sensible thing to do if i could even perform the install!

since the disk is dualboot (WIN7) and it seems grub needs more space these days.

a lot of changes was made not just in interface but at the very core of the OS. so upgrade look like an accident waiting to happen. and the 14.04 continues to "whine" and encourages users to upgrade to a new version by clicking on the "upgrade" button.
in my case:

14.04 - upstart, KDE4, fglrx drivers, Samsung printer drivers
16.04 and later - systemd, KDE5, different AMD drivers, Samsung drivers taken over by HP driver

bottom line i found out (only in my case?!):
fresh install 18.04 -> great experience,
upgrade 14.04 -> really bad experience and requires a fresh install in the end anyway.

[frankus333]

Many thanks to all who replied; much appreciated.

v7peer: Unfortunately yes, KDE is a little sluggish on the 32 bit eeePC, even the LM17.3 version (based on Ubuntu 14.04). I suspect the Kubuntu 18.04 would be worse if I could test it with video from the web. I much prefer the KDE desktop and associated apps but Linux Mint is dropping support for it from LM19 (Ubuntu 18.04) onwards. (Hence my desire to crank up and check out the Kubuntu installation again.) The LM18.3 XFCE (Ubuntu 16.04) is more useable, although needs the video resolution wound back, but that will last another couple of years until EOL April 2021. When the LM17.3KDE reaches EOL next April, I may try LM18.3KDE, but suspect shifting to LM19.?XFCE will probably be the more likely to be practically useable into the further future.

mastablasta: Yes, I should have realised that an upgrade leap over two generations was a stretch, and I am a little surprised that the only problem obvious so far is with the networking. Given that, I am hoping the networking can be sorted relatively easily, to save the extra work of reinstalling from scratch, but I am expecting that a fresh start may end up being the most expeditious course in the end.

oshunluvr: My GRUB explorations were a grasping at any straw that may have held out the possibility of processes that would look for and attempt to correct any obvious anomalies in the upgraded packages. My query about fsck was based on the assumption that the recovery option in GRUB should have set things up so that its offered test (fsck) could run. When it didn't, I was curious; maybe I don't know how to use this recovery option properly? Running the same recovery option on the LM18.3XFCE partition produced the same result; selecting the fsck check offers a screen that says the filesystem is about to be mounted, and this subsequently means the test can't be run because the filesystem is now mounted! Sounds perverse to me!

jglen490: The ethernet is now not reaching the internet either, only the router, just like the WiFi. I was sure it was fully working initially, but now I am doubtful. I have been switching between three partitions trying to confirm the hardware was working properly, and there was a temporary problem with the WiFi completely failing (not just blocking internet access) when the machine heated up. I think I fixed that by reseating the WiFi module, so it is now reliabley working on the other two partitions. However, the comparing of the WiFi with the ethernet I noted in my OP may have been on one of the other partitions, and the internet access on the ethernet on the Kubuntu 18.04 partition may have always been faulty since the upgrade. Anyway, I have had to paste the following Konsole output into a file and transfer it to another computer to be able to paste it in here.

frank@frank-1000H-Ku:~$ inxi -Nx
Network: Card-1: Ralink RT2790 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R PCIe
driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 01:00.0
Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet
driver: ATL1E port: ec00 bus-ID: 03:00.0
frank@frank-1000H-Ku:~$

Running the same code on the LM18.3XFCE partition produces exactly the same result as above.

Just checked, and there is nothing in the /etc/netplan folder, if that is useful info.

I am hoping that because the networking can reach the router at least, there is a relatively simple configuration adjustment I can make to get it to reach the internet. Maybe something to do with DNS? Also, I can ping out to Google (8.8.8.8) and my ISP's DNS server (198.142.152.164). If I have to poke around in the deeper networking setup, a complete reinstall begins to look more attractive.

[jlittle]

,,, Unfortunately yes, KDE is a little sluggish on the 32 bit eeePC, even the LM17.3 version (based on Ubuntu 14.04). I suspect the Kubuntu 18.04 would be worse ...

Kubuntu 18.04 is much lighter than 14.04, and I've seen reports that it has similar in memory use to XFCE. I suggest trying Kubuntu 18.04 if you can, maybe with baloo turned off. LM with KDE on top of a Gnome install sounds bloated.

... I should have realised that an upgrade leap over two generations was a stretch ...

In principle it was doable but 14.04 to 16.04 was particularly bad, and was eventually deemed inadvisable. I allowed some Lubuntu systems on old hardware to update from 14.04 to 16.04 and they became unusably slow, and with KDE 4 to KDE plasma I had lots of problems; hardware failure rescued me from my obstinacy on my main desktop.

[frankus333]

Thanks jlittle
I do remember reading somewhere that later versions of some OSes are not necessarily more complex or heavy, but specifically designed to be more efficient. That is encouraging, and if this upgrade's network configuration can't be easily fixed, a fresh install of Kubuntu 18.04 sounds like well worth a trial.

Not sure what you mean by "LM with KDE on top of a Gnome install...".

I thought KDE and Gnome were desktop environments, and the distro would not have both, but I don't know enough about how Linux Mint converts the K/Ubuntu base to their final version for release as LMKDE. Does Kubuntu have Gnome as well as KDE?

[jlittle]

Not sure what you mean by "LM with KDE on top of a Gnome install...".
I thought KDE and Gnome were desktop environments

Well, I see more in Gnome than just a DE these days. There's various sub-systems like gnome-keyring and gconf running behind the scenes, that cause me trouble because various softwares I want to run want to talk to them. I suspect that the Linux Mint project is utilizing Gnome stuff for their own stuff and the DE is no longer a clean option, orthogonal to what else the OS is doing; much more like Windows and OSX.

and the distro would not have both, but I don't know enough about how Linux Mint converts the K/Ubuntu base to their final version for release as LMKDE.

Neither do I. I must emphasise my ignorance here...

Does Kubuntu have Gnome as well as KDE?

Normally no. When I started using Kubuntu it was common to have several desktop environments, and one could choose which to use at log-in time. But when Gnome 3 arrived all sorts of stuff broke, or was ugly, or dumbed down, and the the Gnome project seemed to be studying the Apple play-book assiduously. I recoiled (like many others, f.ex. Canonical) from what I perceived as their attitude that they knew best, and embraced KDE more tightly. I'm not sure if I would have persisted with KDE when plasma first arrived, it was so bad IMO, if I'd still had the option to log in with Gnome, or Unity was any good. Kubuntu didn't become solid (mostly) for me till 16.04.

[frankus333]

Thanks jlittle

I remember experimenting with multiple desktops on the one installation some years back, but since reading that this might cause some conflict problems with apps associated with different DEs, and their dependencies, I stopped doing that in subsequent installs. However, I just noticed that the Kubuntu 18.04 install in question offers three "session" options in the login screen; xfce session and Xubuntu session, along with the Plasma session. I can't remember specifically if I installed those at some stage way back in the life of the Kubuntu 14.04 install, which may even have been an Ubuntu install initially, until I gave up on getting Unity to run on the slow hardware. This may be another factor steering me towards a fresh install rather than perservering with this current upgraded one. I presume a straight up Kubuntu install doesn't come with those extra session options ordinarily?

I also notice on an LM18.3 Cinnamon installation that a prompt about a "gnome-keyring-daemon" not responding invariably comes up at shutdown or restart, and I can't find a way to satisfy it, so I just shut down or restart anyway, without apparent problems so far. That does sound like there are some bits of gnome in all the installations (e.g.; gnome system monitor in xfce), if not the actual gnome DE, as you say.

[jglen490]

In looking at my Network Connections screen - based on right-clicking the wifi icon, and selecting "Configure Network Connections", anything dealing with DNS is petty much automatic. Do you have a firewall installed - perhaps ufw or something similar?

[frankus333]

Thanks jglen490
Yes, UFW is installed, but when I turn it off via GUFW, it makes no difference.
I am still intrigued that I can reach the router and see the setup screen and settings, and ping outside sites, but not reach outside sites with a browser??

[jlittle]

Check the browser's proxy settings?

[frankus333]

Thanks folks

jglen490: Your suggestion led me to check the network settings in the general settings tab. This opens a window that shows a tab with DNS info. Only one server was listed: 127.0.0.53. I added the two DNS server addresses for my ISP, and I can now reach the internet with both ethernet and WiFi.

The problem now is that those server addresses don't stick through a reboot, so have to be added in each session.

There must be a configuration file somewhere that I can update?

jlittle: Good suggestion, which I checked earlier, and the browsers are set to use the system proxy as usual. I tried the other options, and they didn't help at the time.

After setting up email accounts in Thunderbird, I left it to download all the mail. On return a couple of hours later, the machine was running incredibly slowly, much more slowly than when I first got the internet connection back. The HDD was on constantly. Ksysguard showed Thunderbird hogging half of the cpu. Switching it off freed things up again. Switching it back on showed it had downloaded everything, and was working normally; must have got stuck somehow at the end of the task I set it.
Edit: soon after, Thunderbird was taking half of the cpu % again, downloading headers, but the system was not slowing appreciably.

The updater tells me there are 67 packages to update. I'm not sure if I should let that run before fixing the configuration file(s) for networking. Maybe the update will fix them; or just cement the deficiency?

[frankus333]

G'day again folks

Is there someone out there who can tell me which file(s) I need to update to get the DNS addresses to stick after a reboot, as outlined in above post?

Many thanks for any clues.

Cheers