Linux and WLAN

Thilo · 06-07-2016, 08:18 AM

Hallo,I have a question concerning WLAN in or with Linux

I´ve tried so many Linux vesions,but all the explanations did not help me to figure out what to do.Nothing worked at all.Now I´m waiting for Linux Mint 18 KDE.Is it not possible,to install WLAN the easy way?
Pls try to help me.
Tks in advance,Thilo from Bad Godesberg in Germany.

beachboy2 · 06-07-2016, 09:06 AM

Thilo,

Welcome to LQ.

What is your hardware (make & model), RAM, CPU etc?

Find Terminal and open it.

Then type each of these commands separately. Press the Enter key after each command.

With the last sudo command, you will need to also type your password (which will NOT be displayed for security) and then press Enter.

Code:

lspci

lsusb

ifconfig -a 
    
iwconfig
                                  
rfkill list all 

sudo lshw -C network

Then copy and paste the output from all these commands in your reply.

Click on “Go Advanced” and put the output in code tags (see # at top of message).

This makes it much easier for LQ members to read.

Shadow_7 · 06-07-2016, 10:03 AM

A lot of wifi chipsets require firmware. If it's not present your card wont work in a lot of cases. Otherwise install the tools needed and use them. NetworkManager is the default for many distros. For me I tend to keep it low level.

# apt-get install wireless-tools wpasupplicant

# wpa_passphrase myESSID myPASSWORD > wpa.conf
# wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -Dnl80211,wext -cwpa.conf

# dhclient -4 -v wlan0

With network manager you can use the gui in the desktop and click and point. Or use the nmtui tool on the command line.

ardvark71 · 06-07-2016, 11:54 PM

Hi Thilo...

Welcome to the forum

Please us this command instead of just "lspci"...

Code:

lspci -nnk | grep -i net -A2

It will give us more information.

Regards...

Fred Caro · 06-08-2016, 08:28 PM

'WLAN' 'wireless local area network' or wifi

Do you mean I cannot connect via wifi but can connect via wires?

There is not always support for the chip on every wireless device, following beachboy2's (amongst others) terminal suggestions will tell us which chip you have and the general network setup.

You can set up a wireless connection via the gui if you have the chip's firmware/driver in place (Not to be confused with drivers written for Windoze). The gui will still be there but it just will not work.

Fred.