new install of Mint 19.1 will not connect to either wifi or ethernet
 

PROBLEM SOLVED here is how I did it: https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspo...ltek.html#ID10

Hello all, I can not get online with my newly installed Mint 19.1 Yesterday I installed Mint on my old laptop successfully. I did so with a USB stick. I wiped the drive clean of windows 7 and made it a Mint machine. Today I partitioned the hard drive on my desktop for dual boot window 10 and Mint. Both OS's work but the Mint will not connect to either WiFi or Ethernet. I installed Mint on my Lenovo 310S ideacentre desktop with the same USB stick as with my laptop. What should I do now? On the advice of a helping individual I am re-posting this here in hopes that more feedback will be forthcoming.
dc.901 said- <Does the OS (Mint 19) see the Wireless adapter?
Can you open a terminal and type in "sudo lspci -v", review the output and see if you can find wireless adapter>.
I did that and I see both a wireless network adapter and ethernet controller. I have tried to get online using both. Neither worked for me. Now what?

Try looking for a driver for you wireless card and install it.
Once you get the driver installed, reboot.

I just happened to be checking on the drivers when I thought to check email for solutions to my issue. I opened Driver Manager. It says Drivers can not be installed. Connect to the internet or insert the linux mint installation usb stick.
Well, I can't get online and the usb stick does nothing. How do I tell the computer to look for drivers on the USB stick?
I inserted the USB stick and clicked on the driver manager to search for drivers. All it did was try to get online. A window opened that said- Failed to download repository info. In the detail is says Mint etc, does not have release file. I have no idea what that means. Do you? I am about to attempt re-installing Mint. Is that a good idea?

Thank a lot for taking some time to help me. It is much appreciated.

Re-installing Mint probably won't change anything:-

Use the device that you are using to post this post to find the driver for your wifi card.

Run this command and tell me what card you have and I'll try to find the driver for you.

This looks like a double post:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ed-4175650670/

It is network controller realtec rtl8821ce 802.11acpcie Wireless network adapter

I found out that it may not work with LM 19-
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=281231

Here's the driver here:
https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce

Wow. This is way beyond the stuff I usually do on a computer. I am not sure if I am up to it or not. I am willing to give it a try if it's not going to destroy my computer. It's already messed up enough as is.

Just to be sure I know what this is all about- so I can enter data into the terminal window and that will install a driver? I don't need to download a file?

Yeah you do need to download the file if you want to install the driver.

Than you will have to unzip the file and than read the "README" file to install the driver.

OR you can try installing Ubuntu and see if the wifi works out of the box with Ubuntu 18.04:-

After downloading the file how do I get it onto Mint? I am downloading to my laptop. I suppose a cd or dvd would work?? I have just one USB stick and it has Mint on it. Can I still write to that USB stick and not mess up the Mint data? I really want to get Mint to work. I have had Ubuntu for a long time on the laptop. I like Mint a lot better.. when it works. It works fine on my laptop.

Just to be clear- I have a Lenovo desktop that I have partitioned the hard drive for dual boot of Win 10 and Mint 19.1 That is the machine that Mint will not work on.

Cheers and thanks for the help

No you won't need a CD or a DVD.

The only way that I know of to carry the driver over to Mint is via a usb stick.

If you don't have another usb stick than you may want to pick one up.

Well I am done for today then.. unless they have USB sticks at Safeway. I'm getting cross eyed and have a headache from staring at screens all day. So thanks for your help.

Caio

You're Welcome-:)

Since you already have Mint installed you can remove the Mint .iso from the usb stick. Than, you can carry the rtl8821ce driver and it's folder over to your Mint install.

That way you won't have to purchase another usb stick.

Double posting it a no no. I don't know how that happened. I did post in the newbie section at first. I was told to post here for more traffic. That is how it happened. Should I remove a post?

I just bought a new USB stick and succeeded in doing this-
as you can probably tell this is the status of the machine that is giving me problems getting online. Will installing wifi drivers solve my issues?

$ sudo lspci -v
[sudo] password for treblemakerdave:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1576
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1577
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 24
Capabilities: [40] Secure device <?>
Capabilities: [64] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/4 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [74] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable+ Fixed+

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 98e4 (rev da) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 34
Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=8M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=256]
Memory at feb00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [48] Vendor Specific Information: Len=08 <?>
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [270] #19
Capabilities: [2b0] Address Translation Service (ATS)
Capabilities: [2c0] Page Request Interface (PRI)
Capabilities: [2d0] Process Address Space ID (PASID)
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
Kernel modules: amdgpu

00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 15b3
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 36
Memory at feb64000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [48] Vendor Specific Information: Len=08 <?>
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 157b
Flags: fast devsel

00:02.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 157c (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 26
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: fea00000-feafffff
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [c0] Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Capabilities: [c8] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable+ Fixed+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [270] #19
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:02.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 157c (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 27
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: fe900000-fe9fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000f0800000-00000000f08fffff
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [c0] Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Capabilities: [c8] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable+ Fixed+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [270] #19
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:03.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 157b
Flags: fast devsel

00:08.0 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1578
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
Memory at f0900000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128K]
Memory at fe800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Memory at feb6f000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Memory at feb6a000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [50] MSI-X: Enable- Count=2 Masked-
Capabilities: [5c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable+ Fixed+
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features

00:09.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 157d
Flags: fast devsel

00:09.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 157a
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 364f
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 37
Memory at feb60000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:10.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 20) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
Subsystem: Lenovo FCH USB XHCI Controller
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at feb68000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [70] MSI: Enable- Count=1/8 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=8 Masked-
Capabilities: [a0] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 4b) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
Subsystem: Lenovo FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 19
I/O ports at f140 [size=8]
I/O ports at f130 [size=4]
I/O ports at f120 [size=8]
I/O ports at f110 [size=4]
I/O ports at f100 [size=16]
Memory at feb6d000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [70] SATA HBA v1.0
Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel modules: ahci

00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 49) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Lenovo FCH USB EHCI Controller
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
Memory at feb6c000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [e4] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00e0
Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 4b)
Subsystem: Lenovo FCH SMBus Controller
Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel
Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c_piix4, sp5100_tco

00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 11)
Subsystem: Lenovo FCH LPC Bridge
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b0
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b1
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b2
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b3
Flags: fast devsel
Capabilities: [f0] Secure device <?>

00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b4
Flags: fast devsel
Kernel driver in use: fam15h_power
Kernel modules: fam15h_power

00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b5
Flags: fast devsel

01:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
Subsystem: Lenovo RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 255
I/O ports at e000 [disabled] [size=256]
Memory at fea00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [148] Device Serial Number 00-e0-4c-ff-fe-c8-21-01
Capabilities: [158] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [160] L1 PM Substates
Capabilities: [170] Precision Time Measurement
Capabilities: [17c] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0003 Rev=1 Len=054 <?>

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
Subsystem: Lenovo RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 32
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Memory at fe900000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Memory at f0800000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 01
Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Count=4 Masked-
Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 01-00-00-00-68-4c-e0-00
Capabilities: [170] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

I am uncertain about what to download. Is this the correct file?

https://aur.archlinux.org/rtl8821ce-dkms-git.git (read-only)

Or this hypertext link?

rtl8821ce-dkms-git

I just don't understand how the user repository works. I want to download the drivers for my wifi, write it to a USB stick and then transfer it to the Mint install on my desktop. I said that to remind myself what I am doing and to tell you as well.

Only a Moderator can remove a post.

Try not to double post if at all possible.

Download the zip file from here and put it on your usb stick.

https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce

Go over to your Mint machine with the fresh install that you're having trouble getting the wifi to work and plug the usb stick in.
Cut and paste that rtl8821ce master.zip file into your Downloads directory.

Unzip the file and than locate the rtl8821ce master file and open it.
Read the "ReadME" file for the instructions on how to install the driver.

Make sure dkms is installed and follow the Ubuntu instructions to install the driver.:)

I went to the gethub site. I see a list of files but nothing says zip. Also about the dkms. Must I also download that and save it to the USB stick?

Click on the green box that says 'clone or download'

Just find out if dkms is installed first. To do that run this in the terminal:

Thanks brother. I will have to sign off on this machine first. I'm on the window os of the same machine mint is on.

Do I unzip the file before I save it to USB?
I went ahead and unzipped it to the USB stick.

No don't unzip it until you transfer it to your Linux Mint installation.

Oh oh.. to late. I unzipped it directly to the usb stick. Now what do I do?

Re-download it to your Windows system. Than cut it and paste it to your usb stick.

I know how to cut and paste text. How do I go about doing that with this file?

I have re-downloaded it. Now about that cut and paste thing?

I went to the downloads folder and dragged the unzipped file to the usb. I think I have there now. I now have two files on the USB stick. One says master the other master.zip. I recon I use the master.

Cut the file "rtl8821ce master.zip" and paste it to your usb stick.
Boot into Mint and unzip it.
After you unzip it it will than change to rtl8821ce master click on that and read the "README" file.

Run this command and post back the results that the terminal returns please.

And hit Enter.

A lot of info appeared when I put the dpkg command in terminal. What am I looking for?

If you want to see the whole report I will have to write it to USB for transfer.

If it returned a lot of information than dkms is most likely installed.
Thanks for running that command.

It's getting late, almost 2 o'clock a.m. here. I'll have to go to bed soon.

Where in the world is it 2am right now.? Its 930 PM here in WA state. I dont want to impose on you and keep you awake. I will follow your instructions and go from there

One more thing if you are still up. I guess the file master zip is the one as you said. How do I unzip it?

Right click on it and open it with the program that Mint uses to unzip it.

If that fails open the terminal cd to the directory that the master.zip is in and type:

and hit Enter.

Where you able to unzip that file?

Going to bed real soon-
I'm on the east coast so it's almost 2 a.m. here.

I'm gonna keep muddling through here. No need to reply now but I will post this for talk tomorrow.. if you are into that.
I guess that I unzip in the terminal. I did a search and was told to do that. The window where the file is found has a extract option. Seems I remember you said to do it in terminal. I will look back in this thread to review all that you've told me to do. Hopefully I won't do anything stupid.
It's not the easiest thing to converse on this site. I have to go to email to see if there's been a reply. Sleep well braddah. Thank you !!!

Yes. Its unzipped.

Good:-

Now click on that folder and read the "README" file. That will tell you how to install the driver.

I downloaded that file to my pc too and have already read the instructions. Follow the instruction for Ubuntu.
Let me know if you have trouble.

Yes still have problems. Cant get online.I have a rehearsal for the next few hours. I just don't know enough to make it work. Im having a hard time following instructions. Thank you for being patient. Cheers.. gotta go play music. That's something I can do... sort of ��

It could be as simple as a typo. In the following <unzip rtl8821ce master.zip> I don't know what the third letter or number that it.. rtl8821ce. Is it a l. Sure looks that way on this screen. It looked like a large number one last night. In any case I did try to follow the 'readme' instructions. I think I failed though.
I unzipped the file but the instructions said to open terminal in an application. I don't know what that means. Today as I look around in Mint I can't find what I did yesterday.

Perhaps I should just choose another version of Linux. Yesterday I tried another thing. I bought a USB wifi adapter on the advice of someone on the other thread I started. It too requires downloading a driver, although one guy said that the driver I need might already be on Mint. If it is I don't know enough to find and activate it.

The README file says:
## Installation of Driver
Make sure you have a proper build environment and `dkms` installed.

### Ubuntu
```
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential dkms

Run that command in the terminal.

Than run the next command but make sure your in the directory with the source code-


In order to install the driver open a terminal in the directory with the source code and execute the following command:
```
sudo ./dkms-install.sh

I have not been able to find what I did yesterday on my Mint machine. What does 'open a terminal in the directory with the source code mean? I know how to open a terminal easy enough but the phrase that confuses me is 'open terminal in the directory'. Whats that mean?
First things first.. where's the extracted files? Do I need to do this over again- plug in USB stick with driver on it and unzip?
I don't know how you put up with a bone head like me but thanks for doing so. :)

While looking for the driver file I saw this crash report. It reads:
mar 22 _usr _bin_ bt-adapter.1000.crash
Does this mean anything?

I plugged the USB stick back into the troublesome Mint machine and now I can see the files- the master zip. Were the files not stored on the Mint machine?

Where it "says make sure your in the directory with the source code" does that mean having the terminal window on top of the window that contains the source code? Before I start entering commands I want to know if I am doing it correctly.. this time.

sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential dkms[/QUOTE]

I just did this. It shows I have the latest linux headers 4.15.0-29-generic
dkms is newest version.

<Some packages can not be installed, etc etc (because I could not get online)
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
build-essential depends g++ (>= 4:7.2) but it not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.>

What does it all mean. Shall I persist in trying to make this work or should I find another distro?
When I enter sudo <./dkms-install.sh> it says command not found.

It's saying command not found because you are not in the directory where the dkms-install.sh script is located at.

You don't have g++ installed so this is not going to work.

I thought Mint came with g++

It would be easier to install the driver for the usb dongle that you purchased.
OR> install another distro.

It would be easier to install the driver for the usb dongle that you purchased.
OR> install another distro.[/QUOTE]

Installing another distro is the direction I am thinking of going. I think you recommended Ubuntu. Any particular version. The latest one I'd expect but maybe not given the possible problem of it not having drivers for my new machine. What do you think?