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-   -   Initial Linux installation issues - WiFi is not showing up and also getting a notification about "software rendering mode" (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/initial-linux-installation-issues-wifi-is-not-showing-up-and-also-getting-a-notification-about-software-rendering-mode-4175649856/)

xxxindigo 03-09-2019 09:14 AM

Initial Linux installation issues - WiFi is not showing up and also getting a notification about "software rendering mode"
 
I'm trying to install Linux Mint 18.3 on a new HP 15 series laptop,

when I open up the live OS to install the first thing that popped up was

"Running in software rendering mode"

"Cinnamon is currently running without video hardware acceleration and, as a result, you may observe much higher than normal CPU usage. There could be a problem with your drivers or some other issue. For the best experience, it is recommended that you only use this mode for troubleshooting purposes.

I was going to use the live OS to google some answers but noticed that the WiFi wasn't showing up it was only giving me the option of a wired connection. Not sure what to do, any help would be great thanks.

jsbjsb001 03-09-2019 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xxxindigo (Post 5972048)
I'm trying to install Linux Mint 18.3 on a new HP 15 series laptop,

when I open up the live OS to install the first thing that popped up was

"Running in software rendering mode"

"Cinnamon is currently running without video hardware acceleration and, as a result, you may observe much higher than normal CPU usage. There could be a problem with your drivers or some other issue. For the best experience, it is recommended that you only use this mode for troubleshooting purposes.

I was going to use the live OS to google some answers but noticed that the WiFi wasn't showing up it was only giving me the option of a wired connection. Not sure what to do, any help would be great thanks.

When you say "I'm trying to install Linux Mint 18.3 on a new HP 15 series laptop", does that mean you haven't yet actually installed it?

I suspect because you are using a "live system", the proper video drivers are not installed, thus it doesn't seem surprising you're getting that message. I'd suggest you actually try and install it, and if it does install, then see if you get the same message. If you do, open up a terminal window and post the results of the following command in CODE tags;

Code:

lspci -nnk | grep -i -A3 VGA
By the way, the latest version of Linux Mint is 19.1 (Tessa), so you may want to install that instead.

Sudharshans 03-15-2019 12:17 PM

Hi,
I am running Mint 19.1. It allows me to use only wired network. I have changed the Wifi card and still not recognising it. I tried to go into network connections and set it up and is not showing up. Tried a usb wifi that didn't work either. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks

jsbjsb001 03-15-2019 12:20 PM

Post the output of the following command in CODE tags, and we'll go from there;

Code:

lspci -nnk | grep -i -A3 net

Sudharshans 03-15-2019 12:24 PM

Thank you for the quick response. Please see below

00:1f.6 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V [8086:15b8]
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V [1043:8672]
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
Kernel modules: e1000e
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP108 [GeForce GT 1030] [10de:1d01] (rev a1)
--
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM43217 802.11b/g/n [14e4:43a9] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM43217 802.11b/g/n [14e4:05e9]
Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: bcma

I also looked in Driver manager and the only driver showing there is the graphics card and xserver. Using the nvidia driver.

jsbjsb001 03-15-2019 12:33 PM

I did say to use CODE tags, as it's much easier to read that way, please USE them in future.

From your not easy to read output, it seems that the system has detected and loaded drivers for your ethernet and wifi controllers (which is good news). But does your wifi card have an IP address?

Post the results of the following command, and USE CODE tags this time;

Code:

ifconfig
or if the above doesn't work;

Code:

ip a
But NO NEED FOR BOTH, just one of the above commands will do.

Sudharshans 03-15-2019 12:44 PM

Sorry about not using code tags. Thank you again. Result for - ifconfig

Code:

eno1: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.7  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::4735:fa47:a79d:35b  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 04:92:26:c0:6f:d6  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 37652  bytes 41476525 (41.4 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 26208  bytes 3099016 (3.0 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 16  memory 0xf7300000-f7320000 

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 2422  bytes 258419 (258.4 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 2422  bytes 258419 (258.4 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

This is a custom made desktop. The wifi card I am using is - Tenda wireless N300 PCI express adaptor. Model no W322E

jsbjsb001 03-15-2019 12:54 PM

Anyway, your ethernet controller has an IP address, but your wifi does not.

Have you tried disconnecting your ethernet controller (as in the network connection, not the hardware itself), then tried connecting your wifi?
Is your ethernet connected to your router?
Do you want to connect your wifi to your router?
Why do you/do you want to have both your ethernet and wifi connected at the same time?

Sudharshans 03-15-2019 02:31 PM

Hi,
I have tried physically disconnecting the ethernet and now disconnected in network connection. And tried to connect the wifi.

The ethernet is connected to the router through the electric socket using an extender.

I normally use wifi and I have borrowed my daughters ethernet wire.

My wife uses my old PC running on mint 17.1 where the wifi is working without any problem.

I would like my wifi to connect to the home broadband. I couldn't initially install any linux distros using wifi. Took it to the hardware shop who isolated the problem to wifi. Finally managed it only by using ethernet. That is wifi I had to change the wifi card. New card arrived only today. That is not working either.

jsbjsb001 03-16-2019 01:23 AM

Something I missed before; it doesn't even seem to be giving you a network interface for your wifi. This explains why it has no IP address. While support seems to have improved in recent years, Broadcom network controllers have been quite problematic on Linux in past years. I was thinking this could be due to missing firmware, and some searches I done for you seem to suggest that could be the reason for this.

As a first step, check to see if you have the linux-firmware package installed, if not, install it, then see if an interface comes up with ifconfig. If ifconfig doesn't list one (for your wifi controller), then we will need to dig deeper. In which case post the output of the following command using CODE tags if you do;

Code:

dmesg | grep -i firmware
If the above command doesn't turn up anything useful, then try just typing dmesg instead, but ONLY if the above command doesn't give anything useful (related to your wifi controller).

xxxindigo 03-16-2019 02:28 PM

I thought I needed 18.3 for specific software but it turns out the software has been updated and 19.1 works fine on this computer, no issues. Thanks for your help guys.

Sudharshans 03-16-2019 03:13 PM

Hi,
Thank you again.
When I checked on the software manager the linux-firmware seems to be installed.

Code:

Package - linux-firmware
Version - 1.173.3
Size -    280.9 MB of disk space freed

The output for ifconfig

Code:

eno1: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.7  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::4735:fa47:a79d:35b  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 04:92:26:c0:6f:d6  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 14155  bytes 15415095 (15.4 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 9236  bytes 1104670 (1.1 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 16  memory 0xf7300000-f7320000 

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 1523  bytes 133705 (133.7 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1523  bytes 133705 (133.7 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Output for - dmesg | grep -i firmware - turned out many errors but gave a website which said the content is taken down for relicensing. Fierst the output.

Code:

[    0.028000] Spectre V2 : Enabling Restricted Speculation for firmware calls
[  48.691044] b43 bcma0:1: Direct firmware load for b43/ucode30_mimo.fw failed with error -2
[  48.691049] b43 bcma0:1: Direct firmware load for b43/ucode30_mimo.fw failed with error -2
[  48.730259] b43 bcma0:1: Direct firmware load for b43-open/ucode30_mimo.fw failed with error -2
[  48.730267] b43 bcma0:1: Direct firmware load for b43-open/ucode30_mimo.fw failed with error -2
[  48.730268] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode30_mimo.fw" not found
[  48.730269] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode30_mimo.fw" not found
[  48.730270] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

As it suggests in the website I used this command (lspci -nn -d 14e4:) to look for the model which is (lspci -nn -d 14e4:)

Code:

05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM43217 802.11b/g/n [14e4:43a9] (rev 01)
Now the website says that BCM43217 is supported but I cannot see a download on the download table

Please correct me if I have missed something or am I looking in the wrong place? Once again thank you for your patience.

jsbjsb001 03-17-2019 01:07 AM

As I suspected; it cannot load the firmware, as your output is telling you. I'd be willing to bet that's the reason you are not getting any network interface for it. Did you goto the website listed below, to try and download the firmware?

Code:

[  48.730270] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.
Please do as it says above, then see if you get an interface for it.

Sudharshans 03-17-2019 10:41 AM

Thank you and the problem is solved. For anyone else facing similar situation this is what I did.

When I went to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/...devicefirmware it says that old content is in http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.ne...s/Drivers/b43/ so I went there.

As they suggested i used
Quote:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
to install the firmware. Didn't work but when I restarted the computer. It worked a trick.

Thank you for your patience and help with this.


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