Hey guys, this chromebook with mint 18 was working with no issues.

I hadn't used it for a few days, and when i booted it back up, it will not connect to any wifi network. The icon is now 2 arrows and an 'x', and if i try to connect it tells me im instantly disconnected.

This chromebook does not have an ethernet connection, and i do not own a usb to ethernet adapter.

is there anything i can do to try and get it to reload the wifi card without an internet connection? Also i think the card may have a problem, because kali linux is also installed along side mint, and its doing the same thing.


Not sure what would cause it, i have not dropped it or anything.

Some laptops have a physical wifi on/off switch on the outside of the case. If yours has one, maybe it was accidentally turned off.

You can open a terminal and run the command:

rfkill list

The output might look something like this:

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

If soft blocked is yes for the wireless, some kind of software has turned off your wifi.
If hard blocked is yes for the wireless, then it could well be an external switch on your computer that got turned off.

HTH

i should have put that i did rfkill, nothing was blocked, and i ran the command to unblock everything just in case.

Because this seems to be a hardware problem (both Mint and Kali suddenly lost wifi use), if this were my computer, I would remove the wifi card, use canned air on the socket and card contacts, and make certain the card is securely replaced. Poor contact between the card and socket is probably not the problem, but it could be. And as long as you're careful on the inside of the laptop, it couldn't hurt.

As a stop-gap, consider getting a USB wifi dongle.

sorry to necro this thread, but i wanted to have it as a reference.

So i bought a usb dongle, and it is plug and play, shows all the available networks, but does the same exact thing as the on board. I am going to reinstall mint when i get a chance, but before I do that, is there anything else i can try?

You might take a look at the settings in your wireless router. You probably can access your wireless router by opening a web browser and go to the web address 192.168.1.1 If you can't access the router settings with your laptop WiFi then borrow a computer with a RJ-45 connector and try accessing the router with ethernet.

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Steve Stites

My router has no issues. I can't connect to ANY network, it just spins, I've done 'show password', and forgot network/reset network settings several times.

Which is weird, cause I've never seen any device save a wrong password, unless you setup a manual connection.

Rj45 is not an option as it doesn't have one, I don't own a USB to Ethernet unfortunately.