Slackware 14.2 install. no Network interfaces detected/loaded
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I have four other Distros booting off this laptop and in most cases, ethernet and wifi hardware were installed successfully on initial build.
With Debian, there was no firmware to be loaded for the wifi after installation. I resolved by downloading iwlwifi-8265-ucode-22.361476.0 to /lib/firmware.
I repeated this procedure for slackware after install and noted that the /lib/firmware folder has numerous firmware files including multiple iwlwifi files already.
However in the case of slackware, this is the first experience where I have brought up interfaces via IP LINK and only found the loopback address configured in Slackware. No ethernet or wifi. (I used the full 6.5 gig install)
Ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
bash-4.3#
I noted after running dmsg that there were no iwlwifi messages about loading firmware for the wifi.
I'm at a loss so far as the Manual in my readings thus far has assumed that firmware modules for the network devices are detected and installed, but in my case there seems to be no detection of the hardware at all outside of lspci identifying generic Intel devices.
Based on your lspci output, you have a pretty new system and 14.2 is old enough that it doesn't recognize all the hardware (since it lists many device IDs without the proper names). Even though -current is a development version for the next stable release, that might be a better option to get things working properly.
Alternatively, you could also install a newer kernel and it might resolve your problems.
14.2 is the latest stable release, but it is a couple of years old. There's stuff in --Current being tested for the next Slackware release that will not be ported to 14.2.
Have you tested with a wired ethernet connection or just with wireless? If not, test with a wired connection and let us know what happens.
Slackware 14.2 is the stable and more conservative version of Slackware and has an older kernel. Even if you update your Slackware 14.2 installation, you'll still get the 4.4.X branch (4.4.115). ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/slackware/s.../ChangeLog.txt
bassmadrigal advised you to either get a new kernel on your actual Slackware 14.2 or move to Slackware -current in order to get your rather new hardware working. These are your only options ATM.
Slackware -current has already the kernel 4.14.21 in the updates: ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/slackware/s.../ChangeLog.txt
Last edited by abga; 02-25-2018 at 09:49 PM.
Reason: typo Ethernet instead of WiFi
bassmadrigal advised you to either get a new kernel on your actual Slackware 14.2 or move to Slackware -current in order to get your rather new hardware working. These are your only options ATM.
Slackware -current has already the kernel 4.14.21 in the updates: ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/slackware/s.../ChangeLog.txt
Thanks for all the responses. I would like to try out the slackware64-current option given this Dell is so new. Newbie issue though. I've gone to several mirrors and it appears i have to create the ISO vs. download and burn to USB drive. I tried following the instructions in the README.TXT
(ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/slackware/s...nux/README.TXT)
i'm getting errors using xorriso. Most likely because I've not done this before and am not customizing the commands to enter. Is there a guide on how to create an ISO from an FTP mirror? Tried searching but what i found didn't seem to fit my need.
Slackware-Current64 installed. Has solved the initial problem of detecting devices.
Code:
ip link
: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether a4:4c:c8:74:80:46 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 60:f6:77:af:b8:5b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
New problem however. After starting the KDE GUI, NetworkManager, which i chose during installation shows available wifi networks. I choose the network to connect and get KDEwallet and ESSID password. I enter the password and the window prompts disappear but the wifi notification symbol in the task bar retains the ? symbol over the wifi graphic. Hovering the mouse over it gets a message "Network Manager not running"
I followed the instructions on the Slack wiki to enable NM on boot. command is accepted in Terminal but after reboot, no change. Initially, NM appears to be running but after entering the wifi password for the network i wish to join, nothing happens and the wifi graphic in the task bar indicates that NM is not running. (prior it would just say "disconnected") I tried to start the service via Terminal but neither service nor systemctl commands are recognized.
iw and wpa_supplicant commands are recognized. I tried to join via that method but received errors.
Glad you finally made it! I was concerned about your Ethernet Adapter not working even with the new kernel under Slackware -current.
I'm afraid I cannot help you with NetworkManager, but for a temporary fix I would advise you to follow this post for the manual WiFi configuration: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post5802633
- use only the ip commands and disregard the ifconfig ones - I wrote both just for reference
EDIT>
- use your network specific IP addresses instead of the ones in the post!
- and you might need (don't think so) to modify the line:
/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
to
/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -D wext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
according to your driver.
Last edited by abga; 02-28-2018 at 09:28 PM.
Reason: forgot a bullet
New problem however. After starting the KDE GUI, NetworkManager, which i chose during installation shows available wifi networks. I choose the network to connect and get KDEwallet and ESSID password. I enter the password and the window prompts disappear but the wifi notification symbol in the task bar retains the ? symbol over the wifi graphic. Hovering the mouse over it gets a message "Network Manager not running"
I followed the instructions on the Slack wiki to enable NM on boot. command is accepted in Terminal but after reboot, no change. Initially, NM appears to be running but after entering the wifi password for the network i wish to join, nothing happens and the wifi graphic in the task bar indicates that NM is not running. (prior it would just say "disconnected") I tried to start the service via Terminal but neither service nor systemctl commands are recognized.
iw and wpa_supplicant commands are recognized. I tried to join via that method but received errors.
any suggestions?
I'm going to caveat this by saying I don't use Network Manager...
First, we should make sure /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager is executable. If it isn't, it won't start during bootup. The easiest way to do that is running ls -l on it.
Code:
ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager
It should have an output like the following. Note the red Xs. If yours has that, then it's executable. If not, you'll want to run chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager to make it executable.
Code:
jbhansen@craven-moorhead:~$ ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2674 Oct 28 00:25 /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager
Once it is executable, we should check to make sure it's running:
Code:
/etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager status
If it states it isn't running, change status to start and run the command again. Then check the status again and hopefully it reads:
Code:
NetworkManager is currently running
From there, hopefully the gui icon will work properly, but if it doesn't, we can address that. If it doesn't work, can you please provide the output of the following commands?
Code:
/etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager status
ps -ef | grep Network
iwconfig
Also, it will help the readability of your posts if you put console output within [code][/code] tags.
Glad you finally made it! I was concerned about your Ethernet Adapter not working even with the new kernel under Slackware -current.
I'm afraid I cannot help you with NetworkManager, but for a temporary fix I would advise you to follow this post for the manual WiFi configuration: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post5802633
- use only the ip commands and disregard the ifconfig ones - I wrote both just for reference
EDIT>
- use your network specific IP addresses instead of the ones in the post!
- and you might need (don't think so) to modify the line:
/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
to
/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -D wext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
according to your driver.
Thx for this.
I re-traced my manual connection steps using wpa_supplicant
This is what i get after running the last command:
From there, hopefully the gui icon will work properly, but if it doesn't, we can address that. If it doesn't work, can you please provide the output of the following commands?
Code:
/etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager status
ps -ef | grep Network
iwconfig
Also, it will help the readability of your posts if you put console output within [code][/code] tags.
Thx.
NM still failed as previously described. The status commands on run on bootup and current status after boot confirmed NM service was up and running.
Code:
bash-4.4# ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2674 Feb 11 20:08 /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager
bash-4.4# /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager status
NetworkManager is currently running
After selecting the desired WiFi network via the GUI interface and it's fail:
Code:
bash-4.4# /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager status
NetworkManager is not running.
bash-4.4# ps -ef | grep Network
root 1825 1736 0 09:31 pts/0 00:00:00 grep Network
bash-4.4# iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.22 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=22 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on
eth0 no wireless extensions.
lo no wireless extensions.
Well, there seems to be a disconnect there, because in the first command, it shows it's running, but in the second series of commands, it isn't running.
I would try opening up a new command prompt that you can monitor and then, as root, run the following. It will prevent Network Manager from running as a daemon and should print messages to the console. This will help aid in any troubleshooting if it's exiting prematurely.
Code:
NetworkManager -d
Once you have it running in that console, try and use the GUI again and see what happens.
wlan0 remains UP but shows not connected to any network.
Thx
wext has been replaced by nl80211 & cfg80211 & mac80211, but still kept for compatibility (not sure if it's still enabled in the Slackware -current kernel). I advised you to use:
and only substitute that with wext if it's failing.
Note that in my instructions I'm appending the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf with:
Code:
/usr/sbin/wpa_passphrase ESSID PASSWORD | tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
If you have some garbage there, left by your previous WiFi configuration tries, please clean the file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and leave only these two lines in the header before issuing the command from above:
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