Wireless problems on an Ubuntu laptop

Question

I'm new to Linux, and I'm having trouble getting wifi set up on my laptop. The laptop is a Lenovo T430, I'm running the most recent version of ubuntu, and my wireless card is an Intel Advanced-N 6205. I installed a driver using the Windows Wireless Drivers app, but I still can't connect. I've seen other people online with similar problems, but none of their solutions have worked for me. I've tried toggling the wireless button on my computer, but airplane mode is stuck on. rfkill unblock all doesn't help either. I also checked the BIOS to see if wifi was enabled or not, and it is.

~$sudo rfkill list all outputs this:
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: After trying sudo modprobe iwlwifi lshw -c net changed to:
*-network DISABLED description: Wireless interface product: Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 34 serial: 60:67:20:3d:97:90 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.16.0-31-generic firmware=18.168.6.1 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn resources: irq:46 memory:f1c00000-f1c01fff

lsmod output:

uas 23159 0 usb_storage 66545 1 uas arc4 12608 2 iwldvm 232283 0 mac80211 652718 1 iwldvm iwlwifi 179412 1 iwldvm cfg80211 494330 3 iwlwifi,mac80211,iwldvm snd_hda_codec_hdmi 47548 1 snd_hda_codec_realtek 73089 1 snd_hda_codec_generic 68937 1 snd_hda_codec_realtek rfcomm 69509 0 bnep 19624 2 bluetooth 446409 10 bnep,rfcomm 6lowpan_iphc 18702 1 bluetooth snd_hda_intel 30469 3 intel_rapl 18783 0 snd_hda_controller 31056 1 snd_hda_intel x86_pkg_temp_thermal 14205 0 intel_powerclamp 18823 0 coretemp 13441 0 kvm_intel 143590 0 snd_hda_codec 139682 5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller snd_hwdep 17698 1 snd_hda_codec kvm 452043 1 kvm_intel crct10dif_pclmul 14307 0 nls_iso8859_1 12713 1 snd_pcm 104112 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller crc32_pclmul 13133 0 ghash_clmulni_intel 13230 0 uvcvideo 81073 0 aesni_intel 152552 0 videobuf2_vmalloc 13216 1 uvcvideo videobuf2_memops 13362 1 videobuf2_vmalloc aes_x86_64 17131 1 aesni_intel videobuf2_core 59104 1 uvcvideo lrw 13286 1 aesni_intel gf128mul 14951 1 lrw v4l2_common 15681 1 videobuf2_core glue_helper 13990 1 aesni_intel videodev 153793 3 uvcvideo,v4l2_common,videobuf2_core ablk_helper 13597 1 aesni_intel cryptd 20359 3 ghash_clmulni_intel,aesni_intel,ablk_helper media 21903 2 uvcvideo,videodev joydev 17393 0 serio_raw 13483 0 thinkpad_acpi 81027 1 nvram 14411 1 thinkpad_acpi snd_seq_midi 13564 0 snd_seq_midi_event 14899 1 snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi 30876 1 snd_seq_midi ndiswrapper 283985 0 lpc_ich 21093 0 snd_seq 63074 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi i915 905954 4 snd_seq_device 14497 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi wmi 19193 0 snd_timer 29562 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq snd 79468 18 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,thinkpad_acpi,snd_seq_device shpchp 37047 0 mei_me 19696 0 drm_kms_helper 61574 1 i915 drm 311018 6 i915,drm_kms_helper i2c_algo_bit 13413 1 i915 parport_pc 32741 0 video 20128 1 i915 mac_hid 13227 0 mei 87875 1 mei_me soundcore 15047 2 snd,snd_hda_codec ppdev 17671 0 lp 17759 0 parport 42348 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc e1000e 226396 0 sdhci_pci 23301 0 sdhci 43685 1 sdhci_pci psmouse 106561 0 ahci 34062 3 ptp 19395 1 e1000e libahci 32424 1 ahci pps_core 19382 1 ptp

Answer 1

What windows driver did you use ndiswrapper -l that card is supported in the kernel. If there isn't a wireless switch do echo "blacklist ideapad_laptop" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ideapad.conf and reboot to see if it is enabled. Then I will help to get the kernel drivers going again

Edit: to remove the ndiswrapper version sudo ndiswrapper -r netwsw00 Reboot and post the results of rfkill list all and lshw -c net

Edit Is that a wifi switch between #1 and #8 in the bottom picture(right side view), does moving the switch change rfkill list all results?

echo "blacklist ndiswrapper" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper.conf

reboot and see if the block exists and we can remove ideapad.conf sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/ideapad.conf

Answer 2

Yesterday I dismantled my T430 (running Ubuntu 19.10 LTS) for cleaning purposes, and in the process, something must have happened that triggered the wireless capabilities to stop working.

After much research and messing with different commands, I verified that the wireless card WAS being picked up by the computer, and it was on. However, upon doing rfkill list all I discovered that my Wireless LAN was hard blocked. This meant that something hardware-wise was interrupting.

I remembered that there is a small switch on the back-right side of the laptop, near the SD card slot that hardware-switches wireless connectivity. The switch was on, so I SHOULD have been getting internet, but I tried flicking it to the opposite side, which of course changed nothing, but then returning it back to ON (which shows green by the left side of the switch) turned wifi on right away and I'm back up and running.

So, my solution recommendation is try messing with that hardware switch a bit if you run into this issue. It fixed the problem for me.