Ubuntu 17.10: Neither WiFi nor Bluetooth works

Question

Background

Going to just the normal settings application, it is clear that nothing is working with the WiFi or BT UI. The on/off switches don't work and no wifi or BT devices are visible. Thus I am having to dig deeper.

Regarding WiFi

I have an ASROCK Taichi X299 MoBo. The MoBo comes with WiFi and BT. However, it might be worth noting that in order to enable them in Windows (dual-booted system) I have to use ASROCK Network Utility (or something like that) that came on the driver install disc. I also plugged in my own dongle (which is still attached) just to see if I could get anything. Running sudo lshw -class network yields:

*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface product: Intel Corporation vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0 logical name: wlp4s0 version: 10 serial: a0:af:bd:c3:3f:52 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=4.13.0-38-generic firmware=29.610311.0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11 resources: irq:69 memory:92d00000-92d01fff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: I211 Gigabit Network Connection vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0 logical name: enp5s0 version: 03 serial: 70:85:c2:52:23:df capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=igb driverversion=5.4.0-k firmware=0. 4-1 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair resources: irq:17 memory:92c00000-92c1ffff ioport:3000(size=32) memory:92c20000-92c23fff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1f.6 bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6 logical name: enp0s31f6 version: 00 serial: 70:85:c2:52:23:dd size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=3.2.6-k duplex=full firmware=0.2-4 ip=10.0.0.199 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:50 memory:92f00000-92f1ffff *-network description: Ethernet interface physical id: 1 logical name: enx00e04c680d9c serial: 00:e0:4c:68:0d:9c size: 10Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s capabilities: ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8152 driverversion=v1.09.9 duplex=half link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s

Where the DISABLED network is the WiFi interface. Running rfkill list yields:

0: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: yes

But I have no idea how I would remove the hard block on a desktop PC. Most of what I have seen to resolve this issue is in regard to laptops that have a corresponding physical "switch". Maybe there is something in the BIOS? (But I'm still not sure what to look for)

Regarding Bluetooth

What is interesting is the output of rfkill list, as stated above, does not give any information regarding bluetooth being blocked. However, if I run lsusb, I get several entries but namely the following:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. Nano Transceiver v1.0 for Bluetooth I'm inclined to say that this is the dongle I plugged in, not the MoBo BT (which I couldn't find using lshw; though I could've missed it).

I have installed: bluez-tools, bluez, bluez-cups, bluez-dbg, bluez-obexd, bluez-tests, libbluetooth3, libbluetooth3-dbg blueman, bluetooth in Synaptic Package Manager. I installed Bluetooth Manager in Ubuntu Software in hopes it would know something I don't.

When trying to run Bluetooth Manager, I get: "Connection to BlueZ failed - Bluez daemon is not running... no bluetooth adapters detected or Bluetooth daemon was not started."

If I run sudo service bluetooth restart and check with sudo service bluetooth status, I get the following:

● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: inactive (dead) Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)

I'm not sure how to force start the service (if that is my problem).

So, I'm not sure if the WiFi/BT issues are related but I cannot get either to work. Luckily, I am hooked up via ethernet but I would like to have the option for WiFi if I ever need it and BT just because. I realize this is alot to go through so all help is appreciated, thanks!

UPDATE: I just tried a different BT dongle I had lying around and it works. I guess neither the MoBo BT or other dongle I had was supported under linux. Would still like to know if maybe they would be with an extra setup but this other dongle will work for now.

EDIT: lspci -nnk | grep 0280 -A3 output:

04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:24fb] (rev 10) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:2110] Kernel modules: iwlwifi, wl 05:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1539] (rev 03)

cat /etc/modules output:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

^ The file appears empty? should it be?

Answer 1

Although your wireless card is an Intel, we see this in your lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
ath9k_htc              77824  0
ath9k_common           36864  1 ath9k_htc
ath9k_hw              471040  2 ath9k_htc,ath9k_common
ath                    28672  3 ath9k_htc,ath9k_hw,ath9k_common
mac80211              782336  1 ath9k_htc
wl                   6447104  0
cfg80211              614400  5 wl,ath9k_htc,mac80211,ath,ath9k_common

First, the correct driver for your device is iwlwifi, not wl, which is for a Broadcom device, not Intel. Please remove it:

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -r wl

And load the correct driver:

sudo modprobe iwlwifi
sudo rfkill unblock all

If there are any errors, please post them.

Is there any improvement? Does it survive a reboot without the USB dongle inserted?

rfkill list all

EDIT: In our chat, I suggested that you look in the BIOS to see if there were wireless settings. You learned that there is a WAN Radio option that was on Auto. You changed it to Enabled and, upon reboot, the rfkill was resolved and the wireless is now working.