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I recently bought a HP Envy 6-1215tx that came with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS pre-installed.

I have since cleaned my SSD and HDD and installed 12.10 and Windows 8.

Unfortunately my laptop's wifi isn't supported by the normal Ubuntu releases. The only version that will work is the pre-installed version.

I don't have a recovery disk.

Can the HP version of 12.04 be downloaded? Or is there something I can do in the terminal to restore it?

I didn't do anything to prepare a system recovery before I cleaned the original version off the hard drive (I assumed that I didn't need to as Ubuntu is opensource - I was unaware my computer had a special version).

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Unfortunately my laptop's wifi isn't supported by the normal Ubuntu releases. The only version that will work is the pre-installed version.

This is a contradiction. If it worked before on a previous installed Ubuntu it will always work (bugs excluded ;-) ). The manufacturer probably pre-installed something extra you failed to install with your installation.

Can the HP version of 12.04 be downloaded?

No. Well yes, but the HP website points you to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop So you would still download the version you claim does not have a working wifi. So there is no HP version...

Or is there something I can do in the terminal to restore it?

If wifi is the problem, fix wifi. Re-installing a complete OS is (in my eyes) a waste of time. If needed please create a new question and, amongst others, include information about the chipset used for this wireless. But before you do that first have a look at some of the topics on AU regarding HP and wifi (cuz you will get your question closed as a duplicate):

  1. Wireless problems on HP
  2. in case it is a Broadcom BCM4311: How can I get Broadcom BCM4311 Wireless working?
  3. Wireless not working on HP pavilion dm5
  4. Why is Wifi not working on my HP laptop?

These show 2 general problems:

  1. the wifi could be switched off due to a hardware switch.
  2. the driver might be a BCM4311 and that needs to some extra installation.

It might also be solved blacklisting rt2800pci (see the links above on how to do that). But there is a lack on details on the problem to actually help :)


In short: the version that worked probably had a module blacklisted and you did not know it was blacklisted and that is why your installation does not work.

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Just overwrite the drive with Ubuntu 12.10 on it with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Sometimes 12.10 doesn't work as well as 12.04. Just overwrite it.

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  • 12.10 = 12.04. If 12.10 gets an update for a wireless driver 12.04 will also get it.
    – Rinzwind
    Mar 24, 2013 at 10:29

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