I installed Linux Mint 22.1 Xia and Wi-Fi don't work

[Lelu]

I am new to Linux. I have Windows 10. My programs say that they can't upgrade anymore. So I installed Linux Mint 22.1 on dual boot following instruction from Youtube video from PulsarTech

. We made weird spaces in disc: root, home and swap. Root part of disc for distros. It was my first OS installation. I managed to do it. But it turns out internet don't work properly. My brother say I need to install another distro because it's an old notebook and wi-fi driver don't work. Windows say about wifi Qualcomm Atheros AR9485WB-EG Wireless Network Adapter, driver version: 3.0.2.201, physical adress (MAC) 54-27-1E-28-6E-93. What to do? Can i just reinstall driver somewhere? internet from cabel work. Which distro on wifi will work?

 

[dos2unix]

Fedora works...

$ dnf search athero
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Matched fields: name, summary
atheros-firmware.noarch Firmware for Qualcomm Atheros WiFi/Bluetooth adapters


$ ip ad
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp15s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether d8:43:ae:43:6c:99 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
altname enxd843ae436c99
inet 192.168.12.108/24 brd 192.168.12.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute enp15s0
valid_lft 598979sec preferred_lft 598979sec
inet6 2607:fb92:3001:a1d4::92b3/128 scope global dynamic noprefixroute
valid_lft 2944sec preferred_lft 2944sec
inet6 2607:fb92:3001:a1d4:da43:aeff:fe43:6c99/64 scope global dynamic noprefixroute
valid_lft 295sec preferred_lft 295sec
inet6 fdfe:5e6c:2e69:98de:da43:aeff:fe43:6c99/64 scope global dynamic noprefixroute
valid_lft 86395sec preferred_lft 46795sec
inet6 fe80::da43:aeff:fe43:6c99/64 scope link noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlp16s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 52:c9:22:ab:c0:db brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 4c:82:a9:18:84:39
altname wlx4c82a9188439

 

[Brickwizard]

Good morning, we do not often recommend YouTube vids as they are often inaccurate

from the terminal run inxi -Nn the result will tell us which wi-fi you have, [the report should have an entry similar to this
Device-2: Realtek RTL8192CU 802.11n WLAN Adapter driver: rtl8192cu] if after driver it says n/a or not installed, then come back with the first part the make and model, from that we should be able to point you to the correct drivers.

 

[Lelu]

Good morning, we do not often recommend YouTube vids as they are often inaccurate

from the terminal run inxi -Nn the result will tell us which wi-fi you have, [the report should have an entry similar to this
Device-2: Realtek RTL8192CU 802.11n WLAN Adapter driver: rtl8192cu] if after driver it says n/a or not installed, then come back with the first part the make and model, from that we should be able to point you to the correct drivers.

inxi -Nn

Network:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k
IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: 54:27:1e:28:6e:93

I manually installed this driver after googling possible solution to problems

 

[Brickwizard]

I manually installed this driver after googling possible solution to problems

well done, that is the correct driver, is everything OK now?

oh and welcome to the forums.

 

[Lelu]

well done, that is the correct driver, is everything OK now?

oh and welcome to the forums.

No. It doesn't work.

 

[Brickwizard]

No. It doesn't work.

have you enabled it with your router? [click on second icon bottom left open , select your wi-fi point click to open and add password

 

[Lelu]

It works and don't work. It shows one site then doesn't show it (can't find server, check your internet connection...). It can't install anything. So unstable connection is

 

[Brickwizard]

can you give us an example [address of a site you cannot connect to]

 

[Lelu]

can you give us an example [address of a site you cannot connect to]

It connect and then can't connect to Wikipedia for example

 

[Brickwizard]

OK I will put a call-out for @Condobloke he is our Mint22 devotee and may have more suggestions, i will do some checking around when i have a bit of spare time to see if i can find any other problems [just tried my very old A9 dongle works fine on my mint 22 test rig]

 

[Brickwizard]

ok so a couple of things to try [one at a time re set if no good before going to next one]

if laptop turn off power saver mode

in wi-fi settings try disabling IPv6

if its your own router, and you have access to the control panel look at if there is a better Chanel you can set it to, especially if your in an area with a high density of networks

there appears to be a known issue with the latest Ubuntu and its clones and Qualcomm drivers, it may be easier to try another distribution not based on Ubuntu
I suggest LMDE7 all the benefits of mint but without the Ubuntu bloat, you can run it live from a pendrive and test the Wi-Fi whilst doing so

 

[Condobloke]

I would second @Brickwizard's idea of a change to LMDE7.....Running from a pendrive/usb stick first will allow you to check that everything is working first.
LMDE7 is based on Debian, very reliable and secure

You should not need to make any spaces/partitions for it....the installer should do that for you.

 

[lomszz]

Welcome to linux side, point of note. You can test if wifi works on live usb before installing. Sometimes you need to install additional drivers through driver manager or manually depends if distro has some kind GUI tool.