networking disabled on laptop running ubuntu 16.10

[M. Fioretti]

On 2016-11-10 18:07, Colin Law wrote:

> I have more than once fixed a problem by upgrading mother board
> firmware

I spent more than a few hours in October exactly trying to update the 
firmware from Windows,
following point by point the instructions on HP websites, without 
success.
I can't find the notes I took in those moments now, but it simply did 
not work.
It would stop at some point complaining that some file was missing/had 
not
been downloaded, but that file was nowhere to be found on HP website, or 
in bug
reports. Not solved ones, anyway.

So, I'd be more inclined to say that upgrading (OK, trying to upgrade) 
the
firmware is exactly what CAUSED my current problems (if my memory 
weren't almost
sure, but not really 100% sure, that networking on Ubuntu kept working 
for
some time after those attempts). In any case, upgrading the firmware did 
not
work, and until a version newer than what I tried in October isn't 
released,
that road seems closed.

In a nutshell, I'm trying other roads exactly because I did mess around 
a LOT
with firmware, and went nowhere. Sorry if I didn't make that clear

> The fact that the problem appeared following a s/w upgrade

No, sorry. I did write the opposite: "when they both stopped working
without apparent cause (e.g. sw upgrades)".

> In another post you said you had re-typed an error message rather than
> copying/pasting. It is far better to copy/paste as sometimes the devil
> is in the detail. You can copy from the terminal using Ctrl+Shift+C.

I know that. But for relatively short strings like those, it was much 
faster
to go manually than copy and paste and save, then move the text file via
USB key. Theoretically, because in this very moment I have found out 
that
when I plug in a surely working USB key nothing happens at all, it is 
not
detected anymore.

> Meanwhile it may be worth looking in syslog at the bootup sequence to
> see if there are any networking errors reported.

only relevant thing I *recognize* is a NetworkManager line that says:

nm_device_get_device_type: assertion 'NMIS_DEVICE (self)' failed

since I can't even move files via USB as I hoped, it seems the only
way to show you complete syslog output is by photographing the screen,
which obviously sucks. Any better ideas?

Thanks.

Marco
-- 
http://mfioretti.com