SOLVED: networking disabled on laptop running ubuntu 16.04 LTS

[M. Fioretti]

On 2016-11-13 15:13, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 12 November 2016 at 18:41, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> 
> wrote:
>> a) I spent many hours in October just trying to update the firmware.
>>  without success
> 
> So here is a key problem, maybe *the* key problem, and you have
> skipped over it.
> 
> You can't do that. You *must* troubleshoot that before proceeding.

Hi Liam,

on one hand, as I said, I spent many hours in October trying to do 
exactly that,
and it led me nowhere. I simply cannot afford to continue on that 
specific road.
That laptop is 5 years old and something else may break any moment. 
Money-wise,
it would likely make more sense for me to buy a new laptop , than 
getting behind
with paid work to hunt BIOS problems, or pay somebody else to do the 
same.
I wanted to troubleshoot this disabled networking problem because it
is essential (see below) as much as for just learning/refreshing some 
notions.
But I cannot continue to go after it.

On the other, the laptop does NOT contain any data or software not fully 
backed up
elsewhere, and is not used for any "LOCAL" critical work. I's a spare 
machine still
very useful around here for Windows games, website administration, 
email, online
collaborative writing, testing server shell scripts on Linux... I'm 
aware there are
"issues", but as long as it does those things, why not use it?

This said, this morning I realized that I should not need for a while 
several
customizations I had done in July, so I managed to get an USB key with 
Ubuntu
16.04 and reinstalled it. That has fixed networking, so for now I'll 
keep using the machine
as said above. But I DO appreciate and thank you for your explanation on 
what
to do even on the Windows side, and happy to have learned that too.

Thanks Liam and all!

Marco

> You appear to have some kind of issues with the laptop. Windows can
> partly cope; Linux cannot.
> 
> You cannot choose to just ignore these and hope for the best.
> 
>> c) VERY slow connectivity in the past days would have made (still 
>> does)
>>    downloading many MBs of updates undoable
> 
> Tough. Go find faster connectivity.
> 
> I am sorry but there's no point in trying to tell you comforting lies.
> If your home/office/whatever broadband is too slow, try a library or
> some place with fast Wifi that you can use. Better still, a cabled
> connection.
> 
>> b) in the installed Ubuntu, not the live one of course, even USB is
>> broken, so I couldn't use a an USB network adapter anyway
> 
> It's screwed. No, you probably can't fix it. It is comprehensively
> broken in ways that render remote-control impossible. In that state,
> if you need to ask, you can't fix it.
> 
>  But Windows still works, you say, so use Windows to rescue your data.
> Copy it to a partition visible to Windows, then onto external media.
> 
>> Anyway, I could manage to have the same distro live, on a USB stick,
>> and as you can read in my other reply that software does find and
>> uses the ethernet card without problems, so (even if the constraints
>> above still hold) we DO know now for sure that the problem is only in 
>> the
>> Ubuntu software installed in the laptop drive, don't we?
> 
> No, we don't.
> 
> We know that there is some kind of compatibility issue between your
> hardware and Ubuntu but we don't know whose or what's fault.
> 
> So first, before proceeding, ensure that:
> 
> * Windows is fully current and working. That probably means Win10.
> * All your firmware is up to date.
> 
> IIWY what I would do is this:
> 
> * make multiple backups of any and all important data on the machine.
> * upgrade to Win10.
> * extract the product key, keep it safe.
> * Disable SecureBoot in the firmware
> * wipe, reinstall a clean copy of Win10 with SecureBoot off
> * activate with the key from earlier
> * Update Window fully -- Anniversary Update and all. You might wish to
> pre-download that and a Win10 ISO from MS.
> * Use this new copy of Windows to update any outdated firmware
> * Then restore or reinstall any apps and data. (Hint: use ninite.com)
> 
> Now that you have a clean install and current firmware and SecureBoot
> is disabled, reinstall a clean copy of Ubuntu. When installing UNTICK
> the option to install updates while setting-up.
> 
> Check the new copy works.
> 
> Update it --staying on the 16.04 LTS if that's your preference. Check
> it still works.
> 
>> If that's the case, I'd rather rescue the distro already on the hard 
>> drive,
>> since I spent a couple weeks customizing it after install, than
>> re-install from the USB stick, and suggestions are still very welcome.
> 
> We've already said that in our collective opinion you can't.
> 
> It sucks but computers suck.
> 
> 
> --
> Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven
> Skype/MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven
> Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR)

-- 
http://mfioretti.com