Unable to use wifi device with UbuntuMATE 22.04.1 and Linux Mint 21

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, 10 Oct 2022 at 00:56, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
>
> Hello.
>
> I have an Acer Aspire 5750G "laptop" computer, that I had been using for
> years, with Ubuntu.

I googled this. Looks to be a circa 2011 machine, but there appear to
have been multiple models with Core i3 (low-end), i5 (midrange) and i7
(high end) CPUs, in the case of high-end models with a discrete GPU.

So, without knowing which model, I can't say much.

> It had been getting versions upgrades, and then, a couple stuffed the
> system, so I transferred the data and stopped using it.

Not enough info. What update, to what version of Ubuntu, when?

> Then, I, overnight, tried a clean install of Linux Mint 21, which
> installed okay, after I circumvented the bogus "You do not have an EFI
> partition for the boot loader - You and your descendants will burn in
> the River Styx, if you do not create this".

It's old enough it's probably not a UEFI machine, so that's fine. I
agree it's annoying.

> But, the Live iso image, and, the installed version, could not use the
> wifi device, to connect to the Internet, or, to see any other wifi devices.

Standard on a lot of laptops.  I have encountered it most recently on
an old Apple Macbook.

The solution is: plug it in to wired Ethernet, do a full update, and
then use the Ubuntu "Software & Drivers" tool to install any
additional driver it needs.

> (Thank you, Liam Proven, for your guidance regarding the Ventoy
> drives).

Glad it helped you.

> I think that the Linux installations on the computer, had inherited
> legacy drivers for the wifi device, but, the current versions are not
> much good, if they cannot use the wifi device for Internet access, when
> a clean installation is performed.

So probably you used a wired network and installed whatever was needed.

> In the Linux Mint 21 Control Center -> System Reports -> System
> Information, is shown for the Network devices, the Ethernet device,
> which is a Broadcom (in addition to the wifi device being a Broadcom),
> then, immediately below the Ethernet device, is

The MacBook uses Broadcom wifi too.

> Now, what troubles me, is that the wifi device was usable by Linux,

If you for some reason cannot use a network cable, the best workaround
is a USB wifi dongle.


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