No wifi card after updating XFCE manjaro

Support Network
34

If you’re good with a screwdriver or you live in a place where computer service is cheap here is a video of how to open/service your laptop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zukdFwIooJU .

The cmos battery is under the keyboard and appears in the video at around 1:55, they are cheap and easy to get, type and model are engraved on it. Replacing them is useful because it keeps the bios settings stable even if your main battery is dead (I think it is but replacing that is not really worth it.):
2023-08-20_20-56

Until you replace the cmos just keep your laptop plugged in at all times even when it’s shut down.

Edit:

First do your updates, reboot and run
inxi -Fazy
again so we can see the wifi card and driver status

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.44-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1-x86_64
    root=UUID=e0ec0b47-6af7-486a-9cc3-5456a7489838 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm
    v: 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron N5110 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 8 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0FXK2Y v: A07 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell
    v: A07 date: 07/18/2011
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-2430M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge
    gen: core 2 level: v2 built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB
    L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 798 min/max: 800/3000 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: schedutil cores: 1: 798 2: 798 3: 798 4: 798 bogomips: 19164
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT
    vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
    STIBP: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 code: Sandybridge
    process: Intel 32nm built: 2011 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: VGA-1
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0116 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] vendor: Dell driver: N/A
    alternate: nouveau non-free: series: 390.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~late
    2022) arch: Fermi code: GF1xx process: 40/28nm built: 2010-16 pcie: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0df5 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Microdia Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-1.5:4
    chip-ID: 0c45:6485 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: intel dri: i965 gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS1 model: AU Optronics 0x22ec built: 2009
    res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2 size: 340x190mm (13.39x7.48")
    diag: 394mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    vendor: Dell 6 driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:0bea class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.44-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 0.125.0 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.77 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active with: 1: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin 2: pulseaudio-jack type: module tools: pacat,pactl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000
    bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Dell
    driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 6
    speed: 64 GT/s bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:002b class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp9s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: enp0s26u1u1 state: unknown speed: -1 duplex: half mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Samsung Galaxy series misc. (tethering mode) driver: rndis_host
    v: kernel type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0
    bus-ID: 1-1.1:7 chip-ID: 04e8:6863 class-ID: 0a00 serial: <filter>
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: disabled
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: see --recommends
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-1.4:5 chip-ID: 0cf3:3005
    class-ID: e001
  Report: This feature requires one of these tools: hciconfig/bt-adapter
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 698.64 GiB used: 26.2 GiB (3.8%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD7500BPVT-75HXZT3 size: 698.64 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s tech: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: 1A03 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 100 GiB size: 97.87 GiB (97.87%) used: 26.2 GiB (26.8%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
    compressor: zstd max-pool: 25%
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 8 GiB used: 249.8 MiB (3.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 4427
Info:
  Processes: 209 Uptime: 49m wakeups: 1 Memory: total: 4 GiB
  available: 3.74 GiB used: 3.18 GiB (85.0%) Init: systemd v: 253
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 clang: 15.0.7
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1195 libs: 348 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.29
36

So it is indeed a Qualcomm Atheros and the driver is loaded but it’s down and that last line looks odd. Have you tried activating wifi by pressing Fn+F2 again? What does
rfkill list
show?

37

Also, it is possible to (de)activate the wlan by right clicking the Network Applet in the tray or panel and checking/unchecking the checkbox.
Happened more than once to my father without him realizing it and then coming to me asking me to fix the non-working wlan connection :slightly_smiling_face:
and all I had to do was to check the box … to activate it

1 Like
38

WLAN = wifi. It says “NotInstalled” and same for Bluetooth. So either it’s switched off or there’s a hardware issue with the wifi card.

If it is a hardware issue the card can be replaced quite easily;

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