Wifi networks not detected in elementary OS. Ethernet working

Question

My problem is that wifi networks in the vicinity are not detected even though the wifi module is (apparently) turned on, and ethernet is working fine (I had to get that working manually as well):

I did a fresh eos Freya 0.3.2 install on my HP Zbook (i7, intel I210-LM ethernet, Intel 8260 wireless module). After I installed eos, I did not have ethernet, however after installing e1000e module it worked.

To get the wifi I tried a lot of things: 1) Installed iwlwifi module as suggested by a forum. 2) Removed bcmwl-kernel-source and b43-fcutter and reinstalled it as suggested by another forum. 3) After I installed the backports wlan0 was detected without me adding it to /etc/network/interfaces file (or maybe it detected after I added it, I cannot quite remember the order now). Anyway, wlan0, eth0 is detected by ifconfig as shown in the outputs below.

(of course I rebooted and restarted network manager each time I tried these various things).

The wifi is enabled, I can see it checked in my network manager, but it cannot detect wifi networks in the vicinity. If I run

sudo iwlist scan

I can see the networks in the vicinity but I cannot connect to them using

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid name key password

None of the wifi networks are visible from the network-manager. Can anyone please suggest an approach that can solve this problem?

The outputs for the various info commands are as follows: lshw -C network

HP-ZBook-15-G3:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Wireless 8260
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 3a
       serial: 44:85:00:29:b9:77
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.19.0-64-generic firmware=16.242414.0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
       resources: irq:37 memory:e5200000-e5201fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Ethernet Connection (2) I219-LM
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1f.6
       bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
       logical name: eth0
       version: 31
       serial: a0:8c:fd:4b:7e:a8
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=2.3.2-k duplex=full firmware=0.8-4 ip=10.0.101.67 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:28 memory:e5400000-e541ffff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

for sudo ifconfig:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr a0:8c:fd:4b:7e:a8  
          inet addr:10.0.101.67  Bcast:10.0.101.255  Mask:255.255.254.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a28c:fdff:fe4b:7ea8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:22749 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1336 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:3161501 (3.1 MB)  TX bytes:239083 (239.0 KB)
          Interrupt:11 Memory:e5400000-e5420000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:126 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:126 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:11408 (11.4 KB)  TX bytes:11408 (11.4 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 44:85:00:29:b9:77  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

for inxi -Fxz

inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: name-HP-ZBook-15-G3 Kernel: 3.19.0-64-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.4) 
           Desktop: Gnome Distro: elementary OS 0.3.2 freya
Machine:   System: HP product: HP ZBook 15 G3
           Mobo: HP model: 80D5 version: KBC Version 10.62 Bios: HP version: N81 Ver. 01.08 date: 06/07/2016
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-6820HQ CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 21686.3 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2400.00 MHz 2: 2700.00 MHz 3: 2700.00 MHz 4: 2700.00 MHz 5: 2700.00 MHz 6: 2700.00 MHz 7: 1900.00 MHz 8: 2700.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Device 191b bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM107GLM [Quadro M1000M] bus-ID: 01:00.0 
           X.Org: 1.17.1 drivers: fbdev,intel (unloaded: vesa) Resolution: [email protected] 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.6, 256 bits) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel Sunrise Point-H HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 Sound: ALSA ver: k3.19.0-64-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel Ethernet Connection (2) I219-LM driver: e1000e ver: 2.3.2-k bus-ID: 00:1f.6
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi ver: backported bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (1.1% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST500LM021 size: 500.1GB temp: 37C 
Partition: ID: / size: 124G used: 5.0G (5%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 25.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0C mobo: 0.0C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 229 Uptime: 22 min Memory: 888.8/15928.8MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17 

for iwconfig:

 sudo iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

eth0      no wireless extensions.

for sudo rfkill list:

$ sudo rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no

for dmesg | grep iwl (after copying iwlwifi-*.ucode files to /lib/firmware):

-HP-ZBook-15-G3:~$ dmesg | grep iwl
[   13.253428] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   13.255386] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Unsupported splx structure
[   13.270926] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-8000C-17.ucode failed with error -2
[   13.618638] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: loaded firmware version 16.242414.0 op_mode iwlmvm
[   13.793686] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 8260, REV=0x208
[   13.793895] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[   13.794534] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[   13.795206] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: can't access the RSA semaphore it is write protected
[   13.981395] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-mvm-rs'
[   14.398940] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[   14.399303] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[   14.399857] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: can't access the RSA semaphore it is write protected
[   14.545142] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[   14.545507] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[   14.546061] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: can't access the RSA semaphore it is write protected

When I try to use dhcp for the wlan0 connection using sudo dhclient -v wlan0 I get:

-HP-ZBook-15-G3:~$ sudo dhclient -v wlan0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.2.4
Copyright 2004-2012 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/44:85:00:29:b9:77
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/44:85:00:29:b9:77
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0x8abec628)
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0x8abec628)
....

The DHCPDISCOVER commands keep appending but nothing happens for a long time.

If I try to connect through command line it gives (actual network name and key hidden of course):

HP-ZBook-15-G3:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid thename key s:thekey
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

I also tried with the s:password option

HP-ZBook-15-G3:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid thename key thekey
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    invalid argument "thekey".

Also, when I reboot, I have to manually start network-manager service.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Answer 1

The problem is in the kernel, whilst version 3.19 supports the Intel 8260 driver it does not contain native support which as you've found means a lot of messing around. I'm told that Kernel v4.2 onwards does support it natively. Newer kernels are available in the standard repos. Wily is v4.2 and Xenial is v4.4. So:

sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic-lts-xenial
sudo reboot