Thursday, May 22, 2014

Problems with my Intel Wifi 5100 on Linux

I've really had it with this laptop of mine. It was OK at its time, but now it's long time due. I'm getting a new system in a couple of months from now. I've really missed having a desktop computer these last few years.

But anyway... my Kubuntu 13.10 x86_64, or my wifi controller, or both, suddenly decided to make wifi networking impossible, all of a sudden. The wifi controller in question is an Intel 5100. The funny thing is that it appears that I do have the right firmware for it.

alex@asus:~$ lspci | grep Net
06:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation WiFi Link 5100
alex@asus:~$ modinfo iwlwifi | grep ^firmware
firmware: iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-3160-7.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode

After some very frustrating research, I found a fix:

alex@asus:~$ sudo echo "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" >> /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

and a reboot did the trick for me.