<SOLVED> Wifi not showing up in settings <SOLVED>

[barkhat]

Using Mint 17.2

I am connected via Ethernet to the Internet, and I am connected somehow to wireless on my laptop but when I open the Network settings -- there is nothing in the box under Wifi. If I click the button that says "Known networks" I can see the wireless network, but I can't get to it. I just don't know what I did and why this is happening. I need to connect to it to set up my extender/access point but I can't do it.

Can someone offer some help on this, please?

[barkhat]

After scouring around the forum I have seen this code and decided to run it in case it would help give context to my situation:
sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py

And to clarify: I cannot see the wireless in Network Settings (except when clicking the button 'Known Networks'. There's no start button there, but you can see the configuration button besides the name.

I need to set up my extender/access point router and it needs to connect to the wireless. But because I cannot see it, I cannot connect to it.

Anyway, the results of my scan:
---
The results:
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
==> PCI ID = 10ec:8821
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on

lo no wireless extensions.

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr e0:3f:49:6f:2e:28
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::e23f:49ff:fe6f:2e28/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:327585 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:297236 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:218863742 (218.8 MB) TX bytes:41805278 (41.8 MB)

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:16517 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16517 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3021705 (3.0 MB) TX bytes:3021705 (3.0 MB)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
Server: 192.168.1.1
Address: 192.168.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.147
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.172
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.181
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.155
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.151
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.185
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.162
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.170
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.177
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.173
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.157
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.166
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.158
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.187
Name: google.com
Address: 190.94.130.143

[barkhat]

So far, no help here. I am requesting if someone can take a look and give me some ideas as to how I might fix this situation. Thank you.

[barkhat]

So far, no help here. I am requesting if someone can take a look and give me some ideas as to how I might fix this situation. Thank you.

[Pjotr]

You might try the rtlwifi_new driver package from lwfinger, like this:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... m-lwfinger
(item 8, right column)

[barkhat]

You might try the rtlwifi_new driver package from lwfinger, like this:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... m-lwfinger
(item 8, right column)

Thank you for your response. I will check out the link!

[JeremyB]

Code: Select all

rfkill list all

please post the output

[barkhat]

Code: Select all

rfkill list all

please post the output

This is what I got with the command:

$ rfkill list all

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no


Of course, I have no idea what it means.

[barkhat]

You might try the rtlwifi_new driver package from lwfinger, like this:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... m-lwfinger
(item 8, right column)

Ok, I did try this one Pjotr, but it did not seem to help. I'm including screenshots of how my Network settings look (same before and after).

Do you think it would help if I upgrade to Mint 17.3?

[Pjotr]

It seems that JeremyB had the right hunch.... Try this:

Code: Select all

rfkill unblock all

[barkhat]

It seems that JeremyB had the right hunch.... Try this:

Code: Select all

rfkill unblock all

Well, at first I thought I had no success. I typed the code and rebooted but it didn't show up. Then I went into "connect to hidden networks" and it did connect this time. (Previously I had tried this and it didn't work.). So, thank you Pjotr, for your kind help. But I'm not sure how it became hidden in the first place. Could you tell me how to unhide it, please?

Thank you.

[Pjotr]

It's in the router that the SSID of a network can be hidden. Or made visible again.

Some people think that a hidden SSID is more secure, but that's a mistake. It's even *less* secure than a visible SSID:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... work-name-

[barkhat]

It's in the router that the SSID of a network can be hidden. Or made visible again.

Some people think that a hidden SSID is more secure, but that's a mistake. It's even *less* secure than a visible SSID:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... work-name-

Great! Thank you for all your assistence, Pjotr (and Jeremy). I appreciate it. This link looks like a good page that I can learn a bit about (simple enough for me to understand).

I will mark this case closed/solved and if I have something else will post anew.