How to troubleshoot "no wifi" in qubes revisions

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2023-09-07
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**You right now:**
0. Can you see networks/your network? 0. **Can you see networks/your network?**
1. Does *sys-net* see the the wifi card and recognizes it as such? (`iwconfig` in *sys-net* should display wifi device[2]) 1. **Does *sys-net* see the the wifi card and recognizes it as such?** (`iwconfig` in *sys-net* should display wifi device[1])
2. Is the wificard present as a PCI device in *sys-net*? (`sudo lspci -v` in *sys-net* should show wifi device[1]) 2. **Is the wificard present as a PCI device in *sys-net*?** (`sudo lspci -v` in *sys-net* should show wifi device[2])
3. Can dom0 see the PCI card? (`sudo lspci -v` [1] in *dom0*). 3. **Can dom0 see the PCI wifi card?** (`sudo lspci -v` [2] in *dom0*).
4. Check bios if card is activated. 4. **Check bios if card is activated.**
5. Try with another OS or in another device to determine if it is physically functional 5. **Try your wifi card with another OS or in another device to determine if it is physically functional**
* [1]: `lspci -v` may spit out many things. You can grep for it with `sudo lspci -v | grep --before-context 20 --after-context 10 wifi`. This will print the 20 lines before all lines containing "wifi" and the following 10. Usually this is enough to get the device name and address. Here is an example output of what we are looking for. * [1]: `iwconfig`: You are looking for some big block of text like this:
00:06.0 0280: 8086:2723 (rev 1a) Subsystem: 8086:0084 Physical Slot: 6 Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 40 Memory at f2024000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel modules: iwlwifi ``` It may speed up finding it, but not finding it with that does not necessarily mean it is missing! As you can see, the wifi device can be quite hidden (usually it is not tho). In the worst case you have to go through all devices and determine with your favorite search engine if it is the wifi card or not. * [2] You are looking for some big block of text like this: ```
``` This means, that your system has detected the wifi card and can communicate with it. If you only have "no wireless extentions." lines, your *sys-net* does not know how to talk to the card (or does not even see it). * [2]: `sudo lspci -v` may spit out many things. You can grep for your wifi with `sudo lspci -v | grep --before-context 20 --after-context 10 wifi`. This will print the 20 lines before all lines containing "wifi" and the following 10. Usually this is enough to get the device name and address. Here is an example output of what we are looking for.
If you only have &quot;no wireless extentions.&quot; lines, your *sys-net* does not know how to talk to the card (or does not even see it). 00:06.0 0280: 8086:2723 (rev 1a) Subsystem: 8086:0084 Physical Slot: 6 Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 40 Memory at f2024000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: &lt;access denied&gt; Kernel modules: iwlwifi ``` It may speed up finding it, but not finding it with that does not necessarily mean it is missing! As you can see, the wifi device can be quite hidden (usually it is not tho). In the worst case you have to go through all devices and determine with your favorite search engine what all the devices are.
* Remove MAC addresses! Mac addresses are permanent hardware serial numbers that are transmitted and can be received by anybody in range. For that reason they usually are deleted before posting logs or terminal outputs. It is not detrimental if you accidentally posted it, but it is proper OPSEC/privacy to remove them. They look something like: `d4:a5:93:cd:00:b2`. Just change it to `FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF` for example, as i did in the iwconfig output. This would be the whole roadmap through "Wifi not working" as far as i can see. I wrote this and determined, it might be a good roadmap to post as a guide. Please add your error if this would not be determined by this procedure or help improve this.* **Remove MAC addresses!** Mac addresses are permanent hardware serial numbers that are transmitted and can be received by anybody in range. For that reason they usually are deleted before posting logs or terminal outputs. It is not detrimental if you accidentally posted it, but it is proper OPSEC/privacy to remove them. They look something like: `d4:a5:93:cd:00:b2`. Just change it to `FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF` for example, as i did in the iwconfig output. This would be the whole roadmap through "Wifi not working" as far as i can see to at least narrow down where the problem is. I wrote this and determined, it might be a good roadmap to post as a standalone guide. Please add your error if this would not be determined by this procedure or help improve this.