still no wifi. I think maybe we throw in the towel on this one, haha! Thanks for helping me to try! Even though we weren’t successful, I’m just that much more comfortable with my new OS!
Have you tried connecting an Ethernet cable from your laptop to the router? Yesterday there was a massive firmware release from the Ubuntu servers, so you may never know. 
That’s my next step…had to order an adapter, so this weekend I can revisit this challenge. Thanks a million!
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I had the same problem on Linux Mint and MX. Tried 4 different installs and other things. What finally worked was restarting the network manager: “sudo service network-manager restart” each time I start my machine.
With Linux it’s always a challenge, but you learn a lot and your mind keeps on expanding!
This makes me think that there is an override service that obscures the Network Manager, hence the need to restart it. Perhaps it’s the resolved service or the WiFI Supplicant - though I doubt the latter is much used lately.
Thank you Vasileios! I guess as long as the workaround works I’ll get by. The network manager also shows at times that I’m connected to ethernet but I’ve never done that and use only wifi. I downloaded wickd and may use that and remove network manager. would that cause a problem? Thanks for all you do!
Hello @zia!
I haven’t tried wickd so I can’t be 100% certain how it will function. However, I’d keep Network Manager just in case. Instead of removing it, you can disable it with:
sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager.service
This will not load it when you boot up the system. Also you can immediately stop it by:
sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
However, I’m not sure if wickd will present a conflict issue during installation that will want to force Network Manager to be uninstalled.
Used the second command. Results: System has not booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can’t operate. Failed to connect to bus: Host is down. Failed to mention I was already logged in and wickd was connected but network manager said devices were not ready.
I have now implemented the first command and rebooted. Wickd connects beautifully no problem! However, after a short time it also stopped working. Back to the drawing board…
I am up and humming with an ethernet adapter now! This was a great $10 solution to get the old laptop online so I can really take Budgie for a complete test drive. Again, thanks for your willingness to help!
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Ah, yes. When two conflicting network control systems are present, this is bound to happen. I had the same issues when I was first installing Arch via command line and left the WiFi Supplicant and ResolveD stay in the background when Network Manager tried to connect.
I’m glad! Yes, having an Ethernet cable is a life saver in most situations. Especially when the WiFi is being stubborn to work from the get-go. However, the Kernel is catching up and from version 5.12 and on, there’s a lot more support for additional hardware.
Hello Vasileios, I am having a similar issue with the network connections not showing up on my KDE Plasma install on Ubuntu 20.04 server on an older MacMini. The device is connected to the internet with an ethernet cable, I am able to browse the web, but the system will not perform updates because it doesn’t see that there’s an internet connection. Is there a series of commands that I can use to make the ethernet appear in my network widget?
Thanks,
Denise
PS. Here’s my system info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
Kernel Version: 5.4.0-90-generic
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 2 × Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU P7350 @ 2.00GHz
Memory: 3.6 GiB of RAM
Hey @DPFisher AKA Denise!
Can you open up Konsole and send me the output of the following command?
lspci
That way I’ll get to see which WiFi module your system has (some variation of Broadcom I suspect) so that we can install it. 
Per the updates, you can do it in Konsole via:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
It will ask for your password, so you can type it in (it won’t be visible) and you can hit Enter.
On the Ethernet, there might be an issue/bug with the auto-suspend. The system thinks the ethernet is down while it’s actually up and running. This happens on some systems, but not on others. You can check if your auto-suspend is on. First, install (in Konsole):
sudo apt install sysfsutils
Then execute:
systool -vm usbcore
Look for the “AutoSuspend” value and please let me know what it says (I suspect it will have the number “2” in it).
But first, let’s solve the WiFi!
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Hey there Vasileios!
Here’s the output for the first command:
dpfish@ubfish:~$ sudo lspci
[sudo] password for dpfish:
00:00.0 Host bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Host Bridge (rev b1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 LPC Bridge (rev b2)
00:03.1 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.2 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 SMBus (rev b1)
00:03.3 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.4 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.5 Co-processor: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Co-processor (rev b1)
00:04.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev b1)
00:04.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev b1)
00:06.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev b1)
00:06.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev b1)
00:08.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 High Definition Audio (rev b1)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 PCI Bridge (rev b1)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 Ethernet (rev b1)
00:0b.0 SATA controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 AHCI Controller (rev b1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C79 [GeForce 9400] (rev b1)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 05)
04:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW643 [TrueFire] PCIe 1394b Controller (rev 07)
Thanks for your help with this…
Denise
I followed the auto-suspend instructions and you are correct, the value is set at “2”.
Also, I ran the update & upgrade command and all packages are up to date.
I don’t see anything to indicate wifi control. Maybe I need to use a dongle? It’s a pretty old computer, 2009 I believe.
Ah, the usual culprit! Let’s give it a shot and see if that helps out.
Open up a terminal and shoot the following command as a start:
sudo apt install dkms
sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms
Once done, reboot and check out your WiFi. If it works, then ignore the commands below. If you still have issues, you might want to give the following commands a shot.
sudo depmod -a
echo wl |sudo tee -a /etc/modules
These will refresh the modules and engage the WiFi driver that is compatible with your chip.
You can then engage it with:
sudo modprobe wl
Then reboot and check.
Please let me know how it goes.
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OK @vasileios, The first two commands unlocked my two wifi routers (yay!) but one of them is also the same as the ethernet cable which returns an error: “Wireless Interface (wlp3s0), IP configuration was unavailable”. Even though this network connection provides the strongest signal, I am still unable to connect to it according to the network configuration panel. I tried disconnecting the ethernet cable, to see if that was causing a conflict, but still not able to access that router. I will try the depmod commands and see if that helps. Will report back. D.
The depmod commands didn’t change things, still unable to set network address for the one router.
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Hi,
This is my first post. My apologies if it does not belong here.
OK, I purchased a Dell Latitude for dedicated Linux use for the purpose of this forum, extrication from all things MS, Apple, google, etc.
I used it for a bit and had wireless connectivity, including ability to get into web sites. However, I had to pull away from my linux laptop for a couple months and when I returned to it, the battery was drained.
After charging, I can no longer connect to anything. No sites via web. No ping. Nothing.
nmcli device (thanks!) shows me that I am connected to my home network. lo (loopback) says unmanaged (have no idea of relevance).
I did notice my clock is off. date returns:
Fri 08 Apr (etc.)
timedatectl indicates system clock synchronized stays at no.
Connectivity with ethernet also does not work.
If anyone has advice on how to proceed, I am all ears!
Tony