Did you realize that your newly installed Linux Mint 19 operating system can’t pick up on the several wireless connections available in your area? The only alternative is to use an Ethernet connection.
This article will deeply explain how to connect your Linux Mint 19 operating system to a Wi-Fi connection, update wireless drivers in Linux Mint 19 operating system, and how to troubleshoot wireless connection problems in Linux Mint 19.
Wireless connection problems in Linux Mint 19 will always be so strange to Windows users. Windows users who had been using Windows 8 or 10 and decided to explore the Linux environment may be stranded since Windows usually install the wireless connection drivers by default, which is opposite in Linux.
Solutions on How to Fix the Wireless Connections in Linux Mint 19
There are several methods to go through this and make your Linux operating system detect the wireless connections available in your area. You need to know that some of the ways may work or fail to work for you.
It would help if you attempted all the listed solutions until you find one that enables your Linux operating system to detect the available wireless connections.
Here are some of the few solutions that hopefully will work for you and make your Linux detect the available wireless connections:
- Check if the wireless adapter is installed properly
- Broadcom Chip
- Reinstalling your Realtek wireless driver driver
- Update
- Using ethtool
Solution 1: Check if the wireless adapter is installed properly
This is precisely where you should begin with. At some point, this only can make your Linux detect the available wireless connections in the vicinity.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Open the Driver Manager. This will help you find if the wireless adapter was installed correctly. (You will always find the Drive Manager in the second column just after clicking on the Administration that is in the first).
You may then see that a Wireless adapter isn’t installed and that you need an Ethernet connection or Linux Mint on USB to have it installed.
- Use Ethernet or USB disk and switch from “do not use this device” to the device questioned and select on apply changes afterward to install the necessary drivers.
- Wait for Linux to get the correct drivers via Ethernet or the Linux Mint copy located on the USB Disk that you used to install the operating system from.
- Check if the wireless connections are available by clicking the symbol of the connection situated at the system tray.
- All you need to do now is to select the right wireless connection from the list and proceed by entering the password to get connected.
Did that only work for you? If so, congratulations, but if it failed or you found that the wireless adapter was successfully installed, let’s move to the next solution.
Solution 2: Broadcom Chip
This method may make the wireless connection work in your Linux operating or may not work for you.
At this point, you may be so desperate to try everything to bring your wireless connection. So, try this.
This method will work on computers that have a Broadcom chip.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Plugin your Ethernet cable
- Click software manager
- In the search box, type Broadcom and press Enter
- You should then download the “Broadcom-sta-common and Broadcom-sta-source.” (Download both of them).
- It would help if you then went back to the menu and in the search box type additional drivers.
- Wait for the search to complete.
- Your Ethernet connection will stop, and you will notice a pop up with “Broadcom B43 wireless driver and Broadcom STA wireless driver”.
- Select on the Broadcom STA wireless driver and activate it.
- You will then be able to connect to your wireless connection.
I hope this worked for you, and if it failed, try the next solution.
Solution 3: Reinstalling your Realtek wireless driver driver
This method will install a Realtek Wi-Fi driver in your computer to make your Linux operating system to discover the available wireless connections.
This method is more likely to work for many Linux users with the wireless connection problem.
Follow these easy steps:
- Find out if your USB wireless adapter is using Realtek chipset by opening a terminal and typing this command:
lsusb
- Did you see the “Realtek semiconductor Corp” in the provided list? If so, then move to the next step.
- Copy the rtl8812au.5.1.5.zip file to the Downloads folder on your computer.
- Right-click the file and choose extract here. This will extract the driver to the Downloads folder and place them in a subfolder called rtl8812au.5.1.5
- You should then open the Terminal and type the following lines at a time:
cd Downloads
cd rtl8812au.5.1.5
make
sudo make install
sudo service NetworkManager restart or reboot your computer
Solution 4: Update
This will update all the drivers. Here are the steps to follow:
- The first step is to connect your computer into s router with internet access using Ethernet cable.
- It would help if you then opened a terminal and type “sudo apt-get update,” then press Enter button. You will then type your password and press Enter again.
- It would help if you then waited until it says done then disconnect your computer from the router.
- Exit the Terminal and try connecting to wireless Wi-Fi available.
Solution 5: Using ethtool
This will be our ultimate solution to help you fix the wireless connection in your Linux Operating system. Hopefully, it will solve your problem if the above methods failed.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Connect your computer to Ethernet.
- Open the Terminal and type the command:
Sudo ethtool eth0
- Press and enter your password, and again press enter key.
- Type /etc/rc. local and press enter.
- Just above the “exit” type:
Ethtool –s autoneg off speed 100
- Save it and reboot your system.
Conclusion
Your Linux operating system failing to detect wireless connections is a common problem that many users come across after reinstalling their operating system. All you need to do is try the above steps keenly, and hopefully, your problem will be solved by one of the listed solutions.