WiFi Not Working on Elementary OS 5.0 Juno

[Stylin80]

I just got a new budget notebook that is not exactly well known (JOI Book 150) for quite a good price. Immediately decided that Windows 10 is a poor choice to be running on it. And so I decided to pop in Elementary OS 5.0 Juno on it after debating between a few distros. And behold. Everything thing including all the special functions of the keyboard to my Bluetooth works perfectly except for my WiFi. I'm a complete beginner when it comes to anything Linux related, so feel free to guide me through step by step.

I've tried typing in terminal

sudo lshw -C network

to list down all my network related hardware and yes, I do see both my wireless network and ethernet listed. My ethernet is via a USB Ethernet dongle as this notebook doesn't have an Eternet port. I do know after some research that the current drivers installed is some kind of generic driver for my WiFi card, which seems to be a hit or miss at the moment. Most of the time the WiFi would show extremely poor signal strength despite me sitting 2 feet away from my router and any attempt to connect to it with a correct password will result in an unsuccessful connection. It did randomly work once after I restarted it and was gone again the next time I turn it back on. 

Any help on perhaps getting the correct drivers installed for my WiFi or anything that can get this issue solved will be great as I'm really eager to test out this distro without the WiFi handicapping my experience. Much thanks in advance.

 

P.S. The attached image is the output of said terminal command, if its any help.

[Ashleyyyy]

can you do lsusb in terminal to find the exact model? 

 

if it's not listed try lspci. 

[Stylin80]

@firelighter487, Thanks for the quick reply. performing lsusb in terminal does seem to bring up something that is related to my WiFi card. Although nothing seems to suggest directly that it is my WiFi model. Highlighted option in Terminal seems to just be my bluetooth which is working fine.

[Ashleyyyy]

i'm unsure if Elementary has a driver manager... but a realtek device should work out of the box... 

[The King of the Undead]

how is the wifi device connected?

[Stylin80]

@firelighter487From what I'm aware, no, Elementary OS does not have a driver manager. And yeah, I agree, my previous trials with Ubuntu 18.04 which Elementary OS 5.0 Juno is based on does support. Either way, still need help for now >.<

[Stylin80]

@will4623 Not exactly what you mean but currently as it stands, I have my external USB to Ethernet dongle attached and I'm running an ethernet back to my router. That's how I'm able reply this post for now. And if you are meaning via WiFi, no. The WiFi is still broken. Not currently using it, need help with it.

[The King of the Undead]

is the wifi stick a internal or a usb?

[Chunchunmaru_]

use ethernet to update the system, the kernel so the drivers should also update and could start working

[Stylin80]

Sorry for the late reply, was sleeping time for my timezone.

@will4623 It is an internal WiFI Adapter I'm trying to get working on.

@Chunchunmaru_ Already updated both for the AppCenter and via terminal, none working yet.

[moriel5]

On 7/8/2019 at 7:30 PM, Twilight said:

but a realtek device should work out of the box... 

Not necessarily, it depends on how new it is.

The RTL8821AE was supported by the Linux kernel nearly a year after I had bought my IdeaPad 300-15ISK (about a month after launch).

I had beta tested it by using out-of-tree beta drivers, mostly based upon 3rd party releases, since Realtek did not release the source code in a timely manner.

 

@Stylin80 I recommend you to check if your WiFi card is replaceable, Realtek's networking drivers are absolutely incompetent (less issues on Linux than on Windows, but still), since they dump all the work on CPU, instead of doing what is required on the card itself, resulting in system performance loss, networking performance loss (the overhead is in accordance to the specs of the machine, low-end machines will take a much greater hit than high-end devices), and additional battery drainage (on a mobile device).

 

The best you can get will either be Intel or Qualcomm (Broadcom is also good, but has closed-source shenanigans), and it is easier to get Intel cards (look up Fenvi, they have both Amazon and AliExpress stores, you should be able to get from them an Intel AX200 for ~17$ or so).

 

I switched from the RTL8821AE to the Intel Wireless-AC 3165, to the Wireless-AC 7260 (2x2MIMO is better than 1x1SIMO), to the Intel 9260 (MultiMIMO is better than plain-old MIMO, plus 160Mhz channels allows for up to 1.73Gbt/s on 5Ghz, rather than the previous 866Mhz), and I intend to upgrade to the AX200 when I have the budget (I intend to buy several cards, for my other computers as well).

The AX200 supports Wireless-AX/WiFi 6, and is a cheap way to jump on the bandwagon (you can get an M.2 to PCIe adapter for ~15$ for the desktops).

[adwilson99]

Hi All, new to this forum, but I also have the same laptop JOI BOOK 150.  And I run elementaryOS, it's awesome.

 

I fixed the wifi as follows:

Remember the onboard wifi is only capable of 2.4G, even in windows, so don't expect lighting speed.

 

• Download the following driver https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8723bu
• You'll need to compile the driver so you'll need make as well as linux headers.  These commands should do the trick

• sudo apt install make
  sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname-r)
  sudo apt install gcc

• Remove the default wifi adapter.

• sudo modprobe -r rtlxxxu

• unzip your rtl8723bu driver and edit the Makefile, comment out the following line, by putting a # in front of it.

• EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE

• Install the driver with the following commands: 

• make
  sudo make install
  sudo modprobe -v 8723bu ant_sel=2

• Your wifi should now work fine.  However to make these changes permanent you need to do the following:
• Add the rtl8xxxu driver to the blacklist so it doesn't get loaded again:

• sudo su
  echo "blacklist rtl8xxxu" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
  exit

• Make sure that the new driver loads with the ant_sel=2 option (the JOI BOOK internal wifi adapter actually has two antennas inside, the 2nd one is much stronger, hence you get a more stable wifi signal by doing this)

• sudo su
  echo "options 8723bu ant_sel=2" >> /etc/modprobe.d/8723bu.conf
  exit

• Reboot and all should be good.

Also if anyone's interested I'm starting a blog for installing elementaryOS on the JOI BOOK 150, cause it's awesome once all set up correctly,just takes a lot of work.  For anyone interested you can find my notes here. https://adwilson99.wixsite.com/joi-linux

 

[Stylin80]

@adwilson99, Thank you so much for your input! it's been so long since I last attempted any further after the post got a little stale. I've checked out your site as well and there are plenty of resources useful for any JOI Book 150 users. I currently do not have my JOI Book 150 with me, but I'll definitely give it a go once it's back with me. Thank you so much once again!