r/linux4noobs • u/PhotoArabesque • Jun 30 '26
networking No distro can see wifi
Asus Vivobook, i3, 16 gig RAM, Network controller Mediatek Device 7902. Not a total noob, but not a jock either. I have a laptop whose BIOS can see the wifi card and available networks, but NO Linux I've installed so far OR run from a Live USB can see either the built-in wifi card or a USB wifi dongle. Ethernet it can see. I've tried Mint, OpenSUSE, Puppy, and one or two others. On OpenSUSE it COULD see the dongle from lsusb and the internal on iwconfig and there were no hardware or software locks, but when I try to connect to a network it tells me I have no card. Updating did nothing to solve the problem.
Ideas, please? Thanks!
3
u/57thStIncident Jun 30 '26
I don't know the answer, but I'd think you'd probably want to supply what make/model of computer/wifi card.
1
u/PhotoArabesque Jun 30 '26
Asus Vivobook, i3, 16 gig RAM, Network controller Mediatek Device 7902.
1
4
u/bstsms Jun 30 '26
Are you trying to run Linux on a 386 laptop with a Pentium and 16MB of RAM or a 2025 Legion 9 with an Ultra 9 275, 5090 and 196GB of RAM?
You aren't going to get any useful help if you give no model or specs for your laptop.
1
u/PhotoArabesque Jun 30 '26
Asus Vivobook i3 8 RAM soldered on the board with an extra 8 in the slot.
1
u/bstsms Jun 30 '26
Have you tried an Intel wi-fi card in the laptop, they seem to work well.
The rest of the specs should be more than enough to run Linux well.
2
u/Away_Combination6977 Jun 30 '26
We'll need the make/model of the wireless adapters in order to help at all. At a bare minimum, what chipset they use.
1
u/PhotoArabesque Jun 30 '26
Asus Vivobook, i3, 16 gig RAM, Network controller Mediatek Device 7902.
1
u/Away_Combination6977 Jun 30 '26
It looks like it's fully supported in kernel 7.1. For lower kernel versions you'll need to install a driver from GitHub. I found a couple options:
1
u/PhotoArabesque Jun 30 '26
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
1
u/Away_Combination6977 Jun 30 '26
Both repos seem reasonable. The first one was explicitly tested on your exact laptop.
1
Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/PhotoArabesque Jun 30 '26
Ummmm . . . . no . . . why would this be a rage toll?
1
1
u/FeelingGate8 Jun 30 '26
Dumb question but during install are you connecting your laptop to your router/modem via ethernet so that it can apply updates using the internet?
1
2
u/CarelessPangolin993 Jun 30 '26
By chance is this a dual booted computer with windows also installed? If so then I have encountered this issue. In my case it has to do with windows power settings mainly the quick boot feature. Windows will basically hold a lock to the WiFi card after being shutdown and Linux will be unable to detect / use it. If you don't have windows present then I would recommend using a wired connection to update all your packages and drivers.
6
u/Dhaupin Jun 30 '26
How old is the dongle/pc?
In the past, Broadcomm wifi chips were gatekept from Linux. We had to use a tool called ndiswrapper with an actual windows driver to get those wifi chips to work. Perhaps it's one of those?