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Topic: [SOLVED] Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist (Read 1620 times) previous topic - next topic
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[SOLVED] Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Hello, guys.

I can’t enable wifi on my pc the last two things that may have triggered this could have been I connected an ethernet cable while using wifi or the last system upgrade. I also found that iwlist doesn’t exist in /usr/bin or any other place. Is this a bug or product of ignorance?

Edit: just connected thru ethernet and tried installing iwlist and the package was not found.

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #1 –
If you use a gui manager then I suppose check the settings to see if the ethernet has somehow been made the default. I just upgraded after reading this to check, and wireless still works here although I saw the kernel and firmware got updated, so it could be hardware specific if that was the reason.
iwlist is in the wireless_tools package, which is handy to have installed, but the "modern" command is iw. You wouldn't use either to enable wifi on the command line though, you use ip, wpa_supplicant then dhclient (or dhcpcd, but dhclient is easier to use as installed.) Check if you have accidentally  flipped the wifi switch if you have one too, I did that recently ...  :D

Code: [Select]
$ iw dev   
- gives the device name
$ ip link show (device name)
- gives the status
$ ifconfig
- more info, only appears here if it is UP.

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #2 –
No option at all to even enable wifi in the gui and Yesterday since I had two connections for the moment I used ethernet I made it primary (“move before”) but when I unplugged it, i reset the changes. Iw doesn’t out anything and ifconfig only displays the enp3s0 (ethernet) and the lo (loopback).

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #3 –
Try installing dhcpcd-openrc and enable it as a service and see if that helps.

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #4 –
If you don't see the wireless interface listed, usually as wlpXsY where X & Y are numbers, doing:
Code: [Select]
$ iw dev
$ ip link show
where the first command shows wireless devices, and the second shows all interfaces, then the system does not see it, so it must be a hardware or driver problem I think. You could try downgrading the kernel and firmware? If it works then also post your wireless hardware details if you can, perhaps it will help someone fix it.
Those commands look in /sys/class/net and the related directories have the info in them, and sysfs is a vfs provided by the kernel, if it's not there it's not a userspace issue I think.

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #5 –
If you don't see a wireless interface when doing
Code: [Select]
$ iw dev
$ ip link show
then try installing the linux-firmware package. A lot of wifi modules require this to work.
 

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #6 –
Hey guys, been busy doing my other things just got back to fiddle with this machine again. I ran an -Syu and got these warnings at the end:

WARNING: possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
WARNING: possibly missing firmware for module: wd719x

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Dal – on
Hey guys, been busy doing my other things just got back to fiddle with this machine again. I ran an -Syu and got these warnings at the end:

WARNING: possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
WARNING: possibly missing firmware for module: wd719x
I get this, it is normal.

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #8 –
Guys, just boot up my system and the wifi is working now. I think the last update made my laptop failed and this update “fixed” it. For the record my laptop is an MSI GL62M 7RD.

Re: Wifi cannot be enable- iwlist doesn’t exist

Reply #9 –
Also, i should point out that the boot up got significantly faster. :D