With help from the Zorin community I am now able to try out the Zorin OS from a usb drive on my ACER Aspire 15 laptop. However, I have struck another problem. When I try to link to the WiFi I am told that no WiFi adapter can be found.
Fast startup and secure boot were both disabled.
Using the terminal command
sudo lshw -c network
I find that WiFi adapter is correctly identified (Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak]) but the network is identified as “DISABLED”.
I have tried the terminal command
nmcli radio wifi on
to no effect.
When I use the terminal command series
rfkill list all
sudo rfkill unblock all
rfkill list all
I find that, under Wireless LAN, soft blocked is no, while hard blocked is yes both before and after the unblock command.
Welcome and congratualations for your live boot into Zorin OS!
Please check your ACER Aspire 15 laptop if there is a switch or WLAN key, here the foto shows F3 with blue WLAN sign. In this case you can press key Fn together with key F3 to turn WLAN ON - OFF. But your hardware might have other keys or a switch for WLAN. Hope this could help you!
Using Brave A.I. search engine via Mojeek search engine and basing search criteria on Ubuntu 24.04 (as Zorin is a fork of same):
" For Acer Aspire 15 laptops experiencing hardblocked Wi-Fi in Ubuntu 24.04 , the most effective solution is to blacklist the acer_wmi kernel module , which often incorrectly reports a hardware block on these devices.
Step-by-Step Fix
Open a terminal and edit the modprobe blacklist configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Add the following line to the bottom of the file:
blacklist acer_wmi
Save the file (Ctrl+O, Enter) and exit (Ctrl+X).
Reboot your computer. The Wi-Fi should now be unblocked.
Alternative Solutions
RFKill Unblock : If the block is soft or partially resolved, try running:
sudo rfkill unblock all
BIOS Reset : Enter the BIOS (usually F2 on startup) and reset settings to default, then save and exit.
Driver Issues : If you have a MediaTek MT7902 adapter (common in newer models like the A315-24P), note that kernel support may be incomplete in Ubuntu 24.04. Check lspci -knn | grep -iA3 net to identify your adapter. If unsupported, you may need to wait for a kernel update or use a USB Wi-Fi adapter.
Broadcom Adapters : If using a Broadcom chip, remove conflicting drivers and install the correct source:
Now the only problem with the first solution given requires that you have Zorin installed as using Zorin in live mode will lose those settings on reboot. It would only work if you created a USB with "persistence".
I blacklisted acer_wmi as suggested and checked that the file had recorded the change (which it had). However, as I am trying out Zorin from a USB drive, when I rebooted it looked as though the file on the USB drive had not changed.
I had previously found advice to use the terminal command sudo lsmod | grep acer to check if acer_wmi was a problem. It did not show up in the output.
The odd think is that way back the first time I tried out Zorin from a USB drive it did successfully link to my WiFi network so at that stage the existing WiFi adapter was recognised and apparently supported. From then on my WiFi adapters have not been recognised .
That is because you are running in live mode. If it was a bare metal install it may have worked. If you create the usb with persistence the blacklisting of the wmi package would stick.
Unfortunately, Ventoy is the only bootable drive creator which I have found works with my ACER Aspire 15 laptop. I am not sure that this can be used to create a drive with persistence .
I use a Windows 10 laptop which cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. I am in the process of working towards using Zorin permanently because I have been led to believe that it is easy to install. However, I have had a number of problems with it and, until these problems are resolved, I will not install it on the computer.
Unfortunately there are going to be issues because most hardware is manufactured for windows not Linux. Sometimes it will be a smooth process but often will need work and tweaks but once you get it right most love it and would never go back. There are particularly going to be issues with older equipment that will no longer run windows either.
I finally learnt how to create a Ventoy Zorin usb with persistence. However, it now displays lines of code when sum checking which I cannot stop with Alt-C. It also asks me for a password which I have never set (and do not know how to do so!). I am therefore not able to proceed to the completion of the installation.
I understand your point of view, but it will be easiest if you install it as dual boot to fix Zorin problems point after point, but this this just my opinion
There would be an Alternative to Ventoy when this doesn't work this Way: When You have a Windows Machine, You could use Rufus. With that, You can create A USB Stick with Persistence, too. And it is directly in the Program:
Unfortunately I have tried to use Rufus (and other bootable USB creators) but my laptop does not recognise the usb drive from them and simply boots Windows. Ventoy is the only one which successfully (at least partially so; except for the WiFi problem) boots the Zorin OS.
