Wi-Fi Not Detected on New Lenovo Notebook (Intel Wi-Fi [8086:51f1]) - extensive troubleshooting done

General Help
1

Hi everyone,

I'm a new and very impressed Zorin OS user. I've installed Zorin OS 17.3 on my brand-new Lenovo notebook, but I'm unable to get the internal Wi-Fi working. The system reports "No Wi-Fi Adapter Found".

I have spent many hours troubleshooting this with help, and I'm hoping someone might have a solution I haven't tried yet.

My System Information:

  • OS: Zorin OS 17.3 Core
  • Notebook: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i (Part Number: 83NS0001BR)
  • Wi-Fi Adapter Hardware (from lspci):
    00:14.3 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:51f1] (rev 01)

The Problem:

The system shows "No Wi-Fi Adapter Found" in the network settings. The iwlwifi kernel driver is loaded, but initial logs showed the firmware was crashing. This seems to be a compatibility issue with this very new hardware.

Troubleshooting Steps Already Taken:

I have already tried the following steps in order, without success:

  1. Confirmed internet access via USB tethering.
  2. Identified the hardware using lspci (as shown above).
  3. Confirmed the iwlwifi driver is loaded via lspci -knn.
  4. Checked system logs and found a critical firmware error (see log below).
  5. Performed a full system update: sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade.
  6. Reinstalled the latest firmware package: sudo apt install --reinstall linux-firmware.
  7. Checked for blocks with rfkill list all (no blocks found).
  8. Checked Secure Boot status with mokutil --sb-state.
  9. Disabled Secure Boot in the BIOS/UEFI.
  10. Attempted to install newer mainline kernels (6.15.8 and 6.6.100), but both failed with a libc6 (>= 2.38) dependency error, as the PPA providing them targets newer systems.
  11. Cleaned up the failed kernel installations.
  12. Successfully installed the official Zorin "edge" kernel using sudo apt install linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04-edge.
  13. Rebooted the system with the "edge" kernel and Secure Boot disabled.

The problem persists even after all these steps.

Key Log Information:

The original dmesg output showed this critical error, which was the starting point of this investigation:

2

You are on the right way. I'd also try it with kernel 6.12 or 6.14. You need a new kernel for your hardware because the wifi drivers are in the kernel.

3

Is this an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 or BE200 (Wi-Fi 7) adapter?

With Secure Boot disabled, I recommend using the TuxInvader kernel:

Or the Cappelikan Mainline:

In your BIOS settings, look for a setting to disable wifi when ethernet connection is detected and disable it if present.

1 Like
4

thanks i installed kernel 6.12 following @Aravisian install guide and now its working! time to finally start using the OS properly

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