Wi-Fi not showing available networks on Zorin OS

Hardware Support
1

Hi everyone,

I'm having an issue on my laptop running Zorin OS: no Wi-Fi networks are showing up, even though Wi-Fi appears to be enabled.
I’ve tried restarting the computer, toggling Wi-Fi from the taskbar, and using the keyboard shortcut to enable/disable the wireless interface — nothing worked.

I ran the following command: sudo lshw -C network and here’s the output:

  *-network DISABLED        
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Intel Corporation
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 14.3
       bus info: pci@0000:00:14.3
       logical name: wlp0s20f3
       version: 01
       serial: bc:cd:99:be:ee:c5
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=6.8.0-65-generic firmware=86.fb5c9aeb.0 so-a0-hr-b0-86.uc latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: iomemory:600-5ff irq:16 memory:6001144000-6001147fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: e
       bus info: usb@3:1
       logical name: enx928c43e12843
       serial: 92:8c:43:e1:28:43
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipheth driverversion=6.8.0-65-generic ip=172.20.10.2 link=yes multicast=yes
2

Do you have a hardware switch on your laptop to turn wlan on/off?

1 Like
3

Hi, welcome to the commnity!

It looks like the driver should already be there. Try a good old restart, silly as it sounds.

If this doesn't work, can you run this to see if it's actually loaded?

lsmod | grep iwlwifi
4

Do you have a Dual boot with Windows? If yes, turn off fast startup there.
Also disable secure boot and fast boot in your BIOS while using Linux.

1 Like
5

Welcome to the Forum!

So, it is shown as DISABLED. So, I would ask the same as @Forpli already did:

And I would expand that and ask if You have take a Look in Your BIOS if there is a Setting for enable/disable the Wifi Modul.

Beneath that, could You please open ther Terminal and type rfkill list and post the Output here?

1 Like
6

Hi, thanks for the support!

My laptop doesn't have a physical hardware switch to turn WLAN on/off, and there's no keyboard shortcut available for that either. I also checked the BIOS, and the option to enable/disable the Wi-Fi module is disabled there (grayed out).

Here's the output of rfkill list as requested:

0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
7

Hi, thanks for the welcome!

I’ve already tried restarting, but unfortunately that didn’t solve the issue.

Here’s the output of the command you mentioned:

braian@braian-IdeaPad:~$ lsmod | grep iwlwifi
iwlwifi               606208  1 iwlmvm
cfg80211             1363968  3 iwlmvm,iwlwifi,mac80211
8

Yes, I do have a dual boot with Windows.

The "fast startup" option in Windows was already disabled when I checked. Secure Boot is also disabled in the BIOS. As for "Fast Boot" in the BIOS, I looked for it but couldn’t find that option—so I’m not sure if it’s not available on my system or just labeled differently.

9

And if you try to restart the network manager?

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

Otherwise, you can try to do the same with the kernel modules directly but this may be a little trickier, if there are other modules depending on each other.

sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi
sudo modprobe iwlwifi

If you have the chance, try connecting through another mean like an external USB antenna that can give you wifi and just run the updates:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

I realize this may be a little trickier since this isn't something people usually have laying around :sweat_smile:

10

I had actually already run sudo apt update before using the USB tethering from my phone, but it didn’t work. I also tried the commands you suggested, but unfortunately they didn’t make much of a difference.

11

How old is Your Laptop? Is it a newer one? If yes, maybe a newer Kernel could help.

12

My laptop is new—I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15IRH10 two weeks ago. I’ll try updating the kernel to see if that fixes the network issue. Thanks!

13

Here are Instructions for installing a newer Kernel:

3 Likes
14

It worked! :grin:
I updated the kernel as suggested, and now the Wi-Fi is detecting all available networks properly. Big thanks to everyone here on the forum for the help!

4 Likes