mjhjmtu

I did an upgrade from Xubuntu 12.04 to 12.10, and I can't connect to the internet now.

When I press the network button on the panel, I see "No network devices available" on top (greyed out), then "VPN Connections", "Enable Networking" with a checkmark next to it, "Information" (greyed out) and "Edit".

Here's the output from some commands that seem relevant:

 ~ % lspci | grep -i ethernet
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 07)
~ % lspci | grep -i network
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (rev 34)
~ % sudo lshw -C network
PCI (sysfs)
 *-network UNCLAIMED
 description: Network controller
 product: Centrino Wireless-N 1030
 vendor: Intel Corporation
 physical id: 0
 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
 version: 34
 width: 64 bits
 clock: 33MHz
 capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
 configuration: latency=0
 resources: memory:f7c00000-f7c01fff
 *-network UNCLAIMED
 description: Ethernet controller
 product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
 vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
 physical id: 0
 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
 version: 07
 width: 64 bits
 clock: 33MHz
 capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list
 configuration: latency=0
 resources: ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f0004000-f0004fff memory:f0000000-f0003fff
~ % uname -a
Linux bleen 3.5.0-030500-generic #201207211835 SMP Sat Jul 21 22:35:55 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
~ % ifconfig 
lo Link encap:Local Loopback

 inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
 RX packets:472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 TX packets:472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
 RX bytes:35080 (35.0 KB) TX bytes:35080 (35.0 KB)
~ % ifconfig eth0 up
eth0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

I think that UNCLAIMED means I don't have a driver for the Ethernet controller. It seems that the driver should be called something including 816 (I don't remember where I found that), and it does seem to be missing:

~ % lsmod | grep 816
~ % 

I tried downloading and installing the driver (after moving on a USB stick from a computer with a connection), but I get this issue:

~/r8168-8.037.00 % sudo ./autorun.sh 
Check old driver and unload it.
Build the module and install
make: * /lib/modules/3.5.0-030500-generic/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make1:  [clean] Error 2
make: ** [clean] Error 2

Not sure what to do next.

This question turned out to have two answers, both suggested by @JosephR in the comments.

1) Fixing the /lib/modules/3.5.0-030500-generic/build: No such file or directory error while trying to install the ethernet driver just needed a sudo ln -sv /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build - after I did that, the driver install from source worked fine, and I got an ethernet connection.

(Presumably repeating the process with the driver for the wireless controller would have made that work too, but I didn't actually try, due to solution #2.)

2) It turned out that if I just booted with the other kernel that was already installed (3.5.0-41-generic instead of 3.5.0-030500-generic - I don't actually know what the difference is), both the ethernet and the wireless worked fine!

It also solved some other problems I was having after the upgrade. So I changed the default boot kernel to that, and will probably stick with that unless I run into other issues.

I had faced a similar problem when a working wifi connection stopped working after a dist-upgrade. (I have HP Pavilion g6, the driver being ralink3290).
The problem was that the upgrade modified the module and so the driver that was being used was not the same as was supposed to be used by my system.

• 
  

  Use this command to see which wireless controller hardware you are using

  
  
  

  $ lspci | grep Network
  

  
  
  

  The output for me was: Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3290

  
  

All I had to do was:

• 
  

  Check if the conflicting wireless drivers are still blacklisted

  
  
  

  $ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf`
  

  
  


• 
  

  Add these lines, if not already present:

  
  
  

  # Conflicting wireless drivers with rt3290sta
  blacklist rt2800pci
  

  
  


• 
  

  Load the correct module on boot

  
  
  

  $ sudo gedit /etc/modules`
  

  
  

(Check for your own module as per your drivers)

• Add this line at the end of the file: rt3290sta



• 
  

  Update the modification you just made:

  
  
  

  $ sudo update-initramfs -u`
  

  
  


• 
  

  Restart your system

  
  
  

  $ sudo shutdown -r now
  

  
  

You should now be able to view the wireless connections in the Network Manager.

I need to give an updated answer to this question, because this also happened to me, this year. In my case, after the last update to the Kernel all older (discontinued) firmware was dropped and so I was left without it.

First, YES, UNCLAIMED means: no driver (or firmware interface) found that are registered with the OS to handle the device.

See the output of:

dmesg

You can now go the GIT Route, clone the repository, find the appropriate firmware and install it:

sudo cp iwlwifi-*.ucode /lib/firmware

Or see if the manufacturer is listed and indexed here:
wireless wiki drivers

After restarting:

As we can see Linux tried to use newer drivers but found only the iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode

Regards.