How to change the wifi firmware in use

Question

I'm having instability problems with my wifi, which apparently uses the iwlwifi driver that people have a lot of problems with. Looking at the output of modinfo iwlwifi, I see (among other things) this list:

filename:       /lib/modules/4.2.0-34-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko
license:        GPL
author:         Copyright(c) 2003- 2015 Intel Corporation <[email protected]>
description:    Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
firmware:       iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7265D-12.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7265-12.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-3160-12.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7260-12.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-8000-12.ucode

However, I downloaded the a firmware from Intel, and I remember that it was iwlwifi-7260-13.ucode which I don't see in this list.

I suppose then, that this firmware is not being used. How can I verify this, and how can I make it being used?

EDIT Adding more info. Output of ls /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260*

/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-10.ucode 
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-12.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-8.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-13.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-9.ucode

Output of dmesg | grep iwlwifi:

[    3.022242] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-15.ucode failed with error -2
[    3.022266] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-14.ucode failed with error -2
[    3.027457] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: loaded firmware version 25.30.13.0 op_mode iwlmvm
[    3.054662] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless N 7260, REV=0x144
[    3.054768] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[    3.055031] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[    3.564903] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[    3.565165] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[    3.756290] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled
[    3.756555] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Enabled

EDIT: Although not a perfect solution as he wifi still breaks some times, the suggestion in the comments of the accepted answer to use v 14 of the firmware, really improved the wifi connection! Now whenever it fails I just use sudo service network-manager restart and everything is back to normal!

Solution

Your firmware has been loaded succesfully. You can see it here

[    3.027457] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: loaded firmware version 25.30.13.0 op_mode iwlmvm

It is not shown in modinfo for some reason but it does not affect anything. Probably the modinfo binary should be updated.

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 and it shows up to 13. Yours is older and shows up to 12.

See my output:

pilot6@X200MA:~$ modinfo iwlwifi | grep firmware
firmware:       iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7265-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-3160-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7260-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-8000-13.ucode

[   11.883068] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-17.ucode failed with error -2
[   11.949453] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 16.242414.0 op_mode iwlmvm
[   12.173196] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 7260, REV=0x144

Comments

[Pilot6]

You downloaded firmware, not a driver. What did you do with the firmware file?

[Pedro Gordo]

I've put it in /lib/firmware/. Thanks for the correction!

[Pilot6]

You probably made some mistake. Please post output of ls /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260* to your question.

[Pilot6]

And also lets see what firmware has been loaded. Post output of dmesg | grep iwlwifi.

[Pilot6]

And 13 is not the latest firmware. There is 13,14 and 16 already.

[Pilot6]

I am using 16 iwlwifi firmware. It is not shown in modinfo either. That's not a problem.

[Pedro Gordo]

I don't really understand how this al connects together :( It's my 2nd day of Ubuntu, and back at Windows this was usually all done for me. I already added the info you requested.

[Pedro Gordo]

I thought I had found the reason for the wifi instability, but seems it's just another dead end. I'll create a question for help on debugging the instability. Thanks anyway!

[Pilot6]

I have exactly same wireless adapter. And you I have no problems with it. But I had to update restrictions for my country. Do you have problems on 5 GHz?

[Pedro Gordo]

Not sure what you mean by 5 GHz but I imagine you're referring to the WiFi band. I just checked my router and the band is 2.4 GHz.

[Pilot6]

I have no ideas then. The adapter works perfectly for me. Try 14 firmware wireless.wiki.kernel.org/_media/en/users/drivers/…

[Pedro Gordo]

Ok, I've added 14, let's see if it holds. One question though, why did you said just the 14 and not the 15 as well? In my output it also says Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-15.ucode failed with error -2.

[Pilot6]

It is OK. Kernel tries to load all firmware from the highest number. The 15 version has never been released. But 16 will not work on your current kernel. For me both 14 and 16 on kernel 4.4 work quite well. May be you have other kind of wireless problems.

[Pedro Gordo]

Ok mate, some dayss later the wifi, although it still breaks some times, it's considerably less times than before, so I think it's safe to say your suggestion of using version 14 worked! Thanks!