No Wifi in Qualcom Atheros - Ubuntu 16.04 - Acer Aspire E 15

Question

After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 in Acer laptop with Qualcom Atheros , it does not work. I tried ,

sudo rfkill list all
0: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no

Then , checked

uname -r
4.4.0-21-generic

and , as suggested I tried ,

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net; dmesg | grep ath10k
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 15)
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [1025:0987]
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
    Kernel modules: r8169
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros Device [168c:0042] (rev 30)
    Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device [105b:e09a]
    Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
[    7.100283] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: pci irq msi interrupts 1 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[    7.390307] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:03:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[    7.390332] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[    7.390336] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin': -2
[    7.390350] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-4.bin failed with error -2
[    7.390353] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-4.bin': -2
[    7.390365] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-3.bin failed with error -2
[    7.390369] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-3.bin': -2
[    7.390381] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-2.bin failed with error -2
[    7.390384] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-2.bin': -2
[    7.390396] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware.bin failed with error -2
[    7.390398] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware (-2)
[    7.390401] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware files (-2)
[    7.390404] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not probe fw (-2)

Now what should I do ??

Solution

Your driver requires firmware that is missing:

Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2

With a working internet connection by ethernet, tethered or whatever means possible, please open a terminal and do:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware.git
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0
cd ath10k-firmware/QCA9377/hw1.0
sudo cp *  /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0
cd /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0
sudo mv firmware-5.bin_WLAN.TF.1.0-00267-1  firmware-5.bin

Reboot and your wireless should be working.

Comments

[chili555]

It is a relatively new device and all the correct firmware has not yet quite made it into linux-firmware in the Ubuntu repositories. I'm glad it's working.

[Jeremy31]

glad to see it is working @chili555 I have no idea why Kale hasn't sent the board-2.bin files upstream, he has had them for 2 months now