Wireless card firmware (Intel 3165 iwlwifi) only available for kernel 4.1+: any options for kernel 3.19?

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron i7559, which has an unfortunate combination of a NVidia GTX960M and an Intel 3165 AC card. All proprietary NVidia drivers only seem to work on the 3.x kernels, whereas the official iwlwifi firmware for this card is only available on kernel 4.1+: so currently I am on 3.19 because I need the GPU and I am using a USB wireless module.

So, I am wondering if there are any options for making the internal card usable in kernel 3.19. Ubuntu detects it as an Intel 3165 card. For more information:

$ lshw -C network
 *-network UNCLAIMED
   description: Network controller
   product: Intel Corporation
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
   version: 79
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: memory:df200000-df201fff

$ lspci
05:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Device 3165 (rev 79)

Thanks for your time!

Solution

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

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/2015/11/20/backports-20151120.tar.gz
tar -zxvf backports-20151120.tar.gz
cd backports-20151120
make defconfig-iwlwifi
make
sudo make install

Now we need the latest firmware. First, verify that you have these two files; iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode and iwlwifi-7265-13.ucode:

ls /lib/firmware | grep 7265

If so, we are going to make copies but rename them:

cd /lib/firmware
sudo cp iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode  iwlwifi-3165-9.ucode
sudo cp iwlwifi-7265-13.ucode  iwlwifi-3165-13.ucode

Reboot. Your wireless should be working.

You will need to recompile every time Update Manager installs a later kernel, known as linux-image. After the requested reboot, recompile:

cd backports-20151120
make clean
make defconfig-iwlwifi
make
sudo make install

Please retain the file and these instructions for that time.

Comments

[Ashu]

Sorry i am not able to get *7265*13 files after issuing this command "ls /lib/firmware | grep 7265"

[Ashu]

Working for me now.

[jonathanwiesel]

After said instructions and "sudo modprobe iwlwifi" finally wifi started working. Many thanks

[Sandeep]

Thank you chilli55!! That worked perfectly. ls /lib/firmware | grep 7265 gave few more files, can those be left untouched? Also, please let us know if there are some additional steps that we need to follow while upgrading to next ubuntu release. I was certainly scared that my wifi would not work.. Thank you so much for the help. Really appreciate it..

[chili555]

@Manty You may safely leave the extra firmware files untouched. The driver will select the file it needs, typically the newest, without human intervention. When updating to the next release, the driver will probably already be included, as it is in 15.10 for example.