Trisquel 9 upgrade, hard drive transfer, and wifi usb
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I seem to have a trifecta of different issues and would appreciate a recommendation on a strategy.
My laptop with Trisquel 8 physically died when a screw housing broke down and allowed the power to switch on and off with small nudges of the lid. A local repair person moved the hard drive to a refurbished ThinkPad but its internal wifi doesn't work with Trisquel. I booted a Mageia 7 live image and it worked (so it's physically fine). I bought a USB wifi from ThinkPenguin. I plugged it in and booted and it connected fine. Then I did updates (including the kernel), rebooted with the wifi plugged in, and the laptop froze. If I boot without the usb wifi it runs fine (without internet connection). (I noticed some discussion on usb wifi in other threads here.)
I'd like to get the wifi working, of course, and I'd also like to upgrade to Trisquel 9. Should I try to figure out the wifi with Trisquel 8 and then upgrade, or plug in ethernet, upgrade, and then try the usb wifi? Should I do a fresh install so any new devices are correctly recognized? (They seem to be fine now, except for wifi.)
Thanks!
The Wi-Fi chipset certainly requires proprietary firmware. That is why it works with Mageia but not with Trisquel, which respects your freedom. You can keep using the USB adapter or try to replace the Wi-Fi card for that of your old computer.
You can upgrade to Trisquel 9 using 'sudo do-release-upgrade' or, if it does not work, using 'sudo do-release-upgrade -d' or, if it still does not work, using 'sudo sed -i s/flidas/etiona/ /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade'.
Q1: What is the "-d" for?
Q2: I once tried to use the "do-release-upgrade" command on a Linux Mint machine but it didn't work. Is that command specific for Trisquel, or...?
A1: "If using the latest supported release, upgrade to the development release"
See: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/en/man8/do-release-upgrade.8.html
A2: This is a command that should work on most Ubuntu based distros, based on the source for A1. Note the conditional behavior, though.
What is the model of your "new" refurbished ThinkPad? It may have usable Atheros WLAN card even with original firmware.
Whenever there is a usable internal PCI/e Atheros WLAN card, it's strongly recommend not to use a USB one. Although ath9k-htc has free/libre firmware, it still requires firmware. Having free/libre firmware is good, but having no firmware is better.
It's a Lenovo T431s. Lenovo's site offers driver downloads for the T431s:
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260
- Intel Wireless-N 7260
But that's not looking directly at the machine. If there's a way to look it up directly on the machine, let me know and I'll try to find out.
Execute in a terminal:
$ lspci
But it will not matter: no Wi-Fi chipset from Intel runs with free firmware, as far as I know. And if yours would, then, well, it would work.
T431s is supported by coreboot bloblessly. If you flash coreboot on it, you can replace the preloaded Intel 6235 with any Atheros ath9k model (M.2 2230/1630 form factor with a-key). There are two ath9k models usable on corebooted T431s: AR9462 (QCNFA222) and AR9565 (QCNFA335). However, you'll first need to remove the whitelist restriction by flashing coreboot. When you purchase such ath9k cards, be sure to purchase one with a-key. Whether it has only a-key or both a- and e-key doesn't matter, but do not purchase those with only e-key.
This sounds like a worthwhile endeavor (one more free bios instance in the world!) but I think it's beyond my ability to do alone, and I would need some direct help.
Is there anyone near Boston (USA) that has experience with this and would be willing to work with me for a reasonable fee? To find the correct card and flash coreboot (plus anything additional that might be needed). Please send me an e-mail through this forum.
Thanks!
I already told you the two available ath9k models in M.2 2230/1630 form factor. Just search QCNFA222 or QCNFA335 on ebay or elsewhere. Be sure to select one with a-key.
For coreboot flashing, you can try to contact your local GNU/Linux user group or similar communities.
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