I have booted a HP Elitebook 8560p notebook with a Linux Netrunner previously installed on this notebook, installed on a USB stick, Grub Bootloader in the MBR of the stick.
However, WLAN could not be set up as usual, because the message came that no selectable WLAN networks are available. I then shut down Netrunner and booted the notebook with Windows 10 pro from the internal SSD after removing the USB stick, but Wi-Fi was not connected as usual.
The troubleshooter prompted me to switch on the WLAN manually, even though the corresponding button glowed white. All attempts to activate WLAN manually did not work.
Device Manager:
No error message, the Intel WLAN adapter Centrino Advanced N-6205 was active and was shown to work properly.
BIOS:
WLAN was activated
A search on the Internet showed me similar problems but without a solution. Reinstalling the Intel driver didn't work, tried all the suggested solutions, nothing helped.
After a day of frustration, I booted a Linux Mint, Wi-Fi worked immediately, then booted Windows 10 pro, Wi-Fi didn't work!
Then alternately booted different Linux distributions, WLAN almost always worked, Windows always booted afterwards and after maybe the tenth attempt, WLAN suddenly worked again in Windows!
Can someone explain what happened there?
At what point did the booting of Netrunner disable WLAN?
Why did the reboot of other Linux distributions (Mint, Academix, Xubuntu, Manjaro and others) reactivate the WLAN adapter and make it available again for Windows?
I'm happy about every attempt to explain.
Regards, Dalko
Hard to say. I could imagine that the Windows and Linux drivers for the card got in each other's way. How exactly you should look, but is probably not worth the effort.
The effort to get the notebook up and running again was huge and I was not aware that I could damage a working computer by booting a Linux distribution from the USB stick.
Since this has happened the second time, I would like to know whether I can avoid this and where this undesirable change takes place. If that happens, I would like to know the repair route better. Does a BIOS reset bring anything to the default values? Could you flash the BIOS again? I don't know where to start.
A live distribution can be more problematic than a real installation.
Instead of using a live distro, you could create 2 partitions in the future if you want to use it more often. One for Win10 and one for Linux. Then you can switch back and forth between the two during the boot process. Otherwise keep all systems up to date. That can fix the problem. I would advise against flashing bios as long as it is not absolutely necessary. You can try it. You only update the bios if there's no other option. Since you have a notebook from HP there's probably a slightly modified UEFI on it, it is possible that the problem could be solved this way.
It was not a live distribution, but a real installation. I will describe my usual procedure:
In order not to change the HDD with an installed OS (Windows or Linux or…), I always install other operating systems on an external memory (USB stick, USB hard drive, hard drive connected via eSATA etc.) and install the boot loader (mostly Grub2 ) in the MBR of the external drive.
If I do not connect this external drive to the computer, the computer with the internally installed OS should remain unchanged and there should be no problems during booting and operation. If I connect an external OS carrier and boot the computer, nothing should happen other than querying the BIOS that changes the computer with the original OS in any way.
Only if I access the internal hard drive from the externally booted OS could something be changed.
So far, there's a consequent separation of the different OS, no partitioning with the associated risks, and the different bootloaders can't overwrite each other.
And now I have to experience that despite this procedure, there's mutual interference and certain functions are suddenly no longer available and can no longer be switched on.
For example, another notebook suddenly lost its keyboard backlight and it could no longer be activated in Windows. By chance, after a test of another Linux distribution, the keyboard lighting was back! So if the lighting can no longer be activated after working with a specific Linux distribution, I access the other Linux distribution, boot the computer, the lighting is back, even later in the restarted Windows!
And that's exactly what I don't understand. At what point does the change take place?
Hi sorry for the late reply. I was a little chipped.
I can't give you a direct answer. I just don't know enough about your system for that. Try to do it all the way through a series of tests. You never know, maybe you're on the trail of something.
So something like this:
try different Linux distros.
try different USB sticks. Maybe an external HDD
at the end you try the BIOS update.
You write the whole thing in a list and you can put it in here again. Maybe a pattern can be seen
