What other details do you have on the wifi device? Could you post chipset details of lspci output, or if usb, lsusb? Usually with the newer kernels they are adding drivers, not removing them, so unless Precise was using a wrapper with additional configuration or you installed some funky firmware to establish wifi connectivity previously, it should work. My bet is some firmware didn't get installed on your latest installs and it's likely a Broadcom wifi card since you mentioned an older laptop and are using some older kernel versions. If so, I'd look into getting the appropriate firmware to supplement the kernel drivers. Not an Ubuntu guy outside of the servers, but they probably have a gui you can search for firmware in. Isn't there one for drivers too? Assuming you can plug into Ethernet I suppose... Or use a thumb drive to transfer necessary packages over to the new install and use dpkg. -- Jeremy MountainJohnson Jeremy.MountainJohnson at gmail.com On Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 12:31 AM, gregrwm <tclug1 at whitleymott.net> wrote: > i prepared a thumbdrive with grub and a selection of lubuntu iso's for easy > installing. then tested in a free partition on a (dell inspiron) laptop. > installed trusty. no wifi. installed precise. no wifi. but huh?! this > laptop has been running precise for ages, and still is, not in the test > partition, and wifi works just fine there! i installed it myself, ages ago, > and don't remember having to do anything odd or special. > > can anyone drop me some clues how to make wifi work on the new installs, or > what to compare between the two partitions? > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >