47. Troubleshooting

Network troubleshooting

Before attempting any troubleshooting, ensure that the network connections are enabled:

Click the NetworkManager icon in the notification area

Check Enable Networking

Check Enable Wi-Fi

If your network connection still doesn't work:

For wired (Ethernet) connections, please see General troubleshooting

For wireless connections, please see both General troubleshooting and Wireless troubleshooting

If your network connection problems are still not resolved, see Advanced troubleshooting

General troubleshooting

If your network connection is not working properly, there are a few tools that can be used to help diagnose the problem.

Get information about the current connection

To get information about your network connection and network devices, you have two options:

Using NetworkManager

Click on the NetworkManager icon

Select Connection Information. If this is disabled, it is likely there is no active connection. Try using the ip command to find out more.

Each active connection will have its own tab where you can find relevant connection information

Using ip

Open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command ip address then press the Enter key.

ip will show you extensive information about your connection, including logical or connection name(s) (e.g. enp3s0) in the first row, IP address in the inet row and the MAC address for your device in the link/ether row

Check if a connection is working properly

A reliable method to check if a connection is working properly is to ping another computer on the network or the Internet.

To check if your computer is connected to the Internet, open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command ping -c 3 www.xubuntu.org then press the Enter key.

The computer will then attempt to contact www.xubuntu.org three times and display the results. The ping statistics display the number of packets transmitted, how many packets were received, the percentage of packet loss, and the total time spent.

0% packet loss indicates that your computer is connected to the Internet

Greater than 0% but less than 100% packet loss indicates that your computer has a poor connection to the Internet or a poor wireless signal

100% packet loss indicates that your computer has a very bad connection, or is connected to an access point or router that is not connected to the Internet

If you get an error message that says “www.xubuntu.org can not be found” or “unknown host”, then your computer is probably not connected to the Internet or is unable to reach a Domain Name System (DNS) server.

Wireless troubleshooting

This section covers some common problems faced with wireless support. There is much more information available in the Community Help Wiki.


	Please note that the steps in this troubleshooting guide are designed to be carried out in the order shown, unless you are pointed to a different subsection.

Check that the device is turned on

Many wireless network devices can be turned on or off. Check for a hardware switch or a keyboard function key to turn the wireless device on.

If the device is turned on, continue to the next topic.

Check if the device is recognized

Open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command sudo lshw -C network, then press the Enter key. You will see some output, along with the words CLAIMED, UNCLAIMED, ENABLED or DISABLED.

CLAIMED indicates that a driver is loaded but not functioning. Continue to Using Windows wireless drivers.

UNCLAIMED indicates that there is no driver loaded. Continue to Using Windows wireless drivers.

ENABLED indicates that the driver is installed and working. Continue to section Checking for a connection to the router.

DISABLED indicates the driver is installed, but disabled. Continue to Check that the device is turned on.

Using Windows wireless drivers

Xubuntu supports a system known as NDISWrapper. This allows you to use a Windows wireless device driver under Xubuntu. To start using NDISWrapper:

Obtain the Windows driver for your network device and locate the file that ends with .inf

Install the ndisgtk package

Go to → Settings Manager → Windows Wireless Drivers

Select Install new driver

Choose the location of your Windows .inf file and click Install

Click OK

Checking for a connection to the router

Open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command iwconfig then press the Enter key.

If the ESSID for your router is displayed, there may be a problem with ACPI support. Boot Xubuntu with the pci=noacpi option.

Advanced troubleshooting

The following troubleshooting methods are a bit more technical. Please try these methods only if the above methods failed.

Checking IP assignment

Open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command ip address then press the Enter key. If there is an IP address displayed, continue to Check Domain Name Servers (DNS).

From the terminal enter the following command, replacing enp3s0 with the name of the connection shown in the output from the ip address command: sudo dhclient enp3s0

If you receive a message that says bound to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx continue to Check Domain Name Servers (DNS)

If not, reboot the system

Check Domain Name Servers (DNS)

Open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command nmcli device show then press the Enter key. Look for the entries under IP4.DNS

To check if the listed DNS works, open a terminal ( → Accessories → Terminal Emulator), type the command dig xubuntu.org then press the Enter key. If you see the word NOERROR in the header section of the output, your DNS is working.

If there are no DNS settings listed, contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP), and find out your primary and secondary domain name servers.