Unable to locate package linux-firmware-nonfree

I'm trying to resolve a problem with wireless connectivity on my Toshiba C55-C-184 laptop. I asked about this problem here.

It looks like the problem is with the Intel Corporation Wireless 3160 network controller. I've found a couple of posts that suggest making sure that the latest versions of linux-firmware and linux-firmware-nonfree are installed.

When I install linux-firmware I get

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-firmware is already the newest version (1.157.8).
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 21 not to upgrade.

so all seems OK there. But when I try to install linux-firmware-nonfree I get the following:

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package linux-firmware-nonfree

which is clearly not so good.

I did a Google search, and it seems that the package does, in fact, exist, so why can't I locate it?

As always, any help will be appreciated. Especially if you can explain why it's not working as well as how I can go about fixing it. I'm always looking to expand my working knowledge of Linux.

3 Answers

The reason your Ubuntu release (from previous question I assume it is 16.04) can't locate this package is that it was only released for older versions, namely Precise, and Trusty of the still supported releases.

This package won't help with the Intel iwlwifi driver anyway, as the Intel drivers traditionally are Open Source and already included in the default kernel firmware packages.

So to get a newer driver I would recommend to update the kernel to the HWE kernel (What is hardware enablement (HWE)?), or install a later Ubuntu release.

Further reading:

• My WiFi adapter is not working at all, how to troubleshoot?
• Intel Linux support
• Ubuntu Wiki LTS HWE

linux-firmware is already the newest version (1.157.8).

That's not quite true. I suggest that you download and install an even newer version and see if it helps your issue. If it does not, then tell us more and we'll propose another solution.

From the terminal:

wget
sudo dpkg -i linux-firmware*.deb

Reboot and let us hear your results.

@Takkat is quite correct. Intel firmware is free and will not be found in linux-firmware-nonfree.

I ran into the same problem, and found the solution:

Add a line to your /etc/apt/sources.list like this:

deb stretch main non-free

I found this answer when I tried to bypass Aptitude and download directly from Debian's package index.