Lenovo Z70 wifi with 14.04.2 and kernel 3.16 not working

I'm trying to install 14.04.2 on a new Lenovo Z70, replacing Win 8.1, but on this hardware but no wireless capabilities seem to be found. Elsewhere I see that the 3.16 kernel is required, but 14.04.2 seems to use that kernel. Can someone please point me in the right direction? Thanks!

The diagnostic output from this script can be found here.

Solution 1:

Your very new device, Qualcomm Atheros Device [168c:003e], is covered in the mainline kernel version 4.0: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/ The module ath10k_pci covers the subject device:

modinfo ath10k_pci
filename:       /lib/modules/4.0.1-040001-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath10k/ath10k_pci.ko
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board.bin
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-3.bin
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-2.bin
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware.bin
license:        Dual BSD/GPL
description:    Driver support for Atheros QCA988X PCIe devices
author:         Qualcomm Atheros
srcversion:     837C8B320227AB6A933D58D
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000003Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000003Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
<snip>

As you can see, the driver requires firmware. My default 15.04 install includes most of it. If firmware is an issue, according to dmesg, I suggest you do:

sudo apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/sumdog/ath10k-firmware.git
cd ath10k-firmware/ath10k
sudo cp -r QCA6174/  /lib/firmware/ath10k

Correct the permissions of the files:

sudo chmod +x /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/*

Now unload and reload the driver:

sudo modprobe -r ath10k_pci  &&  sudo modprobe ath10k_pci

And check:

dmesg | grep ath

I have been unable to find cal-pci-000:03:0.0.bin anywhere, nor any method to extract it by any means. I did read that a module parameter may help. Let's try:

sudo -i
echo "options ath10k_core skip_otp=y"  >  /etc/modprobe.d/ath10k_core.conf
exit

Reboot. Check as above.

If you need guidance about how to install the 4.0 kernel, please check here: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2015/04/upgrade-to-linux-kernel-4-0-in-ubuntu/