No network, no usb after kernel update in 14.04

Solution 1:

Had a similar issue after a kernel upgrade: no network, no usb (except the old kernel worked as before).

In this case the linux-image-extra package for that kernel was not installed, so drivers were missing.

To check it's installed:

$ uname -r
4.4.0-45-generic
$ dpkg -l | grep '^ii' | grep `uname -r`
ii  linux-headers-4.4.0-45-generic             4.4.0-45.66~14.04.1                                                  i386         
ii  linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic               4.4.0-45.66~14.04.1                                                  i386        
ii  linux-image-extra-4.4.0-45-generic         4.4.0-45.66~14.04.1                                                  i386        

If the linux-image-extra package is missing in the list above install it with:

$ sudo apt-get install linux-image-extra-`uname -r`

Solution 2:

I have exactly the same issue. I run 14.04 on a 2016 XPS 13 Developer-Edition, and after this morning's update the network menu does not contain any wireless device. Wired connection is working fine.

As a workaround, after displaying the GRUB menu and booting into the previous kernel (3.19.0-64), the wireless works as before for me.

Possibly related questions here and here. The same issue has been reported on the Dell forum here. If someone has a forum account, please point them to the various reports on askubuntu. I tried to sign up, but failed. This should also be reported at launchpad.