System details: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, kernel is 3.5.0-45-generic, laptop is Dell Sputnik 3 XPS 13, wireless card is Intel Wireless 7260(rev 6b)

I was having trouble connecting to my campus CS wireless but not any other networks. My sysadmin suggested using a fix from here. I installed the backports in the accepted answer and rebooted. When I rebooted NetworkManager was not detecting my wireless card and the wlan0 interface was not up and running. I immediately uninstalled the backports but the issue persisted. I tried installing the drivers for my system from here but that did not fix the issue either. I assume a factory restore would fix the problem, but I would prefer to avoid that.

In anticipation of requests for certain output:

lspci | grep Network

02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 6b)

lshw -C network

*-network

    description: Network controller

    product: Wireless 7260

    vendor: Intel Corporation

    physical id: 0

    bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0

    version: 6b

    width: 64 bits

    clock: 33MHz

    capabilities: bus_master cap_list

    configuration: driver=iwlwifi latency=0

    resources: irq:59 memory:f0400000-f0401fff

dmesg | grep iwl

[    7.675832] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: irq 59 for MSI/MSI-X

[    7.676309] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Selected bus type = PCI

[    7.845366] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 22.0.6.0 op_mode iwlmvm

[    7.879810] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_start_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe

[    7.879814] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_start_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe (err -22)

[    7.879820] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_connection_loss

[    7.879822] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_connection_loss (err -22)

[    7.879827] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_report_wowlan_wakeup

[    7.879828] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_report_wowlan_wakeup (err -22)

[    7.879834] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_sched_scan_stopped

[    7.879836] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_sched_scan_stopped (err -22)

[    7.879865] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_free_hw

[    7.879866] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_free_hw (err -22)

[    7.879874] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_get_tkip_p2k

[    7.879876] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_get_tkip_p2k (err -22)

[    7.879881] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_alloc_hw

[    7.879883] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_alloc_hw (err -22)

[    7.879891] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_beacon_loss

[    7.879893] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_beacon_loss (err -22)

[    7.879904] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_register_hw

[    7.879906] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_register_hw (err -22)

[    7.879912] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_restart_hw

[    7.879914] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_restart_hw (err -22)

[    7.879917] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_rate_control_unregister

[    7.879919] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_rate_control_unregister (err -22)

[    7.879923] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_radio_led_name

[    7.879925] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_radio_led_name (err -22)

[    7.879943] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_wake_queue

[    7.879945] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_wake_queue (err -22)

[    7.879972] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_iter_keys

[    7.879974] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_iter_keys (err -22)

[    7.879988] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol wiphy_rfkill_set_hw_state

[    7.879990] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol wiphy_rfkill_set_hw_state (err -22)

[    7.880014] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_enable_rssi_reports

[    7.880015] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_enable_rssi_reports (err -22)

[    7.880019] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe

[    7.880021] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe (err -22)

[    7.880025] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_ave_rssi

[    7.880027] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_ave_rssi (err -22)

[    7.880033] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_sta_block_awake

[    7.880035] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_sta_block_awake (err -22)

[    7.880039] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_remain_on_channel_expired

[    7.880041] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_remain_on_channel_expired (err -22)

[    7.880056] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_wake_queues

[    7.880058] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_wake_queues (err -22)

[    7.880061] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces

[    7.880063] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces (err -22)

[    7.880066] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_rate_control_register

[    7.880068] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_rate_control_register (err -22)

[    7.880072] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_free_txskb

[    7.880074] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_free_txskb (err -22)

[    7.880094] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_tx_status

[    7.880096] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_tx_status (err -22)

[    7.880099] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_queue

[    7.880101] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_queue (err -22)

[    7.880108] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_ready_on_channel

[    7.880110] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_ready_on_channel (err -22)

[    7.880114] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_queues

[    7.880116] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_queues (err -22)

[    7.880130] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_sched_scan_results

[    7.880131] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_sched_scan_results (err -22)

[    7.880138] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_data_to_8023

[    7.880140] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_data_to_8023 (err -22)

[    7.880148] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_scan_completed

[    7.880150] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_scan_completed (err -22)

[    7.880153] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces_atomic

[    7.880155] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces_atomic (err -22)

[    7.880163] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol rate_control_send_low

[    7.880165] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol rate_control_send_low (err -22)

[    7.880173] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_unregister_hw

[    7.880175] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_unregister_hw (err -22)

[    7.880179] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_resume_disconnect

[    7.880181] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_resume_disconnect (err -22)

[    7.880189] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_beacon_get_tim

[    7.880191] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_beacon_get_tim (err -22)

[    7.880215] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol cfg80211_chandef_create

[    7.880217] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol cfg80211_chandef_create (err -22)

[    7.880221] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_request_smps

[    7.880223] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_request_smps (err -22)

[    7.880263] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_disable_rssi_reports

[    7.880265] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol ieee80211_disable_rssi_reports (err -22)

[    7.880279] iwlmvm: disagrees about version of symbol mac80211_ieee80211_rx

[    7.880281] iwlmvm: Unknown symbol mac80211_ieee80211_rx (err -22)

[    7.880520] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: failed to load module iwlmvm (error 256), is dynamic loading enabled?

Content of /etc/network/devnames

wlan0:Intel Corporation Device 08b1

Content of /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool



State: disconnected

If anyone could help me with this that would be awesome. The laptop doesn't have an ethernet port so I depend on the wireless working.

EDIT: chili555 helped me get this working via chat. The issue was Dell forces the laptop to use version 3.10 of the backports via DKMS. We removed that from DKMS then we installed 3.13. Note that every time a new kernel is installed 3.13 needs to be recompiled and reinstalled for the new kernel.