The Intel Centrino Wireless N card is on the Dell N4010 and some other laptops. In this case it was the N4010 that a buddy of mine had which gave him the trouble. It’s a compatible card, but needs some nudging to get it to work.
The N4010 also has a software kill button in the form of the F2 key. Bear that in mind when using this machine.
Start by installing rfkill:
sudo apt-get install rfkill
Now check the status of the card:
sudo rfkill list
You should get output similar to the following:
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no 1: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: yes
Take a look at dell-wifi‘s Hard blocked status. If it’s yes, your card is disabled via the F2-keys kill function. Hit the F2 key and do…
sudo rfkill list
…again. Your output should now resemble the above.
Now unblock by doing the following:
sudo rfkill unblock all sudo rfkill list
Your output should now look like the following:
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 1: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no
Your card should now work normally. Now check the connection manager for wireless networks. Reboot and verify you still have connectivity.
MikeBeach.org 