No WiFi on Dell Inspiron 5559 with Debian Jessie and Kernel 4.2

How to resolve WiFi issues on Dell Inspiron 5559 running Debian Jessie with kernel 4.2.

We previously had to deploy a custom kernel 4.2 to get a sound card working.

[UPDATE 2016]: ensure that you apply the fix to the Linux kernel 4.2 as it’s vulnerable to the Dirty COW (CVE-2016-5195).

How to Resolve on Debian Jessie

For custom +4.2 kernels, check this page https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi and download an appropriate wireless driver.

# wget https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/_media/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi-3160-ucode-15.227938.0.tgz
# tar xf iwlwifi-3160-ucode-15.227938.0.tgz
# cd iwlwifi-3160-ucode-15.227938.0
# cp iwlwifi-3160-15.ucode /lib/firmware/

Reload the module:

# modprobe -r iwlwifi ; modprobe iwlwifi

WiFi should be working now.

The lspci snippet:

01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3160 (rev 83)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless AC 3160
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 125
	Memory at d1100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [d0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [40] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number 78-0c-b8-ff-ff-4b-66-8a
	Capabilities: [14c] Latency Tolerance Reporting
	Capabilities: [154] Vendor Specific Information: ID=cafe Rev=1 Len=014 <?>
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi