I installed the 16.04 HWE option on the problematic HP 6710b, but it has had no effect on the wifi.
It did cause a black-screen problem and drm_wait messages, worked around by disabling SVIDEO in grub.
$ uname -rsvp
Linux 4.8.0-58-generic #63~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jun 26 18:08:51 UTC 2017 x86_64
$ dmesg | grep firm
[ 3.764045] tg3 0000:18:00.0: VPD access failed. This is likely a firmware bug on this device. Contact the card vendor for a firmware update
but I have found nothing that looks hopeful.
The change of wording from 'vpd r/w' to 'VPD access' follows kernel patch 8385431.
I found an HP advisory about the tg3 driver for Proliant servers and a specific el6 kernel, but it doesn't seem applicable here.
so still no iwl3945 firmware load. I've tried
sudo modprobe -v iwl3945 fw_restart=1, with no apparent effect.
I installed the 16.04 HWE option on the problematic HP 6710b, but it has had no effect on the wifi.
It did cause a black-screen problem and drm_wait messages, worked around by disabling SVIDEO in grub.
$ uname -rsvp
Linux 4.8.0-58-generic #63~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jun 26 18:08:51 UTC 2017 x86_64
$ dmesg | grep firm
[ 3.764045] tg3 0000:18:00.0: VPD access failed. This is likely a firmware bug on this device. Contact the card vendor for a firmware update
but I have found nothing that looks hopeful.
The change of wording from 'vpd r/w' to 'VPD access' follows kernel patch 8385431.
I found an HP advisory about the tg3 driver for Proliant servers and a specific el6 kernel, but it doesn't seem applicable here.
so still no iwl3945 firmware load. I've tried
sudo modprobe -v iwl3945 fw_restart=1, with no apparent effect.