Linux mint. Why is there no wifi?

Question

linux

Good afternoon.
The problem is that a freshly installed linux mint 17.3 does not even have the ability to search for wireless networks.
(There is no 'wifi' button, only 'Wired networks')
We have:
Laptop - msi gl72 6qf

$ uname -a
Linux mintPC 3.19.0-32-generic #37~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 22 09:41:40 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ lspci -nnk | grep -i net -A2
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:3165] (rev 81)
  Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:4010]
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:10a1] (rev 10)
  Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:115b]
  Kernel driver in use: alx
$ rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether d8:cb:8a:f0:8a:49 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.100/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 2a02:2168:cd9:3a00:d15c:db81:fc4b:2c84/64 scope global temporary dynamic 
       valid_lft 1757sec preferred_lft 1757sec
    inet6 2a02:2168:cd9:3a00:dacb:8aff:fef0:8a49/64 scope global dynamic 
       valid_lft 1757sec preferred_lft 1757sec
    inet6 fe80::dacb:8aff:fef0:8a49/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
$ dmesg | grep alx
[    0.949169] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: Qualcomm Atheros AR816x/AR817x Ethernet [d8:cb:8a:f0:8a:49]
[    3.812120] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full
[  397.971337] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full
[  447.273064] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full
[  451.340191] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full
[  451.399661] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full
[  534.210553] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full
[  536.330194] alx 0000:03:00.0 eth0: NIC Up: 1 Gbps Full

There is also a broken internet. Lots of possible "solutions" to problems. None of which help.

Answer 1

Linux Mint 17.3 was released in 2015, the laptop was released in 2016. The kernel is also old. Therefore, we can assume that there is no firewood for a new adapter. In general, version 17 is a strange choice in 2018. Install 18.3 and it will work

Answer 2

There is a topic here marked as "solved". The distribution kit is fresher, if anything - replace yours with it.