I too had this problem recently during my first Linux test drive.

The network set up you’re describing is actually the process for setting up your device as a hotspot, not to connect to the Internet.

As mentioned here elsewhere, it’s a driver issue. You have two choices:

1. Download drivers to the USB drive and update the WiFi chip.
2. Easier: connect your phone’s hotspot by Bluetooth connection from the device instead. Then run the update manager to bring in everything that’s missing.

After this you should be able to click the system tray network icon and just pick your WiFi connection/router of choice like you’d normally expect to be there.

As it might be a driver issue, it may be useful to specify the wifi chip and the used driver as well. You can e.g. identify it from the output of lspci -vv. Also the output from sudo dmesg after trying to connect is often helpful.

Normally, the bit you clicked on would show a list of nearby possible WiFi connections - so it should be as simple as clicking the name of your WiFi and putting the password in. It's fairly likely to be a driver issue.

If you're at the "testing from a live session" stage, you can try the "edge" version of Linux Mint linuxmint.com

The edge version has a newer kernel with newer drivers for hardware - I guess they're less tested/stable than the normal version, but I wouldn't expect problems.

Mint is (was?) based on Ubuntu Long-Term-Support versions (which use older, well-tested drivers instead of the newest), so you can sometimes end up with a case where, for example, it has the WiFi drivers for every WiFi card that existed up until 2022, but any WiFi card released since isn't yet included by default - though it can be separately added, or a newer Kernel can be installed.

Anyway, it might be worth testing the Mint Edge version, as a relatively quick and simple solution - less likely to succeed if the laptop is older.

If you're unlucky, there may be no working drivers (for a while), and you may have to use a USB WiFi Dongle for a little while.

Is not definitely this, but it's this often enough that is worth trying :)

[Edit] Apologies, someone's given roughly the same answer already. Still worth trying anyway :)

I just had this experience on a Dell XPS 9530 in live usb, and the subsequent install. I used my phone over usb to update kernel to 6.5 then WiFi worked.

What program did you use to make the live usb stick? (I use Rufus, myself). Did you create a persistent partition?

(I'm wondering if "access beyond end of device" is happening because there's no storage space on the flash drive for new data, like remembering/configuring a WiFi connection)..