Enable wireless greyed out in Network Manager

[ppatrick]

This is amazing... I cannot understand how Ubuntu launches a version with this bug....

I tested 8.10 desktop on a Tecra M5 with an internal Intel wireless card and a more powerful PCMCIA Proxim/Orinoco 8470-WD.

If the laptop wireless enabler switch is not ON both cards are discovered but the wireless function cannot be activated (grayed). I've also added an USB Dlink DWL-G122 with the same results...

When I turned the internal intel card on using the laptop switch Ubuntu enables all the wireless devices...

botom line,
if your laptop switch is not on you won't get wireless services no matter what... if your button is ON you'll get wireless but no way to switch off the generally very weak internal wireless card...

after that and SEVERAL tries I've got connected on my internal Intel card, the Proxim couldn't connect...
I've been just using the drivers the installation process sets.

UBUNTU please solve this nightmare....

[JoshAF1986]

I have the same problem. I right-clicked on the network icon on the panel (ACER Aspire One 110 with Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix) and disabled the wireless. Now it is all greyed out and nothing I do will change that.

I've tried blacklisting acer_wmi and loadin ath5k, I've tried using the madwifi driver, and on typing "sudo ifconfig wlan0 up" in the terminal I get the response "SIOCSIFFLAGS: Resource temporarily unavailable".
I must admit that I haven't a clue what it was I was attempting, I just read on forums people's solutions and tried them out...

My wifi did work out-of-the-box, untill I manually disabled it. How can I re-enable it?My greyed out area says:

Wired Network
disconnected
Wireless Networks
device not ready
___________________
VPN Connections >

[timClicks]

really need to reiterate that this has been a problem for me also. When I accidently flick the wireless switch to off, flicking it to on doesn't help. Network manager wont allow me to enable wireless (I assume this is because you need to be root.) Could the devs please change network manager so that you can enter your root password through the GUI.

On a brighter note, ifconfig did work. Phew!

[JoshAF1986]

don' ask me why, but after multiple reboots and hair-pulling, ifconfig worked for me too...

I'm not gonna go looking for answers, lets just say there is a God and he enjoys frustrating us!

[Yondergod22]

How does the wireless switch on the laptop figure into this?

I ran `ifconfig wlan0 up`, and I got the error msg:
wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

What was it supposed to do?

*TimDaniels*

I don't know much, but I *might* be able to help

what's the output of
ifconfig and iwconfig

[Egi_Power]

Hi!

I had some trouble with my wireless also, but it's now sorted out, big thanks goes to chili555: ipw2200 problems in Hardy, Acer Aspire 1690
I was lucky, because it took just a couple of days.

On the Networking & Wireless page there are 2 sticky threads (at the time of writing).
One of them is Supported wireless cards list and procedure to get help. -> There is a link HOWTO post a Wireless issue (ticket) by gnusci.
I would recommend that you attach the outputs of those commands in the terminal in your post, as I did it in my thread.

EDIT:
These are the commands I meant:
1 ) Machine Brand and Model (PC/Laptop):

Get it from your product information.

2 ) Wireless Brand, Model and Wireless Chipset:

$ lspci
$ lsusb

(hint) use grep to get only information about the Wireless

$ lspci -nn | grep 'Wireless Brand'

3 ) check interface:

$ ifconfig
$ iwconfig

(hint) if the Wireless interface name is wlan0 you can also use

$ iwconfig wlan0

4 ) Check for modules:

$ lsmod

(hint) search for the Wireless module

$ lsmod | grep "wlan_module_name"

5 ) Kernel boot messages

$ dmesg

(hint) the same as in (4)

6 ) Network configuration

$ sudo lshw -C network

7 ) Scan for networks:

$ iwlist scan

(hint) the same as in (3)

$ iwlist scan wlan0

8 ) Ubuntu Version:

$ lsb_release -d

9 ) Kernel/architecture (including 32 vs. 64 bit):

$ uname -mr

10 ) Restarting the network:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

END OF EDIT

It would help others to see what's wrong exactly.
Don't forget to describe your issue also.

Good luck fixing your problems.

Best regards,

Egi_Power

[samspectre]

I have been having a similar problem (in 9.04) as those described above. I'm using a Dell Studio 17 laptop. The wireless was working fine until a few days ago, and then all I got was the grayed-out "Wireless Disabled". In this thread I learned about the WiFi switch (d'oh!)... and... now it appears to be working. Thanks everyone! *slinks away*

[andrealani]

I have had the same problem: wireless perfectly working with 9.04 and then permanently greyed out after I had disabled it on purpose. Afterwards, it was impossible to activate it again ... At the end, the problem was that I had accidentally set the wireless switch to OFF The simplest possible solution ...

thx a lot for the hint

[bobdavis]

I've had Ubuntu installed on a laptop for the past couple weeks and have been attempting to get wireless working on it. Wired connection works fine. I was under the impression that Ubuntu was not recognizing the on board wireless (because the "enable wireless tab is greyed out on network manager) and so spent much energy trying to install Linux drivers or set up ndiswrapper to work with XP drivers but this seems to not be the problem after all.

I've just purchased a Belkin wireless "G" USB adapter model F5D7050 because it was listed as working "out of the box" and I am still having the same problem, but importantly it also made me notice something. If I double click on the network manager icon this is what I see:

-------------------------
Wired network
O auto eth0
Wireless Network (Belkin F5D7050 V4000)
wireless is disabled
Wireless Network (Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2])
wireless is disabled
-------------------------

with all the above greyed out.

right clicking on the network manager icon shows the "enable networking" option checked and "enable wireless" below it unchecked but it is greyed out.

Can someone please tell me why this option is not checkable? It seems that ubuntu recognizes both the on board wireless and the belkin usb adapter.

Please tell me what I'm missing.

Thanks.

I have a Dell Vostro 1500 Notebook. The Wireless switch on the left side did the trick. Grey-out disappeared and it immediately logged on to the wireless network.

[cris007]

HERE MAY BE THE SOLUTION. I had the same problem with the grayed out Enable Wireless. I tried lots of things I found on different forums with no results. After hours of work it turned out I disabled the wireless from Windows (I have both Windows XP and Linux Mint on my laptop). The wireless button would have no effect in Linux if the wireless was disabled in Windows. After enabling the wireless in Windows and restarting in linux the wireless worked perfect. Also the wireless button worked after that: it would enable/disable my wireless in Linux. Don't know how to explain this, I suppose it must be hardware specific and somehow when disabling the wireless in Windows it really did something with the wireless hardware (turn off). If anyone can explain it would be nice. Hope it helps some of you.