Weird wireless failure...

[Hippytaff]

Try it with another os (a live CD of mint etc) or even windows to see if it works then. This should help varify the staus of the card

[aSteve]

Another step down the rabbit hole... I replaced my usb-flash-drive (suspecting the old one faulty) and the eeepc still would only boot from the H/D... then I stumbled upon a 'hidden' undocumented boot menu that only appears if I press F2 and escape lots at boot time, then choose not to alter any bios settings. Very counter-intuitive, but it works - it lets me boot from USB.

I booted to the latest Ubuntu Netbook remix live-ISO, and - just as with my default configuration - the wi-fi didn't work. On investigating the syslog, however, I found completely different feedback by way of explanation:

Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu acpid: waiting for events: event logging is off
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.298213] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel'
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.318863] Registered led device: rt2800pci-phy0::radio
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.318952] Registered led device: rt2800pci-phy0::assoc
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.319023] Registered led device: rt2800pci-phy0::quality
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.416231] rt2860sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> found WiFi radio killswitch rfkill2 (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:01:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill2) (driver <unknown>)
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:01:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0)
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:01:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01).
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): new 802.11 WiFi device (driver: 'rt2800pci' ifindex: 3)
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): now managed
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 1 -> 2 (reason 2)
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): bringing up device.
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.741860] phy0 -> rt2800pci_load_firmware: Error - PBF system register not ready.
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu kernel: [   36.742390] phy0 -> rt2x00pci_regbusy_read: Error - Indirect register access failed: offset=0x00007010, value=0x0a218fc0
Mar 29 12:03:43 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 2).
Mar 29 12:03:44 ubuntu kernel: [   36.788108] phy0 -> rt2800pci_load_firmware: Error - PBF system register not ready.
Mar 29 12:03:44 ubuntu kernel: [   36.788637] phy0 -> rt2x00pci_regbusy_read: Error - Indirect register access failed: offset=0x00007010, value=0x0a218fc0
Mar 29 12:03:44 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state:  starting -> ready
Mar 29 12:03:44 ubuntu NetworkManager[2488]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 2 -> 3 (reason 42)
Mar 29 12:03:44 ubuntu wpa_supplicant[2760]: Failed to initiate AP scan.
Mar 29 12:03:44 ubuntu wpa_supplicant[2760]: Failed to initiate AP scan.

This surprised me as there was no slew of low-level kernel errors... and the diagnostics look far more helpful. I was intrigued by the rfkill2 stuff - but this didn't make sense in the context of the output of rfkill - which seems to contradict the log...

0: eeepc-wlan: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: eeepc-bluetooth: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no

So, apparently, the RaLink device has "WiFi radio killswitch rfkill2 (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:01:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill2" - but it is not blocked by rfkill... which, unfortunately, leaves me stumped... again.