wireless is disabled by hardware switch - natty 11.04

[converge2ashish]

That suggests a switch or slider is in the Off position. Please check.

Hey chili555, you are wonderful. Wireless switch was indeed in off position. I slided it and it is working again.

Thanks a lot,
Ashish

P.S. I was not aware of the position of WiFi hardware switch. I am attaching the right hand side snap shot of the XPS1530 which I took from Dell site
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1212382

[DarrenMayLin]

... Now let's see:

lsmod | grep wl
dmesg | grep wl

The above code didn't have any visible output. This was the entry in byobu:

Welcome to Ubuntu 11.04 (GNU/Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64)

* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/

~$ lsmod | grep wl
~$ dmesg | grep wl
~$

@Chilli555 Thanks for the explanation of the module.

[chili555]

The above code didn't have any visible output. This was the entry in byobu:

Welcome to Ubuntu 11.04 (GNU/Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64)

* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/

~$ lsmod | grep wl
~$ dmesg | grep wl
~$

@Chilli555 Thanks for the explanation of the module.

Please connect an ethernet cable and do:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe wl

Now is your wireless working?

[jvm985]

With due respect to my colleagues, I think it's due to a poor implemetation of the module dell-laptop. Please do:

lsmod | grep dell

If dell-laptop is loaded, remove it:

sudo rmmod -f dell-laptop
sudo rfkill unblock all

Is your wireless working now? If so, we'll need to blacklist dell-laptop.

This solution works for the Latitude D520. Thanks.

[brianfactors]

I have the same laptop as the original poster and had problems when I clean installed natty. (no problems in Lucid)

At first the Advanced Driver "wizard" (windoze lingo I know... what else could you call them?) wouldn't install the Broadcom driver, but I got over that with help from: http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

Then I had the same message: wireless disabled by a hardware switch. I can confirm @chili555 method. Removing dell_laptop did seem to fix the problem (after reboot).

[MKdx]

I can confirm that wireless settings in Windows influence hard blocked key in [brcmwl]:

brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes

I have lenovo laptop, had problem with acer_wmi but worked around that by 'blacklisting' it. However, [brcmwl] issue seems to only get 'fixed by setting software switch in Windows to ON.

I got around to check this bit more last week, though the wireless state is affected by how it's set in Windows, Windows is not needed to set it back in Linux.

For some reason [brcmwl] state can't be altered unless [acer_wmi] is still loaded. So to get wireless to work at startup, a sequence similar to this is need:

rfkill unblock all
sudo rmmod acer_wmi

This will unblock all devices before removing [acer_wmi], to ensure [brcmwl] is not blocked. Wireless should start regardless of Windows availability/setting. This should work for most lenovo laptops/netbooks, possibly other brands with some variation.

[pearlzilla]

Try specifying the identifier: rfkill unblock 0.

This worked for me. Will I need to run it each time I boot, or is there a way to automate it at start-up?

[chili555]

This worked for me. Will I need to run it each time I boot, or is there a way to automate it at start-up?

If that is all you need to do, that is, you don't need to rmmod any laptop or wmi drivers, then do:

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Add one line above exit 0

rfkill unblock 0

Proofread carefully, save and close gedit.

[thatstrangeguy]

I did every thing i have done so far and this is what i get what next it killed the dell but the hard lock still it there on brcmwl

tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: yes
1: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ sudo rmmod -f dell-laptop
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ sudo rfkill unblock all
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ rfkill list
1: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ sudo rfkill unblock all
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ sudo ifconfig eth1 up
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ sudo rfkill unblock all
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$ rfkill list
1: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
tanoah@tanoah-Inspiron-1545:~$

[chili555]

Hard blocked: yes

Are you quite sure the hardware switch or key combination is in the On position?