wireless is disabled by hardware switch - natty 11.04

[Bucic]

can anyone assist me in troubleshooting the issue? I've already tried posts #23 and #27 from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...wl/+bug/732677 and the few commands mentioned above which gave me the LED going live.

EDIT:
What's worrying is that it seems I don't have b43 firmware installed

...@nx6125:~$ sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  b43-fwcutter
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 15.5 kB of archives.
After this operation, 81.9 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main b43-fwcutter amd64 1:013-3 [15.5 kB]
Fetched 15.5 kB in 0s (173 kB/s)  
Selecting previously deselected package b43-fwcutter.
(Reading database ... 153607 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking b43-fwcutter (from .../b43-fwcutter_1%3a013-3_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up b43-fwcutter (1:013-3) ...



...@nx6125:~$ dmesg | grep b43
[ 1462.414214] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
[ 1462.585900] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
[ 1462.775353] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
[ 1462.892103] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 1462.892108] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 1462.892112] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

[northd_tech]

can anyone assist me in troubleshooting the issue? I've already tried posts #23 and #27 from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...wl/+bug/732677 and the few commands mentioned above which gave me the LED going live.

That bug above applies to the Broadcom 4311, Bucic. Your Broadcom 4318 is kind of "different" from most of the other Broadcom wireless chipsets from what I've seen. I'm fairly certain that the "STA" fixes for the Broadcom 4311, 4312, 4321, and 4322 (as well as my "4321AG"/"4328" Broadcom) WILL NOT work for a Broadcom 4318. I think you need the "b43 firmware" fix for that 4318 (it should be linked at post #6 above).

It is probably better to bump that first thread for the Broadcom 4318 that I linked to at post #6 (and probably to work through the thread from the beginning). I did not see any of the Broadcom modules loaded in what you posted above, Bucic.

[rl78]

Try specifying the identifier: rfkill unblock 0.

[mezzovento]

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 work for me! Thanks chili555. I have a DELL vostro 1720, ubuntu 11.04 64 bit. Before chili555 suggestion:

$ rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: yes
1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
8: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no

switching the hardware button on/off affect only the 3: phy0 block, but the dell-wifi remain the same.

[Melotten]

All this is weird folks.

I spent almost 30 minutes playing with the rfkill command, having different results all the time. after that, after using the option unblock.. magically the wireless came back.

I'm so surprised, there are so many dell laptop around.. I think we will lose a lot of newbies with this issue.

I see the issue seems very common and I would like to help, could you please indicate me the "escalation" of troubleshooting steps to follow?

I will modify my first post so the people will find immediatley a solution.

I would put as first the rfkill command, is easy and seems working quite quickly. what you think?

[Bucic]

That bug above applies to the Broadcom 4311, Bucic. Your Broadcom 4318 is kind of "different" from most of the other Broadcom wireless chipsets from what I've seen. I'm fairly certain that the "STA" fixes for the Broadcom 4311, 4312, 4321, and 4322 (as well as my "4321AG"/"4328" Broadcom) WILL NOT work for a Broadcom 4318. I think you need the "b43 firmware" fix for that 4318 (it should be linked at post #6 above).

It is probably better to bump that first thread for the Broadcom 4318 that I linked to at post #6 (and probably to work through the thread from the beginning). I did not see any of the Broadcom modules loaded in what you posted above, Bucic.

Thanks for the guidance. I've started a new topic here if anyone could help me out http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10757762

[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 will investigate it further when I have time, hope this might be of help.

[libiamo]

I have the same laptop and had the same problem;

Please try to press F2 (or maybe Fn+F2) on your keyboard, wait a few seconds.

This fixed the problem for me.

[garfieldpbj]

Hi

I just want to report that a solution, when using the Lenovo s10-3s (probably the same trick for s10-3 or any other Lenovo) might be to boot into windows, and use the "hardware switch", which is actually the Fn+F5 combination, turn wifi on, and reboot..

I posted this here because I was very frustrated not been able to solve my problem and read a lot of forum posts without help, therefore I posted one solution here even though it might be a bit off topic..

/Peter

[kalkems]

I have a Acer Travelmate 6292 and have had my wireless hardblocked. Solved this with the following:

sudo service network-manager stop

sudo rmmod acer_wmi

sudo modprobe acer_wmi

sudo rfkill unblock all

(Checked that everything was unblocked)

sudo service network-manager start

Wireless started without problems.

/ernie