First of all, let me say that I'm using Mint 14 and not Ubuntu. (Mint 14 is based on Ubuntu 12.10.) However, I've found Ubuntu information pretty much interchangeable with Mint information regarding that nasty beast, the Realtek 8723 wireless card.

I installed Linux on this Toshiba Satellite S855 a few weeks ago, went through the arduous process of compiling Realtek and Atheros drivers, and got the wireless to work OK for a few weeks. Then I did I restarted my computer for something else, and when I started up again, no wireless connections were available.

Everything on my wireless card said that it was OK, so I couldn't figure out what might be wrong. Finally, I did a hard boot (held the power button, turned the computer off for 30 seconds or so, then restarted), and the wireless worked again.

The purpose of this post is (1) to help people who might have similar problems, and (2) to ask, why would that happen? Is this common on wireless cards? What mechanism on the card itself would cause it to work all of a sudden if you do a hard boot?

Thanks in advance for any help.