Fix : Asus WiFi Disabled (Hard-blocked), Fn+F2 won't work

[HansdeGoede]

Hello Hans,

If this proves to be of any help, I'd love to edit my instructions to use wapf=4 instead of 1, plus the additional recommendation to provide the dmi id here for permanent solution per model. But I would like you to please confirm first how value 4 is better than value 1. Does it enable the Fn+F2 key combo? Is it to make sure that bluetooth works too which you think doesn't work with value '1'? Or is there some other advantage that is going to help you behind the scenes?

I'm asking this because before posting this thread, we had tested the variations 0-9 many times with different users (all the way knowing that officially supported values are 0, 1 and 4, where they respectively mean hardware/hardware, hardware/software and software/software for bluetooth/wireless interfaces), and in all the tests (no less than 4 different machines), anything but 0 made the wireless work, but never enabled the 'Fn+F2' function. Bluetooth was never blocked (as per "rfkill list" output) with any value, if I remember correctly.

So if you are concerned that value 4 is required to ensure bluetooth functionality, I would be curious to know why you think so. Do you have some evidence/feedback that bluetooth is blocked with value 1 and not with 4? I may try to look back at some posts myself if you wish, although I can't guarantee due to lack of time.

So please answer these questions if you have time to -

1) If it doesn't make Fn+F2 work, then why do you want value 4 instead of 1 in the patch?

Because the kernel already has a large list of quirks for other Asus models and they all use 4, not 1, so for consistency I would like to use 4 for the new models too.

2) Do you have some evidence to support whatever reason you have to prefer value 4 over 1?

The relevant kernel code says:

/*
* WAPF defines the behavior of the Fn+Fx wlan key
* The significance of values is yet to be found, but
* most of the time:
* Bit | Bluetooth | WLAN
* 0 | Hardware | Hardware
* 1 | Hardware | Software
* 4 | Software | Software
*/

So going from 0 (the default) to 1, changes the wlan setting from hardware to software. Since modern wifi cards often are combined wifi+bt cards, it makes sense to do the same for bluetooth, which means we end up with a setting of 4, as is already used by many quirk table entries. This is also why I ask people to test bt, to ensure that this change does at least not break bt.

3) Since both bug reports so far direct to this thread (first post) for a workaround, can I help the cause in any way? (except blindly changing posts without knowing 'Why')

In this case I don't see anything you can do specifically but for similar cases in the future, if a user ever needs to specify a special kernel commandline parameter to get things to work that is considered a bug, and the commandline parameter should be seen as a work-around. In the end we want things to just work ootb, rather then have users search google for workarounds. So in the future please make sure these kind of bugs get the attention from upstream developers. If all else fails drop me a mail at hdegoede@redhat.com and I'll see what I can do.

[HansdeGoede]

About the Fn+F2 key combo not working that is (sort-of) an orthogonal problem. I expect the Fn+F2 key combo to generate key press events, which then gets handled by the desktop environment, which then toggles the rfkill settings. The wapf parameter is about getting the rfkill code to do the right thing.

Still the Fn+F2 key ought to work too. For starters can someone with an affected laptop try the following:

1) Boot with the following added to the kernel commandline: "atkbd.softraw=0"
2) Once booted switch to a text-console, using CTRL+ALT+F2
3) As root run: "showkey -s"
4) Press the wireless hotkey key-combo

And let me know if any output gets generated at step 4) ?

[webbonet]

hi all,

i'm an upstream kernel developer who happened to stumble over this forum thread. The proper solution here is to add a dmi based quirk to the asus-nb-wmi driver to use wapf=4 by default. Note the wapf=4 not wapf=1 which everyone has been testing with sofar.

I would like to add a proper fix for this to the upstream kernel (which should then eventually find its way to the ubuntu kernels when ubuntu switches to a newer kernel).

I need your help for this. First of all please adjust the workaround with the /etc/modprobe.d/asus_nb_wmi.conf file to set wapf to 4. Then reboot and test that wifi still works, and if you've bluetooth and that that also works.

Once you've confirmed that everything is fine with wapf=4, run the following command:

Cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name

from a terminal and add a post here with the output of this command. Then i can add a quirk for your model to asus-nb-wmi.c and send a patch upstream.

Thanks,

hans

x75vd

[HansdeGoede]

Hi,

x75vd

dmi strings are case sensitive and typically Asus uses all uppercase are you sure this is correct, and that this should not be X75VD ?

Thanks,

Hans

[530000693]

Oh. I am so happy that my ASUS X550C is fixed by what you have say!

[green.jon]

I have an Asus X550C as well and my wifi now works thanks to this workaround. My Fn+F2 doesn't work, but I don't feel the need to try the workaround at this point in time. Thanks!

[roberto21]

Hi to all. I have the same issue solved by the workaround.
The output of cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name is:

X551CAP

Thanks bye
R

[varunendra]

Welcome to Ubuntu Forums roberto21!

Glad it worked for you. I just keep waiting for post that can confirm an update fixed the Fn+F2 issues as well..

[Wishy2009]

Hi All,

Once you've confirmed that everything is fine with wapf=4, run the following command:

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name

From a terminal and add a post here with the output of this command. Then I can add a quirk for your model to asus-nb-wmi.c and send a patch upstream.

Thanks,

Hans

Works for my U32U thanks. Has been an issue from Mint 14 (IIRC) to the current 17.

[neanro]

Hi All,

I'm an upstream kernel developer who happened to stumble over this forum thread. The proper solution here is to add a dmi based quirk to the asus-nb-wmi driver to use wapf=4 by default. Note the wapf=4 not wapf=1 which everyone has been testing with sofar.

I would like to add a proper fix for this to the upstream kernel (which should then eventually find its way to the ubuntu kernels when ubuntu switches to a newer kernel).

I need your help for this. First of all please adjust the workaround with the /etc/modprobe.d/asus_nb_wmi.conf file to set wapf to 4. Then reboot and test that wifi still works, and if you've bluetooth and that that also works.

Once you've confirmed that everything is fine with wapf=4, run the following command:

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name

From a terminal and add a post here with the output of this command. Then I can add a quirk for your model to asus-nb-wmi.c and send a patch upstream.

Thanks,

Hans

I'm on ASUS U32U.. please send the patch on my email: neanro@gmail.com Thanks! Kudos guys!