HOWTO: Get wireless button working on Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li1718

[alexlaban]

Okay so I got a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li1718 laptop, only problem is that the wireless wouldn't work since ubuntu doesn't seem to support the button which you must press to activate the wireless card but i found this old thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=644899
However it doesn't work exactly like that in 9.04 since stuff have changed but I got it to work with these steps

1. Paste this into the terminal

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential

2. Get acerhk files

wget http://www.cakey.de/acerhk/archives/acerhk-0.5.35.tgz

3. Extract and Patch

tar xfvz acerhk-0.5.35.tgz
cd acerhk-0.5.35
wget http://www.edbl.no/tmp/acerhk.Makefile.patch
patch -p0 < acerhk.Makefile.patch

4. Install

make
sudo make install

5. Create a file containing instructions which the system will carry out when the acerhk module is loaded - see comments in the file:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/amilo_special_keys.modprobe

and paste the following into the file, save and exit

# set up kernel module acerhk to enable Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li1718 special keys
# and enable wireless when the module is inserted.
# NOTE: to have the wireless hardware disabled until you press the wireless key on the laptop,
# simply replace "echo 1" with "echo 0" in the command below. 

install acerhk /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install acerhk force_series=6805 autowlan=1; echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

6. Remove the original acerhk module

sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/ubuntu/misc/acerhk.ko

7. Rebuild the module dependencies database

sudo depmod -a

8. Tell the system to load the acerhk module at boot time - it won't otherwise, as it's not actually an Acer laptop!

sudo gedit /etc/modules

add on a new line at the end of this file, then save and exit:

acerhk

9. restart your machine and you should have a working wifi card.

[z3on]

I really dont have a clue what is all this code now, but I have wireless thanks to you!!
Thank you so much

Now I will have to find out what all these mean
Going to read now

[artiee]

Thank you very much! I already tried b43-fwcutter and ndiswrapper but couldn't turn the wireless button on. Now I got it working with your help.

--artiee

[vayira]

I've been trying this with a live CD (to test before installing on a friends compu) but I get these errors...

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/acerhk-0.5.35$ make
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic'
  CC [M]  /home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.o
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c: In function ‘acerhk_proc_init’:
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2671: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2680: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2690: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2702: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2715: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2728: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
make[2]: *** [/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/ubuntu/acerhk-0.5.35] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic'
make: *** [acerhk.ko] Error 2
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/acerhk-0.5.35$

Is this just because it is a live CD or am I going to have probs if I go ahead with the install?

Thanks for any help.

[Ryatzu]

I got the same error, it's not working with Ubuntu 10.04 beta en RC.

[Michalxo]

Try to install driver from System -> (system management?) -> Hardware drivers. There should be a software modem, which worked fine for me on LiveCd 10.04 RC1+2 days. Haven't tried lately.