HP Mini wireless is hard blocked

[relmoyd]

One day while waiting to board an aeroplane I pressed Fn <F12> which I believe is the wireless switch and wireless has not worked since. I am running Ubuntu 11.04 on an HP Mini 110-3500. I have not been able to unblock or use wireless.



$ lspci -nn | grep 14e4
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)

$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 3c:4a:92:c6:45:90
inet addr:10.0.4.247 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::3e4a:92ff:fec6:4590/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:136687 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14843 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:26901763 (26.9 MB) TX bytes:2643422 (2.6 MB)
Interrupt:43 Base address:0xe000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:720 (720.0 B) TX bytes:720 (720.0 B)

$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11 Access Point: Not-Associated
Link Quality:5 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 invalid crypt:0 invalid misc:0

$ rfkill list
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
$ sudo rfkill unblock all
$ rfkill list
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

After pressing Fn <F12>:
$ rfkill list
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: eth1
version: 01
serial: 88:9f:fa:7a:9d:ec
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.100.82.38 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
resources: irq:16 memory:55000000-55003fff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 05
serial: 3c:4a:92:c6:45:90
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=10.0.4.247 latency=0 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:43 ioport:1000(size=256) memory:52004000-52004fff memory:52000000-52003fff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

dpkg -l contains:
ii bcmwl-kernel-source 5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu3 Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source
ii b43-fwcutter 1:013-3 Utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware
ii firmware-b43-installer 4.150.10.5-5 Installer package for firmware for the b43 driver

$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
parport_pc 32111 0
ppdev 12849 0
snd_hda_codec_idt 60537 1
snd_hda_intel 24140 2
snd_hda_codec 90901 2 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13274 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80244 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
binfmt_misc 13213 1
snd_rawmidi 25269 1 snd_seq_midi
i915 450944 2
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 51291 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
hp_wmi 13418 0
sparse_keymap 13666 1 hp_wmi
uvcvideo 66851 0
lib80211_crypt_tkip 17203 0
snd_timer 28659 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
wl 2642531 0
snd_seq_device 14110 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
drm_kms_helper 40745 1 i915
psmouse 73312 0
videodev 75143 1 uvcvideo
snd 55295 13 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_ hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_se q_device
drm 180037 3 i915,drm_kms_helper
serio_raw 12990 0
joydev 17322 0
i2c_algo_bit 13184 1 i915
lib80211 14570 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl
video 18951 1 i915
soundcore 12600 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14073 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
lp 13349 0
parport 36746 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
usbhid 41704 0
hid 77084 1 usbhid
ahci 21591 2
libahci 25548 1 ahci
r8169 42534 0

$ sudo iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1 Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument

[chili555]

Will you try an experiment for me? In a terminal, do:

sudo rmmod -f hp-wmi
sudo rfkill unblock all
rfkill list all

Any improvement?

[relmoyd]

No improvement:

$ sudo rmmod -f hp-wmi
$ sudo rfkill unblock all
$ rfkill list all
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

[chili555]

With hp-wmi removed, does the Fn+F12 key now respond to key presses?

[relmoyd]

No, Fn+F12 does not change blocking:

rfkill list all
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

[amahi]

hi,

sudo rm /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state

then reset.

[relmoyd]

How do I "reset"?

[chili555]

I think you may have one or two problems here. One is the support for rfkill in the wireless driver module. Please see posts #21-23 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1753072&page=3

In the case of Broadcom STA I figured out that according to http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt the driver itself might not have support for rfkill in kernel 2.6.38? I'm unable to rfkill unblock the device due to its "Hard blocked: yes" status as said in #1.

The other problem might be the module hp-wmi. Laptops require a small module to translate key presses, primarily Function keys, to useful information, such as, "Please turn on the wireless, Mr. Kernel." Here is a very interesting post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...2&postcount=20 The gist is that hp-wmi does, indeed, translate keypresses to action, but may be mapped to the wrong key. I suggest you try reloading hp-wmi:

sudo modprobe hp-wmi

Next, try the other Function combinations to see if 'hard blocked' changes to no. You can recall the previous terminal command with the Up arrow; keep trying:

rfkill list all

I love a mystery.

[relmoyd]

It looks like it is Alt+F12; the wireless indicator changed.

[relmoyd]

... and it looks like I can connect.

Thank you very much.