wireless failure on upgrade to 12.04

[bugbear6502]

I have a sad little old laptop:

http://www.immortalsgate.com/dkauk/L..._Pro_V2000.htm

The internal wireless was not working very well for me (insensitive, kept dropping connections),
so I bought a TP-LINK TL-WNN722N (wireless USB adapter) and plugged it in. I was running Ubuntu 11.04 at
the time. It connected immediately, and my only problem was finding
out how to permanently turn off the internal wireless. Easy.

I have now "upgraded" to Lubuntu 12.04, and simply cannot make wireless operate.

I will attempt to anticipate some requests for information:

uname -a
Linux bugbear-fs 3.2.0-39-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 27 22:05:17 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

sudo lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0cf3:9271 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR9271 802.11n
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 093a:2510 Pixart Imaging, Inc. Optical Mouse

rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

BugBear

[wildmanne39]

It says hard blocked that usually means the wireless switch is off.
Thanks

[bugbear6502]

It says hard blocked that usually means the wireless switch is off.
Thanks

Yes, but that's the internal wireless. I actually want that one to be turned off, and want my USB/wireless adapter to ... do something!

Further, my laptop doesn't even have a switch - under 11.04 I had a fair bit of research to find the
code to turn the internal wireless off.

After some more flaiing around I have arrived at this (I've been rebooting and mod-probing
after googling)

 rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes
2: phy4: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

 sudo iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power=off   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          
eth0      no wireless extensions.

Despite this, the network manager thing in the task bar shows BOTH wireless
interfaces as disabled by hardware switch.

BugBear

[wildmanne39]

Hi, copy and paste this command in the terminal (ctrl+alt+t) please:

wget -N -t 5 -T 10 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57264241/wireless_script && chmod +x wireless_script && ./wireless_script

It will download a script and create a text file in your home folder with wireless information so we can see the condition of your wireless at this time and the Mac address, WPA key and WEP key are removed for your security, then reply back, click on the paper clip and attach the netinfo.txt file.

I believe as long as that says blocked your usb adaptor will not work either but it may depend on the device.
Thanks

[bugbear6502]

netinfo.txt

Done (I hope!)

BugBear

[wildmanne39]

Why do you have an eth1 connection?

Remove all of your wireless connections then reboot and see if network manager finds your wireless connection.
Thanks

[bugbear6502]

Why do you have an eth1 connection?

Because I#m far from clear how to arrange NOT to have one.

Remove all of your wireless connections then reboot and see if network manager finds your wireless connection.
Thanks

I have rebooted WITH the TL link plugged into the USB. It was not found on boot up.

I attach the results of re-running the "wireless_script"

Assuming I'm ignorant will serve you well

BugBearnetinfo.txt

[bugbear6502]

There's some kind of horrible cross-coupling going on.

Acting "on a hunch", I used my old knowledge to enable the built in (crappy) wireless

sudo modprobe fsam7400 radio=1

Since I'm currently testing in the work office (near the router) this worked fine, and I could see various routers.

I then unplugged and re-plugged the USB wireless adapter.

It worked, and showed in the network manager.

So it appears that somehow the DISABLED status of the builtin-wireless is
affecting the USB one.

BugBear

[wildmanne39]

Yes that is what I thought, you have to have he wireless button on for the usb adaptor to be able to work.
I believe if you have the usb plugged in at boot it will over ride the internal and be the one used.
Thanks

[bugbear6502]

Dear $DEITY this is a common question;

I googled site:ubuntuforums.org internal wireless external disable

and found an amazing variety of answers, all different.

BugBear