[regression] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch

[benpicco]

On this notebook wifi sometimes doesn't work (wifi led not on, no wlan0 device), this issue was already present in 12.10, but aside from the non-working wifi, nothing bad™ happened in this condition.
After updating to 13.04 however, dmesg gets spammed by repeated messages

May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.048718] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.048842] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.049636] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.049763] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.051079] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.051378] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.052369] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.052499] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.053323] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.053452] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.054252] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.054374] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
May 10 23:28:09 piBook kernel: [ 21.055140] iwl3945 0000:04:00.0: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch

a side effect of this is that now wpa_supplicant causes high CPU load, rendering the device almost unusable.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: wpasupplicant 1.0-3ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.30-generic 3.8.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri May 10 23:32:16 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-03-05 (66 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: wpa
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-25 (15 days ago)

[benpicco (benpicco)]

looks like a userland issue indeed, it persists when booting Linux 3.5

The device shows up in lspci and iwconfig, iwl3945 gets loaded but nothing is showing up in ifconfig.

[benpicco (benpicco)]

I've installed
Linux piBook 3.9.0-030900-generic #201304291257 SMP Mon Apr 29 16:58:15 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

now the high cpu load and dmesg spanning is gone, it looks like the device is 'propely' blocked now (even though the hardware switch is set to enable wifi, but the device is a bit old, so I guess the switch isn't always working properly anymore).
So this issue is fixed by switching to the latest upstream kernel.

However, when I plug in a USB wifi device, I still can't enable it
$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: yes
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

[benpicco (benpicco)]

The issue also occurs with Linux 3.9 when manually loading the iwl3945 module, apparently it doesn't get loaded automatically here when wifi is disabled.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[eljoest (eljoest)]

I'm still seeing the dmesg/syslog spamming with Linux 3.8.0-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP and wpasupplicant 1.0-3ubuntu1. No updates available for install with default config.

[nryc (78luphr0rnk2nuqimstywepozxn9kl19tqh0tx66b5dki1xxsh5mkz9gl21a5rlwfnr8jn6ln0m3jxne2k9x1oh-launchpad-a811i2i3ytqlsztthjth0svbccw8inm65tmkqp9sarr553jq53in4xm1m8wn3o4rlwaer06ogwvqwv9mrqoku2x)]

Same problem on Ubuntu Saucy.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Frantique (undernetangel)]

Last good version is in Ubuntu 12.04.5.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

benpicco, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Could you please execute the following in a terminal:
apport-collect 1178841

eljoest / nryc / Frantique, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into the default Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

As well, please do not announce in this report you created a new bug report.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Zelek Uther (zelekuther)]

I'm running Linux Mint 17 Qiana, and I have experience the same problem.

I have posted about it here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=181680&e=0

I'm new to Linux Mint, I don't know how to log a bug report, but if someone can post instructions I will follow them.

Thanks very much,
Zelek.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Zelek Uther, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu (not Linux Mint) by executing the following in a terminal while booted into the default Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Policies/DuplicateBugs
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

As well, please do not announce in this report you created a new bug report.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]