Wireless is shown as 'Unavailable' in plasma-widget-networkmanager

[Mark Greenwood]

Binary package hint: plasma-widget-networkmanagement

I'm guessing this is in the plasma widget but I could be wrong.

Acer Aspire One. I installed Kubuntu Natty Alpha 2 and have kept it updated regularly. This week, an update has stopped me from being able to use the wireless. In the Plasma widget it shows Wireless as 'unavailable'. Ethernet is still working.

bob@titch:~$ sudo iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg 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

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Natty (development branch)
Release: 11.04

apt-cache policy plasma-widget-networkmanagement
plasma-widget-networkmanagement:
  Installed: 0.9~svngit20110312-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.9~svngit20110312-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9~svngit20110312-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: plasma-widget-networkmanagement 0.9~svngit20110312-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.40-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Apr 7 13:30:40 2011
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: plasma-widget-networkmanagement
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Mark Greenwood (fatgerman)]

Just in case this is useful:

lspci -k
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: intelfb, i915
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
        Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel modules: leds-ss4200, iTCO_wdt, intel-rng
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 015b
        Kernel modules: i2c-i801
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Acer Incor...

[Mark Greenwood (fatgerman)]

OK, only just thought of this (duh!) but I think this shows the bug probably isn't in the plasma widget - ifconfig shows no wireless at all

sudo ifconfig
[sudo] password for bob:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:23:8b:55:58:77
          inet addr:192.168.2.5 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::223:8bff:fe55:5877/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:51064 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:34738 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:70645472 (70.6 MB) TX bytes:2529822 (2.5 MB)
          Interrupt:44 Base address:0x6000

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:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:980 (980.0 B) TX bytes:980 (980.0 B)

[Mark Greenwood (fatgerman)]

Well, I clicked 'Enable Wireless' in the plasma widget a few times to switch wireless on and off, and now it is eventually working again, even after a reboot. Not sure what was happening but it seems to have gone away.

[Maarten Bezemer (veger)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.