Wireless network in network-manager applet always shows device not ready

[ICEMANno1]

hardware switch for wireless connections (wifi+bluetooth+mobile broadband) at my acer travelmate 8372 should enable/disable all three devices. it seems to work, partially, since the wireless network in network-manager applet shows "wireless is disabled" or "device not ready"

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: network-manager 0.8.9997+git.20110721t045648.36db194-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-7.9-generic 3.0.0
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-7-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: amd64
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Mon Aug 8 22:17:35 2011
Gconf:

IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Alpha amd64 (20110803.1)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.0.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.104 metric 1
Keyfiles: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-08-08 (0 days ago)

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Could you please try the following command:

sudo rfkill unblock all

Some devices appear to be blocked by the soft killswitch; this might set it back in the right state.

[ICEMANno1 (icemanno1)]

Thanks for the hint, but didn't help.

Here the terminal output:
$ sudo rfkill unblock all
$ sudo rfkill list
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: acer-bluetooth: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
2: acer-threeg: Wireless WAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: yes

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

There is still a part of the device being blocked. Are there switches or key combinations on your system you can use to toggle wifi?

[ICEMANno1 (icemanno1)]

Yes, I have the "Fn+F3" combination and a hardware switch for wireless connections. The hardware switch only seems to turn everything off, since it's light only goes off and with the "Fn+F3" I get no reaction.

I tried to check with "rfkill list all" what happens with the two options but it is just not regular. every time something else in the above mentioned list of devices switches from yes to no or the other way around. If you want a couple of examples, I can play around and save it to a plane text file!

[Merlin Schumacher (merlin-schumacher)]

for the wireless issue the problem ist likely to be related to the fact that both, the acer-wmi module, and the wireless driver wl (the staging drivers work better, but have other, more annoying issues e.g. lockups) provide a rfkill switch. that and the hardware switch work against each other. a workaround is to remove the acer-wmi module and insert it again. although this doesn't bring the bluetooth to work. i don't have a 3g module.

[Tek Ang (tekang)]

Hi, I can confirm that it happens to my HP DV9616CA.

If I switch off the Wireless using the hardware switch, and switch it back on, the Wireless Network status says "device not ready". My current work around is to ensure that the switch is On when I reboot the laptop.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10

apt-cache policy network-manager
network-manager:
  Installed: 0.9.1.90-0ubuntu4
  Candidate: 0.9.1.90-0ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.1.90-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://ubuntu.mirror.rafal.ca/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.9.1.90-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://ubuntu.mirror.rafal.ca/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages

ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1b:24:d2:65:7b
          inet addr:10.0.73.67 Bcast:10.0.73.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21b:24ff:fed2:657b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:29139 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:20150 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:16584155 (16.5 MB) TX bytes:2681825 (2.6 MB)
          Interrupt:43 Base address:0x2000

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:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:448 (448.0 B) TX bytes:448 (448.0 B)

sudo rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

[SWmail (swmail)]

I have the same problem with WLAN on Ubuntu 11.10 (on Ubuntu 11.04 worked).
Netbook ASUS EEE 1008HA

[SWmail (swmail)]

Works now with network_manager version 0.9.1.90-0ubuntu5.1 (proposed).