HP 635 - wifi doen't work (phy is hard blocked)

Bug #949427 reported by DoomWarrior
18
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Linux
Confirmed
Medium
linux (Ubuntu)
Incomplete
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

This Notebook runs SLES 11 (SP1) with working wifi and bluetooth with working light for key on Fn+F12. After installing Ubuntu 12.04 wifi stopped working.
I tried to track down the issue, as far as I can say there is an issue in either ath9k or/and hp-wim

Problem: Hardwarekey Fn+F12 doen't change the light on the keyboard between white (on) and orange (off). The light change while booting from orange (off) to white (on) and stays there, no matter what I do!
There are four devices in rfkill:

0: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
6: phy1: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes
9: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
10: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no

device 9 and 10 are belonging to hp-wmi. If I rmmod the hp-wmi driver those two devices are gone and Fn+F12 does nothing.
If driver is active Fn+F12 toggle 9 and 10 (light is not updated!) but not the phy (dev 6) or hci (dev 0). Since hci is not blocked by default bluetooth is working, but wifi is blocked on boot. There is no BIOS option in the HP635 to enable wifi!

Even worst if I call "rfkill unblock all" events occour for all four devices, but hp-wifi (dev 9) and hp-bluetooth (dev 10) stay on soft blocked: yes! Bluetooth unity gui element obviously scans for dev 10 and always report an deactivated bluetooth connection. (But Bluetooth is working since hci0 is unblocked and running!)

There is a commit for hp-wmi which plays around with soft & hard block stats
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git;a=commit;h=c0b9c6494498014f28dbec37fe327bf016a91356
which could cause some of the problems above.

summery:
hardware button don't toggle wifi and bluetooth hardware blocks only hp-wmi hardware blocks
software button toggle software blocks for some devs, but hp-wmi software blocks aren't touched. It is impossible to have all blocks to "unblock"

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: linux-image-3.2.0-18-generic 3.2.0-18.28
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.28-generic 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.94-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 1: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC270 Analog [ALC270 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: doomwarrior 1703 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: doomwarrior 1703 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Generic'/'HD-Audio Generic at 0xf0444000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100200'
   Controls : 6
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card0.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xf0440000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC270'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0270,103c3577,00100100'
   Controls : 18
   Simple ctrls : 10
Date: Wed Mar 7 22:28:29 2012
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=0c973408-1118-4297-b074-8d4d6aec5e23
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20120306)
IwConfig: Error: [Errno 2] Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP 635 Notebook PC
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-18-generic root=UUID=47e0679f-33de-4fd7-b558-f7f40ae25e87 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.2.0-18-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.2.0-18-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.71
RfKill: Error: [Errno 2] Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: rts_pstor
UdevDb: Error: [Errno 2] Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/07/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.42
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 3577
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: 24.48
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Chassis Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.42:bd11/07/2011:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHP635NotebookPC:pvr058A100000004C10002600000:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn3577:rvr24.48:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: HP 635 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 058A100000004C10002600000
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

Revision history for this message
DoomWarrior (doomwarriorx) wrote :
Brad Figg (brad-figg)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.3 kernel[1] (Not a kernel in the daily directory). Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag(Only that one tag, please leave the other tags). This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed by the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream-KERNEL-VERSION'. For example, if kernel version 3.3-rc6 fixed the issue, the tag would be: 'kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.3-rc6'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[1] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.3-rc6-precise/

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
tags: added: needs-upstream-testing
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
DoomWarrior (doomwarriorx) wrote :

tested with 3.3-rc6 and still occurs

tags: added: kernel-bug-exists-upstream
removed: needs-upstream-testing
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

This issue appears to be an upstream bug, since you tested the latest upstream kernel. Would it be possible for you to open an upstream bug report at bugzilla.kernel.org [1]? That will allow the upstream Developers to examine the issue, and may provide a quicker resolution to the bug.

If you are comfortable with opening a bug upstream, It would be great if you can report back the upstream bug number in this bug report. That will allow us to link this bug to the upstream report.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in linux:
importance: Unknown → Medium
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
James Gifford (jamesgifford) wrote :

DoomWarriorx, is there a temporary fix of some sort? Does it work when you try with 11.10 or something? (I'm asking because I'm experiencing this bug as well)

Revision history for this message
DoomWarrior (doomwarriorx) wrote :

afaik no work around. Don't know anything about 11.10, 11.04 should work.

Revision history for this message
Michael Totschnig (1fo7bk9) wrote :

I had the same problem and tried to unblock phy for several hours on my HP 635 running on 12.04 and 11.10 without success. Until, I found the suggestion of booting from an 11.04 live CD. Wireless worked well there. Then after booting from the 11.10 installed on the hard disk, wirless worked there as well. Now started a 12.04 live CD, and wireless is still working. Will now upgrade the installed system to 12.04 and hope that wireless will still be functional.

Revision history for this message
pigor (igor-podgorski) wrote :

I can confirm that booting into the live CD of Ubuntu 11.04 (known to work fine on HP 635), turning on the Wifi using Fn+F12 and then rebooting back into the installed 12.04 is a valid workaround. The Wifi devices stays unblocked during the reboot.

Revision history for this message
johnp (jpanath) wrote :

I had the same problem with HP 365 and Ubuntu 12.04. Thanks to somebody's suggestion I reset the BIOS to default settings. This worked !

Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

DoomWarrior, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.12

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

tags: added: bios-outdated-f.47 needs-upstream-testing
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
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