Dell Inspiron 6000 WiFi light does not show on/off status

[RobertWiblin]

A light on the Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop under Windows will turn on when the WiFi card is on, and off when it's off. It is turned on/off by pressing two keys on the keyboard. These keys still work but the light is never on.

For this reason it is possible to turn the wireless card on and off while trying to make it work by pressing these keys, without ever realising you are doing this or why it works sometimes and others not.

The light should be made to work if possible.

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: myr 1296 F.... pulseaudio
                      myr 1332 F.... xfce4-volumed
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: myr 1296 F...m pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'ICH6'/'Intel ICH6 with STAC9752,53 at irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9752,53'
   Components : 'AC97a:83847652'
   Controls : 30
   Simple ctrls : 20
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 6000
Package: linux (not installed)
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-17-generic root=UUID=894d0d72-d51f-4e3b-9c36-94978e77f3df ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-17.30-generic 3.0.22
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-17-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.0.0-17-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.60
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
Tags: oneiric
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-17-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 05/03/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A06
dmi.board.name: 0W9260
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA06:bd05/03/2005:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron6000:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0W9260:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 6000
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Jonathan Jesse (jjesse)]

I just moved off my Dell Inspiron which had a light for both Wifi and Bluetooth. When activating the function key for Wireless it turns off the light for Bluetooth which disables the wireless card. This was under Kubuntu.

[Tor Harald Thorland (linux-strigen)]

On Dell inspiron9300 it has similar 2 lights, one for bluetooth, and one for wifi. the keystrokes as mentiones does swith both wifi and bluetooth on and off.
The light is missing on the wifi, and i think this has something to do with the ipw2200 driver. there has been some discussion about it if you google, but nothing done :-(

[Philip Paquette (pcpaquette)]

Can you confirm this bug still happens in edgy/feisty?
Thanks.

[Tor Harald Thorland (linux-strigen)]

Have now upgraded to Feisty/ 7.04. And the light does still not work at all. (Stays off)

[Philip Paquette (pcpaquette)]

So I understand this bug happens on Inspiron 6000
Does the wireless at least works on this laptop? If yes, what driver?
Thanks

[Tor Harald Thorland (linux-strigen)]

Sorry didn't mention that I'm on a Dell Inspiron 9300, but it has the same error as the 6000.
The driver is ipw2200
The card is Intel Pro/wireless 2915 Card

[Tor Harald Thorland (linux-strigen)]

That info was from the "Device Manager" ("System->Preferences->Hardware info" on the menu...)

[RobertWiblin (robertwiblin)]

Can confirm this problem on Feisty. The light never turns on under Ubuntu 7.04, although the Wireless works pretty much fine and can be turned on and off using the keyboard hotkeys.

[Philip Paquette (pcpaquette)]

Confirming. A lot of people seems to have this problem on ubuntuforums.
Also, this site http://rtr.ca/dell_i9300/ has a patch for kernel 2.6.16

[Jeffrey Finkelstein (jfinkels)]

Here's a fix for this problem that works for me on Dell Inspiron 9300 with Ubuntu 7.04.

Enter the following command:

touch /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200 && echo options ipw2200 led=1 > /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200

This adds a file at /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200 with the contents "options ipw2200 led=1". The indicator light should now turn on and off along with the Bluetooth indicator light.

[Jeffrey Finkelstein (jfinkels)]

It would appear that I lied about that fix...it appears that now the light now remains on all the time and only turns off briefly when re-enabling wireless radio once it has been disabled, only to flash back on.

[Juls (everwondery88)]

How may I enable the bluetooth technology in my InspironE1505?

[GGrigsby (garl-grigsby-gmail)]

I just tested this on an Inspiron 9300 and I'm seeing the same as jfinkels. The wireless light blinks as the interface is turned on and off and that is it. The patch for Dapper mentioned above worked correctly.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

confirming using ubuntu 7.10 on inspiron 6000
wireless and hotkeys work but indicator light does not.

[David Oxland (doxland)]

I have the same light problem on a 9300 running Hardy

[sponsoredbythewind (sponsoredbythewind)]

Have a Inspiron 6400. Just installed Hardy, kubuntu.
Wifi-led is not working.
Had no problems in Edgy, Feisty or Gutsy.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

For me, the wifi led has never worked, including every kernel being used from Breezy through Hardy. It seems like this would be an easy thing to fix; I hope the kernel team can work on it soon!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Guys,

I'd like to try to gather some additional information regarding this bug. Can those still experiencing this issue with the latest Hardy Heron 8.04 release please comment which wireless driver you are using? Even though some of you may be experiencing the same issue, it really is specific to the driver you are using. There may also exist other possible fixes you might try (for ex installing linux-ubuntu-modules or linux-backports-modules) but again depends on which driver you have.

Additionally, we'll keep this report open against the actively developed kernel bug against 2.6.20 and 2.6.22 this will be closed as it does not qualify for a Stable Release Update - http://www.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates . Thanks.

[Jeffrey Finkelstein (jfinkels)]

Ubuntu 8.04.1, 2.6.24-19-generic, ipw2200 driver for Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG wireless card, Dell Inspiron 9300. Problem persists.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

same here with a ipw2200bg card. dell inspiron 6000.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[GGrigsby (garl-grigsby-gmail)]

I have just finished testing this on a clean install of Intrepid Alpha (loaded from Alpha 5 DVD) with all updates applied as of 9/26/08. I've tried this with both the out of the box config and with "options ipw2200 led=1" in /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200.

Using the default config the WiFi LED never lit no matter what I tried.

Initially after adding in the led=1 option and restarting the LED was not lit. After pressing the key combination (Fn-F2) to turn the wireless radio on and off the Wifi LED lit. At this time the radio should have been off. Network manager still sees the wireless card as available and keeps trying to associate to my WiFi router. Turning the radio back on (Fn-F2 again) leads to the network manager successfully completing the connection and the WiFI LED is still lit.

I have this installation on a separate HDD so I can test this further on request. I plan to keep this installation around strictly for testing for at least another 1-2 weeks.

-G

[Paul (paul-lacey)]

I just did a 8.1.0 Intrepid install on an Inspiron 6000 and the WiFi led light still does not come on. Has there been any work done on this issue?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

why is this bug marked incomplete?

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

On Tue, Mar 03, 2009 at 09:01:57AM -0000, MyR wrote:
> why is this bug marked incomplete?

A question was asked which was never answered by the looks of things. I
would say that there is enough here to mark this Triaged.

Could those of you with this hardware test the latest Jaunty live CD and
confirm whether this issue appears there too.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

Yep, still present in Jaunty 5 alpha! The light stays off regardless of on/off status of wifi card. It's quite tragic.

[NoZ (noz-geek)]

I confirm that on my inspiron 9300 and using Jaunty Alpha 5, the issue is still the same.

[Julian Lam (julian-lam)]

Jaunty Beta. Wifi LED stays consistently on, unlike Intrepid, where light stays off.

Function keys turn off the radio, but no light status changes.

[Ongion (benpy2k)]

Jaunty Beta. Wifi LED also stays on at all times. Before Beta LED was always off. Function keys work as normal.
This was on a Dell XPS M140

[Jonathan Jesse (jjesse)]

On my Dell Latitude E6500 the WiFi LED does go off when I turn it off through the function keys. Running up to date Jaunty.

[Ongion (benpy2k)]

Actually, I noticed something else about mine. It starts off, but turns on
if I hit the function key. At that point wifi radio is off, but the light
is on. Then whenever I hit the function key it flashes off for a moment and
turns back on. This same flashing behavior occurs when changing my MAC
address through ifconfig.

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Jonathan Jesse <email address hidden> wrote:

> On my Dell Latitude E6500 the WiFi LED does go off when I turn it off
> through the function keys. Running up to date Jaunty.
>
> --
> Dell Inspiron WiFi light does not show on/off status
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/55780
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “linux” source package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “linux-source-2.6.20” source package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix
> Status in “linux-source-2.6.22” source package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix
>
> Bug description:
> A light on the Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop under Windows will turn on when
> the WiFi card is on, and off when it's off. It is turned on/off by pressing
> two keys on the keyboard. These keys still work but the light is never on.
>
> For this reason it is possible to turn the wireless card on and off while
> trying to make it work by pressing these keys, without ever realising you
> are doing this or why it works sometimes and others not.
>
> The light should be made to work if possible.
>

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

It seems that this is still an issue with near release Jaunty. Could those of you who are able confirm the behaviour with the officially released and updated jaunty. Also can you please try installing the linux-backports-modules-jaunty package. The linux-backports-modules-jaunty package contains and updated compat-wireless stack which may help. Be sure to reboot after installing this package in order to test. Please let us know your results here. Thanks!

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

I just wanted to report that it is still an issue in up-to-date jaunty. Though the light comes on sometimes, it doesn't behave as it should.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

I installed linux-backports-modules-jaunty. rebooted -- no wifi light. turned off & on wifi card -- still no light. I know by now not to get my hopes up.

[S B (samwb123)]

Why is this confirmed when this is still a problem?

[Neil Broadley (scaine)]

Still apparent on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), fully up to date as of 3rd January 2010.

@S B : the bug is "confirmed" when the bug is still open and apparent. It will change to either "Fix released" or "Won't fix" depending on the solution/lack thereof.

[Oliver Herrmann (oliver-herrmann80)]

Wanted to push this issue... how can i help to gather needed information?

[Jeffrey Finkelstein (jfinkels)]

Problem persists through 11.04.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Robert Wiblin, thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 55780

[Jeffrey Finkelstein (jfinkels)]

This problem persists on Dell Inspiron 9300 through 11.10.

@penalvch The issue is not just for Dell Inspiron 6000, it is also for Dell Inspiron 9300.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: myr 1296 F.... pulseaudio
                      myr 1332 F.... xfce4-volumed
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: myr 1296 F...m pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'ICH6'/'Intel ICH6 with STAC9752,53 at irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9752,53'
   Components : 'AC97a:83847652'
   Controls : 30
   Simple ctrls : 20
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 6000
Package: linux (not installed)
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-17-generic root=UUID=894d0d72-d51f-4e3b-9c36-94978e77f3df ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-17.30-generic 3.0.22
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-17-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.0.0-17-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.60
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
Tags: oneiric
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-17-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 05/03/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A06
dmi.board.name: 0W9260
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA06:bd05/03/2005:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron6000:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0W9260:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 6000
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[MyR (myr-jedi)]

apport information

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[penalvch (penalvch)]

Jeffrey Finkelstein, for the Dell 9300 could you please execute the following at the Terminal and feel free to subscribe me to it:
ubuntu-bug linux

Thanks!

[penalvch (penalvch)]

RobertWiblin, please be sure to confirm this issue exists with the latest development release of Ubuntu. ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily/current/ . If the issue remains, please run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

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

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. 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. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[Jeffrey Finkelstein (jfinkels)]

@penalvch Added new bug report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/971961.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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