Ubuntu
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Intel WiFi rfkill switch now defaults to on (wireless off)

Bug #405152 reported by Matthew Lai on 2009-07-27

This bug affects 4 people

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Status

Importance

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Milestone

linux (Ubuntu)

Fix Released

High

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Affecting:	linux (Ubuntu)
Filed here by:	Matthew Lai
When:	2009-07-27
Confirmed:	2009-07-27
Started work:	2009-08-04
Completed:	2009-08-04

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Status	Importance
	High

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	Nobody
	Me

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Bug Description

For my laptop (Acer Timeline 3810t), after upgrading to 2.6.31, the RFKILL switch now defaults to on (wireless disabled) on every boot. It works if I manually turn off the switch.

The switch is a toggle switch, and it used to default to off under 2.6.30/alpha 2.

I am using the iwlagn driver. The card is an Intel 5100.

01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
Kernel modules: iwlagn

I have tried using the RFKILL utility found here - http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill, to no avail. The wifi device is "hard blocked".

This is annoying because I need to use wifi everytime I use my laptop, and there is no programmatic way to enable it.

Thanks!

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Jul 27 14:08:16 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=6f9ae10f-02b2-4a96-a7d7-700e22184757
MachineType: Acer Acer Project
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-4-generic 2.6.31-4.22
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-4-generic root=UUID=b6d9abe7-e298-4e5e-984c-336ff8330d98 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-4.22-generic
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-4-generic N/A
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-4-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 05/27/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.04
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Acer Project
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: PSMBOU-1234567
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: None
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.04:bd05/27/2009:svnAcer:pnAcerProject:pvrV1.04:rvnAcer:rnAcerProject:rvrPSMBOU-1234567:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.name: Acer Project
dmi.product.version: V1.04
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

Tags: Edit Tag help

Matthew Lai (cyberfish) wrote on 2009-07-27:

BootDmesg.gz Edit (12.7 KiB, application/x-gzip)
CurrentDmesg.txt Edit (1.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (1.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lspci.txt Edit (12.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lsusb.txt Edit (658 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfo.txt Edit (629 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcInterrupts.txt Edit (1.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcModules.txt Edit (2.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevDb.txt Edit (110.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevLog.txt Edit (213.9 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara) on 2009-07-27

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → High
status:	New → Triaged

Matthew Lai (cyberfish) wrote on 2009-07-29:

Blacklisting acer_wmi reverts this behaviour, so it is probably something related to acer_wmi.

Julian Zeidler (julian-zeidlers) wrote on 2009-07-31:

I can confirm the killswitch behaviour on a default 9.10 alpha 3 x64 installation on same 3810T acer laptop

Matthew Lai (cyberfish) wrote on 2009-08-04:

"Fixed" in 2.6.31-5!

The switch now defaults to off on every boot.

I guess it would be the best if it can somehow "remember" the state across reboots, but I'm not sure if that's possible, and for me, default to on is good :).

Thanks for the hardwork!

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status:	Triaged → Fix Released

harrydance (harry-dance) wrote on 2009-08-04:

Great news, thanks to the people who helped fix this!

rsoika (ralph-soika) wrote on 2009-11-03:

To me it seams that the issue is back in 2.6.31-14-generic.
wifi works only if I switch wlan off before I boot.
Otherwise rfkill list shows:

rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

and it is than impossible to enable wlan - no wifi!.
But it works if I switch wlan off before I boot. than I can toogle the switch and >rfkill list shows allways the right state.

Matthew Lai (cyberfish) wrote on 2009-11-03:

I think you may be seeing a different bug, and may want to report it as a separate bug. The original bug is Acer-specific (since blacklisting acer_wmi worked-around it). And I don't think the problem came back for me.