b43 hardware status changed to DISABLED after suspend

[Ryan Nowakowski]

After upgrading to 2.6.31-17 I began having wireless problems. After suspending, wireless would no longer connect. It looks like the phy has been disabled. This was in dmesg:
 b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to DISABLED

...and rfkill list showed:
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes

The only way I found to re-enable wireless was to boot into BIOS and turn it back on there.

I have found a better workaround though. Rebooting into 2.6.31-15 causes the issue to go away. That's why I filed this as a bug against the kernel instead of going to the forums. It seems like this only became a problem sometime after 2.6.31-15.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: tubaman 2117 F.... gkrellm
                      tubaman 2162 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'I82801DBICH4'/'Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with STAC9750,51 at irq 5'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9750,51'
   Components : 'AC97a:83847650'
   Controls : 36
   Simple ctrls : 23
Date: Mon Jan 11 03:55:31 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=c5a83a0f-2f81-45a9-9b09-1343edd8ff71
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude D505
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-18-generic 2.6.31-18.55
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=0dce7949-58f3-472c-accc-0693f9d09738 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-15.50-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-15-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.26
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-15-generic i686
WpaSupplicantLog:

XsessionErrors:
 (xfce4-panel:1831): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window
 (xfce4-panel:1831): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1919): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (firefox:2089): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
dmi.bios.date: 04/13/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A09
dmi.board.name: 0H2049
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA09:bd04/13/2005:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeD505:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0H2049:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude D505
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Andrew Fluth (afluth)]

I'm having the same issue and have tracked it down to this change:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.31.y.git;a=blobdiff;f=drivers/net/wireless/b43/rfkill.c;h=ffdce6f3c90922179e4d21df0acab33f9e9ded0e;hp=7a3218c5ba7dd69085afbddd65d38d6d40a08b08;hb=d50bae33d1358b909ade05ae121d83d3a60ab63f;hpb=17616310836ad2cc45a64576ef0e1520b0dcc81b

I compiled the 2.6.31-17 kernel with the above change reverted and no longer encounter the issue.

[Andrew Fluth (afluth)]

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=c2ff581acab16c6af56d9e8c1a579bf041ec00b1

I also compiled the 2.6.31-17 kernel with the above change, and that seemed to fixed the issue as well.

[Kevin K (stafio)]

This issue is still present with the release of the 2.6.31-20 kernel. Was this actually fixed in the repositories, or is the fix to compile the kernel on your own as noted above?

[Lee Willis (lwillis)]

I think I'm experiencing a similar issue - at least it seems to have happened at similar kernel release. For background I'm using a PCI wireless card with no physical "Off" switch. The same PC has been working since feisty I think.

On recent kernel releases the setup works fine for a day or so, and then the wireless just flatly stops working. The PC doesn't suspend like the previous bug reporter, but I do get the following in /var/log/messages

kernel: [617690.000056] b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to DISABLED

Again - I'm still experiencing this with 2.6.31-20

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.