acer-wmi was loaded on a Lenovo Ideapad V470 (Intel Wireless-N 1000), causes problem with NetworkManager

[Yan Li]

After upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04, the wifi was always shown disabled in NetworkManager no matter how I tried. It turned out that the acer-wmi module was wrongly loaded, and it had a rfkill bit that prevented NM from starting wifi interface.

The workaround is to blacklist acer-wmi on this Lenovo V470. A better fix is proposed in the following upstream report.

Related upstream kernel bug report:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16570

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic-pae 2.6.38-8.42
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: maomao 1458 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: maomao 1458 F...m pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xd0600000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0272,17aa6012,00100001 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 20
   Simple ctrls : 10
Date: Mon May 2 16:30:53 2011
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=b5ef491a-e48c-4d22-98c3-668cd857dff4
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
MachineType: LENOVO 20086,4396
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=034275ad-1261-4713-84d8-688dc2ff4484 ro quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-2.6.38-8-generic-pae N/A
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.38-8-generic-pae N/A
 linux-firmware 1.52
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-05-02 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/31/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 43CN23WW
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Emerald Lake
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: FAB1
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: 0.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr43CN23WW:bd12/31/2010:svnLENOVO:pn20086,4396:pvrLenovoV470:rvnLENOVO:rnEmeraldLake:rvrFAB1:cvnLENOVO:ct9:cvr0.1:
dmi.product.name: 20086,4396
dmi.product.version: Lenovo V470
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Neil Simmonds (nas123)]

Same here.

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E520
Centrino Wireless-N 1000
ubuntu 11.04

blacklist acer_wmi

Everything works just fine

[Shriramana Sharma (jamadagni)]

See also bug 668234. Problem on all Lenovo (IdeaPad?) models it seems.

[Julian Wiedmann (jwiedmann)]

Yan Li (and anyone else affected),
could you update your kernel to 2.6.38-11.48 and test whether blacklisting acer_wmi is still required?

[Shriramana Sharma (jamadagni)]

$ dpkg-query -W | grep linux-image-2.6.38-11
linux-image-2.6.38-11-generic 2.6.38-11.48

Yes the blacklisting of acer_wmi is still required. I am talking about the parallel (and probably identical) bug 780040 on Lenovo IdeaPad Z570. I don't have a V470.

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

Hi,

I've been told there is a better solution for acer-wmi rfkill issue and built kernel with the fix.

Please test the kernel (based on natty release) and let me know if the kernel fix this issue or not.

Kernel img is here: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~ikepanhc/lp/836865-2/

Thanks a lot.

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

find out needs to cherry-pick another commit.

Rebuild the kernel deb and put them at

 http://people.canonical.com/~ikepanhc/lp/836865-3/

If you have some free time, please remove acer-wmi from blacklist and test the kernel deb.

Thanks a lot

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

For the details, please refer to https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/668234/comments/11

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

Hi,

The last approach introduce regressions, so I am thinking an alternative approach. Since most of the report is on ideapads or thinkpads, and we have rfkill registered in ideapad-laptop, I think it will be fine not to register acer-wmi rfkill if we find ideapad/thinkpad device in DSDT.

Ref: http://<email address hidden>/msg02788.html

I have made the patch and built the test kernel, but I have no machine to check, could you help me check if this kernel fix this issue?

You can find the kernel at
   http://people.canonical.com/~ikepanhc/lp/875659-5/

This kernel is built as Oneiric (11.10) amd64, if you need the test kernel on other release or arch, please let me know so that I can build for you.

Thanks a lot.

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

Please hold the test for a while, found out need to cherry-pick another commit

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

Ok, Here is the updated test kernel deb built for oneiric amd64

  http://people.canonical.com/~ikepanhc/lp/875659-6/

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

Hi,

According to the feedback from upstream maintainer, the patch is revised.

Could you help me testing the revised patch? I've built the a dkms package and put it at

  http://people.canonical.com/~ikepanhc/lp/826784-6/

To install the dkms deb, just use the command `sudo dpkg -i test-dkms_1_all.deb` and please blacklist acer-wmi
Please remember to reboot after installation.

To uninstall the dkms deb, please use the command `sudo dpkg -r test-dkms`

Please attach the output of `rfkill list` and `dmesg`

Ref: http://<email address hidden>/msg02859.html
     http://<email address hidden>/msg02860.html

Thanks a lot.

[Ike Panhc (ikepanhc)]

The fix[1] has been merged into precise kernel.

[1] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-precise.git;a=commitdiff;h=13faef3e679243aec5c1e308eba1c70c6c72d055