wifi not configurable in network-manager showing disabled by hardware switch

[Vincent Gerris]

Network manager shows Wifi is disabled by hardware switch. It worked jut after install but not anymore after.
I read somewhere I can use wicd and that does work.
iwlist wlan0 scan worked also before installing that.
Seems like a bug in network-manager to me.
It would be nice if NM does whatever wicd does to enable the wifi card.
I have nog physical button for wif and wifi is enabled in the UEFI firmware.

output of rfkill list:
ubuntu@ubuntu-Lenovo-Yoga-2-11:~$ sudo rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: yes
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: yes
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
4: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
15: hci0: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
ubuntu@ubuntu-Lenovo-Yoga-2-11:~$

ubuntu@ubuntu-Lenovo-Yoga-2-11:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Trusty Tahr (development branch)
Release: 14.04

ubuntu@ubuntu-Lenovo-Yoga-2-11:~$ apt-cache policy network-manager
network-manager:
  Installed: 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu4
  Candidate: 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ubuntu@ubuntu-Lenovo-Yoga-2-11:~$ apt-cache policy network-manager-gnome
network-manager-gnome:
  Installed: 0.9.8.4-1ubuntu3
  Candidate: 0.9.8.4-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.8.4-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: network-manager 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-14.34-generic 3.13.5
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Mar 4 18:39:18 2014
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-04 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140303)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0
 192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.115
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
 WimaxEnabled=true
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
mtime.conffile..etc.NetworkManager.NetworkManager.conf: 2014-03-04T14:08:55.818581
nmcli-con:
 NAME UUID TYPE TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP-REAL AUTOCONNECT READONLY DBUS-PATH
 thuis- 17338c5c-1ba4-4ed4-ac63-bf2ab23734e2 802-11-wireless 0 never yes no /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/0
nmcli-dev:
 DEVICE TYPE STATE DBUS-PATH
 wlan0 802-11-wireless unavailable /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE NET-ENABLED WIFI-HARDWARE WIFI WWAN-HARDWARE WWAN
 running 0.9.8.8 disconnected enabled disabled disabled enabled enabled

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Vincent Gerris (vgerris)]

I read this is caused by the ideapad_laptop driver.
I blacklisted that and now it works kind of good (still loose connection sometime) but might be because of wcid also still being installed.
So another work around is to add this to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist ideapad_laptop

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

It affects an essential hardware component (disk controller, built-in networking, video card, keyboard, mouse).

[Matthew Braun (powerplug)]

Laptop: HP Compaq 6910p

This is the Ubuntu 14.04 3.13.0-27-generic kernel driver for the laptop wireless:

root@laptop:~# dmesg | grep iwl
[ 29.249428] iwl4965: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi 4965 driver for Linux, in-tree:
[ 29.249431] iwl4965: Copyright(c) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation
[ 29.249496] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
[ 29.249613] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN, REV=0x4
[ 29.288186] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: device EEPROM VER=0x36, CALIB=0x5
[ 29.289587] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
[ 29.289633] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 29.726043] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: loaded firmware version 228.61.2.24
[ 29.747585] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-4965-rs'

This shows the wireless interface is hard blocked (which is the issue network manager reports with the "disabled by hardware switch" message):

root@laptop:~# rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: yes

I tried doing 'rfkill unblock all' and 'rmmod iwl4965 ; modprobe iwl4965' to see if that would get WiFi working, but it didn't help.

I ended up booting to the Ubuntu 13.10 linux 3.11.0-20-generic kernel (still installed from before the Ubuntu upgrade) and WiFi worked fine. When booted to the older kernel, rfkill list properly shows "blocked: no" for the wireless interface. So for now, this is my workaround -- running Ubuntu 14.04 with an old kernel.

Note, this doesn't seem to be a bug with network-manager itself, but the kernel wireless drivers.

Hopefully this bug gets fixed so I don't have to run a back rev kernel.

[roytanck (roy-tanck)]

I'm a long time Ubuntu user, but still quite new to Launchpad, so please excuse my ignorance.

I'm wondering how issues like this one are usually resolved. This appears to me to be a rather serious issue. It involves a popular Lenovo notebook, the most recent Ubuntu, and an essential piece of hardware.

A solution appears to be available (https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Discussion/Yoga-2-13-not-Pro-Linux-Warning/m-p/1517612#M5933), but it involves compiling a kernel module. Not something I think regular users should ideally have to deal with.

Is there any way of telling whether this will be fixed, and perhaps even - when?

[roytanck (roy-tanck)]

I applied this fix: http://billauer.co.il/blog/2014/08/linux-ubuntu-yoga-hardware-blocked-wireless-lan/

Wifi now works flawlessly, but I'm wondering whether I'll need to repeat the steps when future kernel updates appear.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Closing as Invalid since it's not an issue with NetworkManager.

[Vincent Gerris (vgerris)]

Mathieu, while it may not be an issue with NetworkManager, this is still an issue.
Should this bug be reported against another package?
If anyone knows, please assign it accordingly. (I would gladly do it myself, but I am unsure on how to proceed and would still like this to be fixed for the future)
Thank you