[Dell Latitude 2120/Vostro 1015/1014] Turning off wi-fi with hotkey seems to permenantly disable wi-fi

Bug #775281 reported by Jeff Lane 
54
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Keng-Yu Lin
Natty
Fix Released
High
Keng-Yu Lin
Oneiric
Fix Released
High
Keng-Yu Lin

Bug Description

Like other Dells I've tried with Natty, turning off wi-fi using the hotkey (in this case, it's Fn+F6) seems to permenantly disable wireless networking.

I have found no way to turn wireless back on. Rebooting, power cycling, BIOS etc, nothing seems to actually re-enable wi-fi. The one thing I have not tried yet is re-installing.

Unfortunately, without the wireless, I can't put this system on an accessible network at the moment.

BUT, this one has the following, according to lspci:
Broadcom Corp BMC43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)

Jeff Lane  (bladernr)
tags: added: blocks-hwcert
Revision history for this message
Ara Pulido (ara) wrote :

Chris, this seems quite critical, and it seems to be affecting several Dells waiting for certification.
Can you have a look, please?

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof)
importance: Undecided → High
Revision history for this message
Jeff Lane  (bladernr) wrote :

Additional info... this seems incredibly common to the Dell systems. All Dells I've tested so far exhibit this behaviour.

The upside is that I finally managed to get wireless turned back on on the Latitude 2120. The downside is that I had to reinstall the OS to do so.

For whatever reason, reinstalling fixed it.

So this tells me that using the hot-key to disable wireless sets a bit somewhere in the OS but from that point on, that bit can't be unset. So that may be a good clue where to start looking to resolve this, and it should resolve this issue across all the dells.

Revision history for this message
Nils Herde (hernil) wrote :

I had the same problem with a Dell Latitude D531. Solution was to remove all Broadcom STA -packages and use the b43-fwcutter driver.

Please inform me if I can provide additional information that may be helpfull!

Revision history for this message
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) wrote :

Keng-yu -- Can you verify this behaviour on your 2120?

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
assignee: Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) → Keng-Yü Lin (lexical)
tags: added: hwe-blocker
Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

I sent Latitude 2120 to my friend Ayan in Florida as a gift. :-)

I do not have an exact the same one now. However on Latitude 2110 the same issue is seen.

I think I worked on the bug before and there is a patch:
 (http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=lexical/lexical-maverick.git;a=commitdiff;h=de63c70b9fb1560b42646365922169a841d5ac5b),

it is not upstream because it was just a workaround and later I have the issue fixed after BIOS upgrade.

But I cannot find the BIOS image with the same version I have in Dell website; probably is because the one I have is not an official release.

However can one having the hardware test the following one:

http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R286475&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=425723

will be appreciated if the `sudo dmidecode` log is posted here for reference too.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Victor Tuson Palau (vtuson) wrote :

the 2120 that I have works fine - well the hot key does not work, but I am able to recover wifi by doing:

- press hot key again (wifi light in the laptop lights up)
- reboot

we should try to get to the bottom of this. Can we get Ayan to test it?

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

On the dell latitude 2110, the kernel locks up hard when I press the wifi hotkey and a reboot is required.
I've attached dmidecode output.

Keng-Yu Lin (lexical)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → High
assignee: nobody → Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof)
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) wrote :

Jeff -- This should have been corrected by a BIOS update we were provided during enablement. What version of the BIOS was loaded on the machine you tested? I assume you may not have access to it at this point.

Ayan -- You're on the X05 release, the fix Keng-yu email referenced was included in X06. Ping me and I can get you this version to test.

Victor -- What version are you running presently, A?

--chris

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) → Jeff Lane (bladernr)
Revision history for this message
Jeff Lane  (bladernr) wrote :

https://certification.canonical.com/hardware/201009-6529/submission/l3QUR5NHfYRxeDE

According to a dmidecode run on that system back in December:

https://certification.canonical.com/attachment/A9UFZArJUiCqzyi

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
 Vendor: Dell Inc.
 Version: W06
 Release Date: 10/06/2010
 Address: 0xF0000
 Runtime Size: 64 kB
 ROM Size: 2112 kB
 Characteristics:
  ISA is supported
  PCI is supported
  PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
  PNP is supported
  BIOS is upgradeable
  BIOS shadowing is allowed
  Boot from CD is supported
  Selectable boot is supported
  3.5"/720 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
  Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
  8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
  Serial services are supported (int 14h)
  Printer services are supported (int 17h)
  CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
  ACPI is supported
  USB legacy is supported
  AGP is supported
  Smart battery is supported
  BIOS boot specification is supported
  Function key-initiated network boot is supported
  Targeted content distribution is supported
 BIOS Revision: 0.6
 Firmware Revision: 0.6

So looks like W06? Is that down-rev from where it should be? Either way, it's running the BIOS that was on it when it came through enablement. Does this imply that a system in enablement that has an issue that's resolved by a BIOS update from the vendor may not actually have that update installed and verified as fixing the issue before it's pushed out of enablement and into certification?

Just trying to get a grasp on the process and whether this is something we need to be more concerned with regarding enablement systems that are being certified.

Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

Given the fact that correct W06 BIOS is installed, it sounds more like a regression in Natty. For a simple verification, can anyone with the hardware in hand just install Maverick and Natty and see if the bug exists in Maverick? Last time we were fixing in Maverick.

I will try to verify when I am able to reach my Latitude 2110 too, as it has the same bug, though this bug is for Latitude 2120.

It will be helpful one can attach the log of `rfkill list` and /sys/kernel/debug/dell_laptop/rfkill at both the moment when the radio is enabled and when it is disabled (or locked in this case).

Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

I also want to ask if W06 is a version that Dell shipped with in public market? Shouldn't it be an "A"-prefix version?

Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

To summary two things to verify:

  1) The correct version of BIOS, I need someone to help with this.
  2) if this is a regression in Natty. I will get Ayan, who has the hardware, and me, who has a similar model, to test.

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

Just FYI, I'll configure and test tomorrow AM.

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

After updating to BIOS rev X06, Natty thinks the dell-wifi rfkill instance is hard and soft blocked. There is no way to enable them -- the hotkeys don't work.

Revision history for this message
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) wrote :

Victor's new 2120 was shipped with:

"""
BIOS Information
    Vendor: Dell Inc.
    Version: A04
    Release Date: 05/21/2010
"""

Revision history for this message
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) wrote :

Scratch Comment #15, this was mistakenly from another machine. I'll post the 2120 BIOS revision shortly

Revision history for this message
esodin (jomar) wrote :

Same problem with Dell XPS 16 and Dell Studio 15. Got wifi working again by uninstalling Broadcom driver in "Additional Drivers", rebooting, and then reinstalling Broadcom driver. Sorry - I am not very technical but thought my "fix" may be of interest as it was not listed previously. I did not have this issue on the two machines prior to 11.04 (cat walks across the keyboard all the time).

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

I just installed BIOS version A00 and wireless still does not work. Instead of showing everything as hard blocked, 'rfkill list' shows the dell-wifi interface as:

Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

Addendum to post #18 -- Hot keys do not work.

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

Please disregard posts #18 and #19. After another reboot, wireless works but using the hotkey will freeze the machine.

Revision history for this message
Ayan George (ayan) wrote :

I tried Maverick with the required FISH packages and wireless does not work. This appears to be a regression.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

Can anyone having the hardware help test the kernel debs (http://people.canonical.com/~lexical/bugs/lp772768/) ?

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: In Progress → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Victor Tuson Palau (vtuson) wrote :

hi,

I have tried the patch on a dell latitude 2120. Before the new kernel the hot key for wifi killed bt and wifi and would only get fixed with a reboot. It now works just as it is suppose to with the new kernel. Thanks Keng-yu!

Keng-Yu Lin (lexical)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Incomplete → In Progress
assignee: Jeff Lane (bladernr) → Keng-Yü Lin (lexical)
Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

The patch is already sent to upstream and ubuntu kernel mailing list (for Natty SRU) for review.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: In Progress → Triaged
Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical) wrote :

SRU Justification (for Natty):

Impact: turning off wi-fi using the hotkey permenantly disables
wireless networking. The only way to turn it on is reboot.

Fix: Revert the previous patch to toggle the killswitch via the
Dell-specified SMI command without the concern if it is hardware-controlled.

I sent the revert patch to upstream already, but it is not yet merged.
I issued the SRU for Natty in case of the concern of blocking the certification.

Testcase: Confirmed to fix the issue on Dell Vostro 1014 and Latitude 2120

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 3.0-3.4

---------------
linux (3.0-3.4) oneiric; urgency=low

  [ Keng-Yu Lin ]

  * SAUCE: Revert: "dell-laptop: Toggle the unsupported hardware
    killswitch"
    - LP: #775281

  [ Leann Ogasawara ]

  * rebase to v3.0-rc5
  * [Config] updateconfigs after rebase to 3.0-rc5

  [ Tim Gardner ]

  * [Config] Remove ubuntu/rtl8192se
  * [Config] Added armel ABI files
  * [Config] Removed armel versatile flavour
  * [Config] CONFIG_INTEL_MEI=m
    - LP: #716867

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * ALSA: hda - Enable auto-parser as default for Conexant codecs

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * rebase to v3.0-rc5
 -- Leann Ogasawara <email address hidden> Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:27:10 +0100

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof)
summary: - [Dell Latitude 2120] Turning off wi-fi with hotkey seems to permenantly
- disable wi-fi
+ [Dell Latitude 2120/Vostro 1015/1014] Turning off wi-fi with hotkey
+ seems to permenantly disable wi-fi
Revision history for this message
Herton R. Krzesinski (herton) wrote :

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-natty' to 'verification-done-natty'.

If verification is not done by one week from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

tags: added: verification-needed-natty
Keng-Yu Lin (lexical)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: Keng-Yü Lin (lexical) → Anthony Wong (anthonywong)
Revision history for this message
Anthony Wong (anthonywong) wrote :

Keng-Yü doesn't have the machine now so need others to verify the -proposed kernel.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: Anthony Wong (anthonywong) → Ayan George (ayan)
Revision history for this message
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) wrote :

Marc -- Mind confirming this fix in the current natty -proposed kernel (2.6.38-11) on the Vostro 1014 or 1015?

Regards,
Chris

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: Ayan George (ayan) → Marc Legris (maaarc)
Revision history for this message
Marc Legris (maaarc-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Chris -- Tested the 2.6.38-11 kernel with the Vosto 1015, wifi hotkey does not permanently turn off wifi.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: Marc Legris (maaarc) → Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof)
Revision history for this message
Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) wrote :

Thanks Marc!

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
assignee: Chris Van Hoof (vanhoof) → Keng-Yü Lin (lexical)
tags: added: verification-done-natty
removed: verification-needed-natty
Revision history for this message
Ara Pulido (ara) wrote :

Waiting on the release of the kernel

Revision history for this message
Tom Moonen (altviool-tom) wrote :

Hello All,

I'm having similar problems with my Dell Inspiron 1501, which is now running Linux Mint 11 K., alongside of win XP ,

I'm too much of a novice to try implementing some of the patches mentioned above without guidance.

Instead i'm hoping for a rapid ' upstream' general patch or fix of the Broadcom Dell WiFi bug, implementable by upgrade.

When can one expect such an upgrade to be downloadable?

It's important enough to consider switching to another Linux branch i had recommended on a Linux distro chooser: OpenSUSE.

My other question is therefore: is this BroadcomDell bug affecting the OpenSUSE distro's as well? If so, i would stick to my current xp/Mint setup.
I'd be very,very happy to finally ditch Whinedoze for good though. ;)

Thanks,
Tom

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :
Download full text (13.4 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 2.6.38-11.48

---------------
linux (2.6.38-11.48) natty-proposed; urgency=low

  [Herton R. Krzesinski]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #818175

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * Revert "HID: magicmouse: ignore 'ivalid report id' while switching
    modes"
    - LP: #814250

linux (2.6.38-11.47) natty-proposed; urgency=low

  [Steve Conklin]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #811180

  [ Keng-Yu Lin ]

  * SAUCE: Revert: "dell-laptop: Toggle the unsupported hardware
    killswitch"
    - LP: #775281

  [ Ming Lei ]

  * SAUCE: fix yama_ptracer_del lockdep warning
    - LP: #791019

  [ Stefan Bader ]

  * SAUCE: Re-enable RODATA for i386 virtual
    - LP: #809838

  [ Tim Gardner ]

  * [Config] Add grub-efi as a recommended bootloader for server and
    generic
    - LP: #800910
  * SAUCE: rtl8192se: Force a build for a 2.6/3.0 kernel
    - LP: #805494

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * Revert "bridge: Forward reserved group addresses if !STP"
    - LP: #793702
  * Fix up ABI directory
  * bonding: Incorrect TX queue offset, CVE-2011-1581
    - LP: #792312
    - CVE-2011-1581
  * fs/partitions/efi.c: corrupted GUID partition tables can cause kernel
    oops
    - LP: #795418
    - CVE-2011-1577
  * usbnet/cdc_ncm: add missing .reset_resume hook
    - LP: #793892
  * ath5k: Disable fast channel switching by default
    - LP: #767192
  * mm: vmscan: correctly check if reclaimer should schedule during
    shrink_slab
    - LP: #755066
  * mm: vmscan: correct use of pgdat_balanced in sleeping_prematurely
    - LP: #755066
  * ALSA: hda - Use LPIB for ATI/AMD chipsets as default
    - LP: #741825
  * ALSA: hda - Enable snoop bit for AMD controllers
    - LP: #741825
  * ALSA: hda - Enable sync_write workaround for AMD generically
    - LP: #741825
  * cpuidle: menu: fixed wrapping timers at 4.294 seconds
    - LP: #774947
  * drm/i915: Fix gen6 (SNB) missed BLT ring interrupts.
    - LP: #761065
  * USB: ehci: remove structure packing from ehci_def
    - LP: #791552
  * drm/i915: disable PCH ports if needed when disabling a CRTC
    - LP: #791752
  * kmemleak: Do not return a pointer to an object that kmemleak did not
    get
    - LP: #793702
  * kmemleak: Initialise kmemleak after debug_objects_mem_init()
    - LP: #793702
  * Fix _OSC UUID in pcc-cpufreq
    - LP: #793702
  * CPU hotplug, re-create sysfs directory and symlinks
    - LP: #793702
  * Fix memory leak in cpufreq_stat
    - LP: #793702
  * net: recvmmsg: Strip MSG_WAITFORONE when calling recvmsg
    - LP: #793702
  * ftrace: Only update the function code on write to filter files
    - LP: #793702
  * qla2xxx: Fix hang during driver unload when vport is active.
    - LP: #793702
  * qla2xxx: Fix virtual port failing to login after chip reset.
    - LP: #793702
  * qla2xxx: Fix vport delete hang when logins are outstanding.
    - LP: #793702
  * powerpc/kdump64: Don't reference freed memory as pacas
    - LP: #793702
  * powerpc/kexec: Fix memory corruption from unallocated slaves
    - LP: #793702
  * x86, cpufeature: Fix cpuid leaf 7 feature detection
    - LP: #793702
  * ath9k_hw: do noise floor calibration only on required chain...

Changed in linux (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Mauricio Peñaloza S. (elkan76) wrote :

Hi, I had a Vostro 1015, and suffered the same bug, but after a little google, the best solution was:
 1.- Find if dell-laptop module was loading #$ lsmod | grep dell
 2.- Edit the blacklist file #$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d
 3.- Add at the end the module (don't forget comment why this module is in blacklist) #$ blacklist dell-laptop
 4.- Restart, and that's all. Your keyboard must be fully functional (undo if not working).

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