how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

[heinkel_111]

I have been using wireless only on my toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop since forever as far as I can remember (ehrm..the first linux install on it, some weeks after I bought it, in 2008 I believe). There was even a time in the beginning when there was not a driver for the wired ethernet thing but wireless worked always straight out of the box.

Last week, however, suddenly it stopped showing up.
In my desktop widget thing, the wireless appears as unavailable and impossible to switch on, greyed out. I think that is as good as not present.

from the command line:

myuser@mymachine:~$ iwconfig
lo    no wireless extensions.

eth0   no wireless extensions.

wlan0   IEEE 802.11abg ESSID:off/any 
     Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated  Tx-Power=off  
     Retry long limit:7  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
     Power Management:off

in the /var/log/syslog I found the following sequence of messages:

myuser@mymachine:~$ more /var/log/syslog | grep radio
Nov 21 21:34:50 mymachine NetworkManager: <info> Found wlan radio killswitch rfkill0 (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.5/0000:08:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill0) (driver <unknown>)
Nov 21 21:34:50 mymachine NetworkManager: <info> WiFi enabled by radio killswitch; disabled by state file
Nov 21 21:34:50 mymachine NetworkManager: <info> WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file
Nov 21 21:34:51 mymachine NetworkManager: <info> WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch

According to the first report, it is enabled by radio killswitch, then, 1 second later, reportedly disabled, however, on the toshiba satelite u405-s2826, as far as I know, the radio killswitch does not work in linux. I mean "Fn+F8" which carries the antenna symbol. Few of the Fn+Fx buttons seem to be supported by kubuntu. I get Fn+F
6, Fn+F7 (screen light up and down) and maybe Fn+F10 (enable/disable touchpad) to work, but not the other ones.

So, how can I turn on the bloody radio killswitch (and how on earth did I manage to turn it off?)

EDIT:
someone may ask which wireless card I have

myuser@mymachine:~$ lspci | grep Wireless
08:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

EDIT2: There is no option to enable and disable wireless in BIOS afaik

[Snowhog]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Last week, did you get a kernel update?

[slush1000]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Give this a try:

Open a konsole and enter

sudo kate /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state

change 'NetworkingEnabled=false' to 'true'

Save and reboot.

[The Liquidator]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Did you suspend the machine by any chance?

If so, that is known to knock out the networking in 10.04.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3111291.0

[heinkel_111]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Last week, did you get a kernel update?

may be correct
currently running:

myuser@mymachine:~$ uname -a
Linux mymachine 2.6.32-25-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 16 19:52:42 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I do not know how to check when a package was installed - anyone?
(I use apt for package management).

[heinkel_111]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Give this a try:

Open a konsole and enter

sudo kate /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state

change 'NetworkingEnabled=false' to 'true'

Save and reboot.

In my state file, I had

NetworkingEnabled=true

.... all the time, so no use changing that. However

[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=false
WWANEnabled=true

I tried to change WirelessEnabled to true and reboot, but there was no change iin the behavior. Still greyed out wireless icons in NetworkManager hack not working!

[heinkel_111]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Last week, did you get a kernel update?

Tried booting with version 1 older than current of the kernel. Now running:

myuser@mymachine:~$ uname -a
Linux mymachine 2.6.32-24-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 16 14:58:24 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

...and the results:the problem is still there (wireless network interface not available)
This way I think I can eliminate kernel version 2.6.32-25 as the cause.

Anyone got any more ideas to check out?

[GreyGeek]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Detonate found a solution back in August:

sudo service network-manager stop
sudo rm /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state
sudo service network-manager start

It may work for you.

If that doesn't work, do you have a mechanical switch or button that inadvertently got toggled?

[heinkel_111]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

I have already tried (and now tried once more) to tamper with the state-file (edit contents to turn on wireless, see post above) and also to remove the state file completely, as you suggested.

What happens is that after removing the state-file, Network-Manager does not really restart. I mean, it reports that it is restarted, there is a process up and running, but the corresponding desktop widget is a white cross on a red background as in 'not available'.

I am not sure if this means that the shutdown of Network-Manager was not perfect. (The first 'stop' gives the response stopped/waiting, but issuing the śtop' once more it gives a confirmation message.) Maybe there is another process which needs to be stopped too?
Or something goes wrong during the start of the Network-Manager or associated processes.

As to the question of switches and buttons, that is why I explicitly stated I have a Toshiba laptop (Satelite U405-S2826) . This machine comes with Fn+F8 key combination that turns wireless network on and off. However, this appears unsupported by Linux.

According to dmesg output (in the top post) the radio kill switch starts off, then turns on but is somehow turned off again. I suspect there may be something wrong with the driver. However, it is strange to me that something which just worked, no problems for 3 years, multiple kubuntu releases, suddenly stops like that, without any major update at any point in the near past.

Could it be that a new driver for a different, newer network interface recently added to the linux world is somehow started erroneously, instead of the good old one I need?

[slush1000]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

OK how about this.

sudo apt-get install rfkill

then

rfkill list

Which should give you the state of any RF kill switches,
if it shows anything being 'soft' or 'hard' blocked pertainting to your wireless as yes then

rfkill unblock all

May need a restart of networking or reboot.

[sithlord48]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

According to dmesg output (in the top post) the radio kill switch starts off, then turns on but is somehow turned off again. I suspect there may be something wrong with the driver. However, it is strange to me that something which just worked, no problems for 3 years, multiple kubuntu releases, suddenly stops like that, without any major update at any point in the near past.

Could it be that a new driver for a different, newer network interface recently added to the linux world is somehow started erroneously, instead of the good old one I need?

it does sound like a driver issue what is the output of 'lshw' (just the network section,also we don't want more then xxx for you mac addresses.), its possible your new driver did not get installed correct in the new kernel, if the interface has a driver assigned to it be sure that its loaded by using the 'lsmod' command. once the driver is installed correctly the Fn+F8 combo should work.

[heinkel_111]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

lshw output as requested (cut down to size and edited):

 *-pci:5
       description: PCI bridge
       product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1c.5
       bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.5
       version: 03
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=pcieport
       resources: irq:29 ioport:7000(size=4096) memory:81400000-815fffff memory:81600000-817fffff(prefetchable)
      *-network DISABLED
        description: Wireless interface
        product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
        vendor: Intel Corporation
        physical id: 0
        bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
        logical name: wlan0
        version: 02
        serial: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
        width: 32 bits
        clock: 33MHz
        capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
        configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
        resources: irq:33 memory:81400000-81400fff

and then, lshw, likewise:

myuser@mymachine:~$ lsmod

Module         Size Used by
iwl3945        79436 0 
iwlcore        125179 1 iwl3945

seems like the driver is loaded, but not used ? (not sure if I read the output right...)

[heinkel_111]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

OK how about this.

sudo apt-get install rfkill

then

rfkill list

Which should give you the state of any RF kill switches,
if it shows anything being 'soft' or 'hard' blocked pertainting to your wireless as yes then

rfkill unblock all

May need a restart of networking or reboot.

myuser@mymachine:~$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

myuser@mymachine:~$ sudo rfkill unblock all

myuser@mymachine:~$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

Looks like rfkill does not have the capability to unblock my hard block. I will try a reboot and add a note about the results here.

EDIT: no results from the reboot

[Snowhog]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

"Hard blocked"

Is the wifi switch on the laptop in the off position?

[GreyGeek]

Re: how to re-enable wireless interface on toshiba satelite u405-s2826 laptop?

Or disabled in the BIOS?