Wireless disabled in software

[brm]

As netbooks go, mine is relatively powerful and I use a variety of KDE applications. I therefore installed kde-full.

I am unable to access wireless. The hardware toggle is definitely on but hovering with the mouse over the Ethernet icon displays a message that "wireless is disabled in software." ifconfig confirms the bad news: there is no stanza for wlan. lsmod shows, however, that the ath9k driver and all its dependencies are loaded and active.

I have not found where in System Settings (or anywhere else) that I should enable wireless. Entering my home wireless network in knetworkmanager accomplishes nothing. Wireless appears to be completely disabled; there is no graphical evidence that the system tries to associate with the access point.

Disclaimer 1: I have been breaking development software for almost 30 years (I am not that much younger than GreyGeek :-) ) and have the scars to show for it. Trying to upgrade four separate systems to natty beta1 has, however, proven to be a total nightmare.

Disclaimer 2: Despite the above, other life events have forced me to reduce the time I spend on a ten-year long passionate affair with Linux, especially its KDE flavour. I haven't found a good answer to this question through Google, but if one (or several) already exist(s), please point me int the right direction.

[claydoh]

Re: Wireless disabled in software

Hardware info please

If unsure of the wireless chip, please post the output of the command lspci.
It is most likely a driver issue, and there isn't really a place for that in System Settings. If your chip needs firmware, the Additional Drivers tool may help with that (usually for various Broadcom chips)

[brm]

Re: Wireless disabled in software

Thanks for the reply. I was a little imprecise in the original post. I already knew that the computer contains an Atheros chip which is why I had lsmod check only for the ath9k driver.

The first code snippet is the relevant output of lsmod. The second is the exhaustive relevant output from sudo lspci -vv:

bruce@Pausanias:~$ lsmod | grep ath9k
ath9k         118238 0 
mac80211       294370 1 ath9k
ath9k_common      13851 1 ath9k
ath9k_hw       323122 2 ath9k,ath9k_common
ath          23773 2 ath9k,ath9k_hw
cfg80211       178528 3 ath9k,mac80211,ath
bruce@Pausanias:~$

01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
    Subsystem: AzureWave Device 1089
    Physical Slot: 0
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
    Region 0: Memory at fe900000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
        Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
    Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Address: 00000000 Data: 0000
    Capabilities: [60] Express (v2) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <64us
            ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
        DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
            RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
            MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
        DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr+ TransPend-
        LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <64us
            ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
        LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
            ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
        LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
        DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Not Supported, TimeoutDis+
        DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-
        LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 2.5GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-, Selectable De-emphasis: -6dB
             Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance- ComplianceSOS-
             Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB
        LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB
    Capabilities: [100 v1] Advanced Error Reporting
        UESta: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
        UEMsk: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
        UESvrt: DLP+ SDES+ TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
        CESta: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr-
        CEMsk: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
        AERCap: First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-
    Capabilities: [140 v1] Virtual Channel
        Caps:  LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
        Arb:  Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
        Ctrl:  ArbSelect=Fixed
        Status: InProgress-
        VC0:  Caps:  PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
            Arb:  Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
            Ctrl:  Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
            Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
    Capabilities: [160 v1] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
    Capabilities: [170 v1] Power Budgeting <?>
    Kernel driver in use: ath9k
    Kernel modules: ath9k

[brm]

[SOLVED] Re: Wireless disabled in software

The problem has automagically resolved itself.

I am not sure where the automagic came from, but this is my best guess:
1. I did the install through an Ethernet connection. I had used the hardware toggle (an Fn-key combination) to switch wireless off. In hindsight, this was probably not a good idea.
2. When I encountered the "disabled in software" message yesterday, I toggled the hardware switch but forgot to try any of the customary "service networking restart", ifup wlan0" or similar incantations. Now that I have discovered a solution, I recall previous frustration attempting to restart networking when I encountered connectivity problems. It might not be "kosher," but sometimes the easiest solution has been a reboot.
3. I shut down the system yesterday and powered it back up today. The wireless associated routinely. What I therefore suspect is that, somewhere deep within the OS, there is a requirement for the hardware wireless to be active at system start. Having the driver modules loaded is not sufficient.

Thanks to all for their help. After losing over one whole day trying to upgrade four separate machines to natty beta1, things are falling into place today and restoring my faith in Linux robustness (to say nothing of having enhanced personal troubleshooting skills).

[drooghead]

Re: Wireless disabled in software

This may help a bit. I have noticed also that there is something broken about the wireless in natty. The keyboard used to be able turn it off or on but now it only turns the wireless and bluetooth off. I turn mine back on using the command 'rfkill unblock all'