Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

[The Liquidator]

Hi

Dell inspiron laptop (2006 vintage) with intel wifi card.

Wifi has worked on this machine from day 1. However, the wifi light on it has not, or at least not properly.

On boot, it does not work at all. It can be induced into coming on by switching the wireless off and then back on again. Similarly, if I hibernate the machine on wakeup the light comes on.

As I say, it's a trivial matter and if there is no answer to this I won't lose any sleep over it, but out of interest has anyone else witnessed this behaviour and, if so, did you find a fix for it?

TIA

[wizard10000]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

Got an idea that might work. What about turning the wlan card on (or off and on) in /etc/rc.local?

ifconfig wlan0 down

ifconfig wlan0 up

Don't know whether it's wlan0 or eth1 but it might work.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

Thanks I'll give it a whirl when I get home tonight

[oshunluvr]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

scan your /sys directory for files with led in the name.

Also I found this:

To enable the Wifi LED with the Atheros cards

First check if this solution works on your computer. Open a terminal and run this commands:

sysctl dev.wifi0.ledpin=1
sysctl dev.wifi0.softled=3

Now connect to a wireless network and the LED should start working. If so and you want to make the changes permanent then:

1) Create a file ~/wifiLED and copy/paste the following into it:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Commands to enable the wireless LED
sysctl dev.wifi0.ledpin=1
sysctl dev.wifi0.softled=3

2) sudo cp ~/wifiLED /etc/init.d

3) sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/wifiLED

4) sudo update-rc.d wifiLED defaults 90

After you reboot your wireless led should be working.

[wizard10000]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

sysctl dev.wifi0.ledpin=1
sysctl dev.wifi0.softled=3

Interesting. You've gotta be root to issue sysctl commands, though.

Also, if it does work maybe it'd just be easier to add the strings to /etc/sysctl.conf?

[The Liquidator]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

Crikey I wish I had asked this years ago

Thanks for the input. Will give it all a go when I get home.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

Hi

The response to the commands is "..is an unknown key"

Tried substituting wifi1 with eth1 and wlan1 produces the same effect.

In the sys folder there are a lot of references to LED. One of these is

/sys/module/ipw2200/parameters

Don't know if it's relevant but opening the file reveals it simply contains the figure 1.

Don't know where else to go with it

[GreyGeek]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

modinfo ipw2200 gives more settable parameters than any other module I've looked at!

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.35-25-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2x00/ipw2200.ko
firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw
firmware: ipw2200-sniffer.fw
firmware: ipw2200-ibss.fw
license: GPL
author: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
version: 1.2.2kmprq
description: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver
srcversion: A05DE8714F7CE0E25EE16FB
alias: pci:v00008086d00004224sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00004223sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00004221sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00004220sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d0000104Fsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002762bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002761bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002754bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002753bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002752bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002751bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002742bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv0000103Csd00002741bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002741bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002732bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002731bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002722bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002721bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002712bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002711bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002702bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002701bc*sc*i*
depends: libipw,lib80211,cfg80211
vermagic: 2.6.35-25-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm: disable:manually disable the radio (default 0 [radio on]) (int)
parm: associate:auto associate when scanning (default off) (int)
parm: auto_create:auto create adhoc network (default on) (int)
parm: led:enable led control on some systems (default 1 on) (int)
parm: debug:debug output mask (int)
parm: channel:channel to limit associate to (default 0 [ANY]) (int)
parm: rtap_iface:create the rtap interface (1 - create, default 0) (int)
parm: qos_enable:enable all QoS functionalitis (int)
parm: qos_burst_enable:enable QoS burst mode (int)
parm: qos_no_ack_mask:mask Tx_Queue to no ack (int)
parm: burst_duration_CCK:set CCK burst value (int)
parm: burst_duration_OFDM:set OFDM burst value (int)
parm: mode:network mode (0=BSS,1=IBSS,2=Monitor) (int)
parm: bt_coexist:enable bluetooth coexistence (default off) (int)
parm: hwcrypto:enable hardware crypto (default off) (int)
parm: cmdlog:allocate a ring buffer for logging firmware commands (int)
parm: roaming:enable roaming support (default on) (int)
parm: antenna:select antenna 1=Main, 3=Aux, default 0 [both], 2=slow_diversity (choose the one with lower background noise) (int)

[wizard10000]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

Hi

The response to the commands is "..is an unknown key"

Should be

sudo sysctl dev.wifi0.led=1

I'm not so sure about the wifi0 but GG provided the parameter.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Long-standing (trivial) wireless light problem

@Wizard

Nope, that command returns the same error.

@ GG

The Led file shows the default i.e auto for "some" systems. I suspect the fact that it doesn't work automatically means mine is not one of those.

Weird that it comes on when I hit alt+F2 twice, or when it comes out of hibernation. One of thise things I imagine.

Thanks for the help anyway gents.