Aspire One A110 No Wireless

[kubobbu]

Can't seem to edit the title line...but mark this one SOLVED....
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OK so I made a mistake and upgraded to 12.04. Now I have no Wireless, which means I have a paperweight, not a computer.

lspci and label on the bottom of computer show Atheros ATH5K and the driver in use is ath5k.... but no wireless.

Tried the code turning off hardware encrypt... no help.

Please help.. I'd like to continue using this computer, and Kubuntu... but this is no fun at all!!!

Bob

[Snowhog]

Have you reconfigured your wireless settings after the upgrade?

[kubobbu]

i can't reconfigure... the network manager is not recognizing the card at all, and does not even offer the option of wireless settings.

Are you speaking of some other settings

Bob

[GreyGeek]

Most Aspires have an Fn+F3 key combo to toggle wireless off and on, instead of a mechanical switch. Have you tried that combo?

[vw72]

You could try installing wicd instead of the IDE network manager. I know a lot of the net book distros used it instead of the gnome and IDE NM. Also, if I recall, if you turn of the wifi with the mechanical switch you have to reboot and turn it back on immediately when the system starts. You might try that before installing wicd.

[SteveRiley]

Tried the code turning off hardware encrypt... no help.

Please show the specific steps you took to do this.

Also: install the iw tool:

sudo apt-get install iw

Then show the outputs of:

iw dev

iw phy

[oshunluvr]

The output of sudo rfkill list should tell us if it's off or on.

[kubobbu]

Sorry for the delayed responses but it's been busy around here.

My thanks to those who have tried to help.

I did not install the iw tool as suggested, as I would like to avoid adding further complications if possilble.

I did try sudo rfkill list, and it shows that the wireless interface is Hardware Blocked. Hovering the mouse over the wireless connection symbol in the top menu also gives the message, Wireless is Disabled by Hardware.

WiCd will not run, since the interface is turned off. I also have an update problem with Wicd, but that's another problem for the software portion of the forum.

The Fn-F3 suggestion did not work; this model has a mechanical switch for wireless, but it seems to have no effect no matter when I switch it, unless I'm just not catching the right moment in the boot cycle. In the past, however, I was able to turn the wireless On and Off at any time with the switch.

I thought the problem was the kernal... I'm running 3.2.0-35, and wireless seemed to work one time when I booted to 2,6,32-44, but that stopped working too.

Does anyone have an idea as to how I can overcome that "hardware block"??

Thanks and Happy New Year to all.
Bob

[vw72]

on the Aspire one, under Linux, , the wifi switch will only turn off wifi, but not turn it back on. To turn it back on, when yo do a cold boot, hit the switch before grub starts loading a kernel. Then your wifi should work again.

[kubobbu]

Thank you, VW72 (an excellent year, by the way)... I tried your suggestion and it seems to have worked. As usual, one of those simple things I should have known, but it has never been a problem before.

I will marked this one solved, with thanks again to you and all those who tried to help.

Love this forum.

Happy New Year to all.
Bob

[vw72]

Thank you, VW72 (an excellent year, by the way)... I tried your suggestion and it seems to have worked. As usual, one of those simple things I should have known, but it has never been a problem before.

I will marked this one solved, with thanks again to you and all those who tried to help.

Love this forum.

Happy New Year to all.
Bob

No problem. I used to work on a distro tailored for net books and the A110 had that problem. It's a hardware issue with the A110, I think someone had a BIOS patch for it, but I think it's easier to just reboot and hit the switch. If you have other problems, let me know and I'll see if I still have my old notes (I no longer have an A110, though).

[oshunluvr]

As a test - if you're so inclined - try using rfkll to turn it on. I'd be interested to see if it works.