Re: does/can networkmanager ever set rfkill?

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Thu, 2010-02-25 at 15:42 -0500, Paul Fox wrote:
> i'm revisiting our ability to kill power to the wireless device
> for the XO-1.5 laptop.  this time around, we're using rfkill to
> do so.  (the XO-1 used a private mechanism.) since there's no
> dedicated rfkill button, we need to invoke rfkill from a UI.
> 
> i was sort of expecting/hoping that NetworkManager could be used
> to invoke rfkill, since that would be portable, and provide
> persistence for the setting all at once.  but all i can find are
> lots of ways in which NM reacts to rfkill events, and nothing
> regarding it actually doing an rfkill block/unblock itself.
> 
> is this correct?  or have i overlooked something?  can NM, and the
> applet, be used as a soft rfkill switch?

Is XO 1.5 rfkill implemented via the rfkill subsystem?  If not, it
should be.  The NM enable/disable wireless mechanism can probably
finally be updated to take advantage of /dev/rfkill too, which would
then fix your issue.  It's something we need to do anyway.

Currently when told to "disable wireless" NM just take the wifi device
down, in which state it is assumed that the driver will place the devce
into low-power mode.  NM does *listen* for rfkill events, and changes
various D-Bus properties (WirelessEnabled, WirelessHardwareEnabled)
based on the rfkill state.

Dan