Re: net manager wireless disabled

[sheltraw berkeley edu]

Thanks again Tony

There is a kill hardware on/off switch for wireless on my machine which
I never noticed before. I have turned wireless on but still not working.
Strangely Ubuntu 9.04 was unaffected by this hardware switch. Wireless
worked out-of-the-box for 9.04! Why is there a wireless kill switch
anyhow? Seem odd that of all the chipsets on a motherboard wireless
would have its own user-accessible kill switch.


> sheltraw berkeley edu wrote:
>> Hi Tony
>>
>> Thanks for the info. Similar bugs have been reported to Ubuntu and
>> there oddly appears to be no fix yet.
>
> That's because it's not a single bug.  First, there are many brands of
> Wi-Fi cards each requiring different drivers.  This is then compounded
> by the fact the various OEMs wire their platforms differently...  thus
> operation of kill switches is dependent on Wi-Fi driver + platform ( and
> possibly platform driver ).
>
> When you report a bug using "ubuntu-bug", information is gathered from
> your particular machine which can help developers determine your
> particular problem.
>
>> "rfkill list" tells me that wireless LAN is hard blocked. Do you
>> know how to unblock?
>
> Hard-blocked means that a hardware kill switch has been enabled.  You
> should check to see if there's an obvious kill switch that you can
> disable on your machine.  If not, then it's probably an issue with the
> Wi-Fi driver and/or platform driver.
>
> With respect to the HW kill switch, you might want to check the OEM's
> manual for your specific model.
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> Regards,
> /tony
>
>