I have a Dell inspiron 6400. I can turn WiFi on and off with Fn + F3 switch. WiFi is Broadcom BCM4311 cab installed with B43 module. It needs a firmware to work properly. Problem is: * When the WiFi is off and I boot my linux, I cannot use my wifi. When I turn it on, it turns on and automatically turns off again. This happen fast even WiFi LED do not turn on. * When the WiFi is off and I boot my linux, WiFi works properly until I turn it off. If I turn it off, it would be impossible to turn it on again. I was thinking this is the problem of firmware. At first, I reported a bug for this package on debian (Bug#632004). But after some conversations the maintainers of the firmware package, they told me it seems this is not the problem of the firmware because it loads when I boot the laptop with WiFi on. I did not have such problem with 2.6.32 kernel. It worked properly in that kernel. But in kernels after that this problem exist. I've tested this in Debian, Ubuntu (10.4), Mint (9), LMDE and chakra linux with following kernels. Debian -> 3.0.0 RC5 amd64, 2.6.39-2-amd64 Chakra -> 2.6.38-CHAKRA amd64 I don't remember the kernel version of Mint and Ubuntu. It seems there should be a bug in the kernel. These are some information you may need: # dmesg | grep b43 [ 2.134860] b43-pci-bridge 0000:0b:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 [ 2.134870] b43-pci-bridge 0000:0b:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 6.739795] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found (core revision 10) [ 6.843324] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx [ 6.843346] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx [ 6.843369] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio [ 16.732151] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 478.104 (2008-07-01 00:50:23) [ 101.844084] b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to DISABLED #lspci -vnn | grep 14e4 03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02) 0b:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01) # inxi -N Network: Card-1 Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver b44 Card-2 Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN driver b43-pci-bridge # dpkg -l | grep b43 ii b43-fwcutter 1:014-4 Utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware ii firmware-b43-installer 1:014-4 Installer package for firmware for the b43 driver #ifconfig eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:c5:ca:1b:e5 inet addr:192.168.0.101 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::215:c5ff:feca:1be5/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:4027 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:3834 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:4119437 (3.9 MiB) TX bytes:516841 (504.7 KiB) Interrupt:17 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:1584 (1.5 KiB) TX bytes:1584 (1.5 KiB)
It looks like rfkill is active. Please post the output of 'rfkill list'. What kind of laptop is this? Please post the output of 'lsmod'.
now I'm on LMDE with 3.0.0 RC5 amd64 kernel. But I have an image backup of my chakra. > What kind of laptop is this? Dell Inspiron 6400 or its another name inspiron 1501. It was designed to be ubuntu compatible. I use it for my every day tasks. #rfkill list The program 'rfkill' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: apt-get install rfkill rfkill: command not found I can install rfkill if you want. #lsmod Module Size Used by sha1_generic 12575 4 ecb 12737 2 ppp_mppe 12925 2 ppp_async 17077 1 crc_ccitt 12347 1 ppp_async ppp_generic 26263 6 ppp_mppe,ppp_async slhc 12562 1 ppp_generic binfmt_misc 12914 1 parport_pc 22191 0 ppdev 12725 0 lp 17190 0 parport 31650 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp bnep 17424 2 rfcomm 32745 0 bluetooth 112546 10 bnep,rfcomm cpufreq_stats 12762 0 cpufreq_powersave 12454 0 acpi_cpufreq 12849 1 mperf 12411 1 acpi_cpufreq cpufreq_conservative 13147 0 cpufreq_userspace 12576 0 fuse 61507 1 loop 22479 0 snd_hda_codec_idt 53325 1 snd_hda_intel 25946 2 snd_hda_codec 67865 2 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel snd_hwdep 13148 1 snd_hda_codec snd_pcm_oss 40662 0 snd_mixer_oss 17905 1 snd_pcm_oss snd_pcm 67276 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss radeon 743531 2 arc4 12458 4 snd_seq_midi 12848 0 b43 292695 0 snd_rawmidi 22963 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event 13316 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq 44678 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event ttm 52224 1 radeon drm_kms_helper 26950 1 radeon drm 166656 4 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper mac80211 181749 1 b43 snd_timer 22658 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq snd_seq_device 13155 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq cfg80211 131541 2 b43,mac80211 snd 52406 15 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device r852 17768 0 sm_common 16450 1 r852 r592 17576 0 nand 44305 2 r852,sm_common nand_ids 12313 1 nand soundcore 13014 1 snd snd_page_alloc 12969 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm evdev 17475 24 nand_ecc 12444 1 nand i2c_algo_bit 12834 1 radeon mtd 24200 2 sm_common,nand i2c_i801 16870 0 memstick 13726 1 r592 ac 12624 0 i2c_core 23766 5 radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_i801 dell_laptop 12852 0 rng_core 12614 1 b43 dcdbas 13256 1 dell_laptop dell_wmi 12477 0 sparse_keymap 12760 1 dell_wmi joydev 17138 0 wmi 13202 1 dell_wmi pcspkr 12579 0 rfkill 18970 5 bluetooth,cfg80211,dell_laptop battery 13109 0 psmouse 55241 0 power_supply 13475 4 radeon,ac,dell_laptop,battery serio_raw 12878 0 video 17553 0 button 12895 0 processor 27431 3 acpi_cpufreq ext4 317588 1 mbcache 12930 1 ext4 jbd2 65052 1 ext4 crc16 12343 2 bluetooth,ext4 btrfs 501720 0 zlib_deflate 25466 1 btrfs crc32c 12656 1 libcrc32c 12426 1 btrfs usbhid 39946 0 hid 76841 1 usbhid sg 25769 0 sd_mod 35644 2 crc_t10dif 12348 1 sd_mod sr_mod 21824 0 cdrom 35134 1 sr_mod ata_generic 12479 0 b44 31440 0 uhci_hcd 26529 0 ata_piix 25319 1 firewire_ohci 35072 0 sdhci_pci 13184 0 sdhci 26052 1 sdhci_pci thermal 17330 0 thermal_sys 17939 3 video,processor,thermal libata 151616 2 ata_generic,ata_piix firewire_core 47887 1 firewire_ohci crc_itu_t 12347 1 firewire_core mii 12675 1 b44 ssb 44219 2 b43,b44 mmc_core 63039 3 b43,sdhci,ssb pcmcia 32719 2 b43,ssb pcmcia_core 18333 1 pcmcia ehci_hcd 39487 0 scsi_mod 161602 4 sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata usbcore 127203 4 usbhid,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
Yes, please install the rfkill tool and report the output from 'rfkill list' here.
# rfkill list 0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no 1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no 2: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no
Thank you John W. Linville Now with these two commands I can become fully open-source. rfkill unblock 0 rfkill unblock 1 What should I do to become independent of rfkill in all distros I tested. Is there a config file or sth do be repaired? Is this cab be called a bug?
When I turn off Wireless with Fn + F3, I cannot turn it on again without rfkill tool. It seems rfkill activates automatically everytime I use Fn + F3.
It sounds like a problem with your laptop's platform driver support for rfkill.
I've found some new information it seems this is a bug of dell-laptop module as you said before. rmmod dell-laptop solves the problem. so it seems dell-laptop is the buggy module.