How to be sure that wireless/bluetooth is not active
 

Hello, I have CentOS 5 Linux running on Gigabyte W566 laptop.
I want to be sure that all wireless function are disabled.
The side buttons on laptop's corpus actually not works, because there is no appropriate driver for Linux that supports them.

In other words what I need is:
To know that wireless antennas don't generates electromagnetic waves at all in any time, and I don't have any equipment to check this.

In user manual, in connectivity I see:
Dual band antenna WLAN Intell PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, IEEE 802.11a+b+g (Option)
Dual band antenna WLAN Intell PRO/Wireless 4965ABG, IEEE 802.11a+b+g (Option)

This is output of uname:
[root@andreys-comp orange]# uname -a
Linux andreys-comp 2.6.18-194.3.1.el5.centos.plusxen #1 SMP Wed May 19 09:59:34 EDT 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

This is relevant output of lspci:
[root@andreys-comp orange]# lspci | grep Eth
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 1)

Thank you for ahead.

You would want to check ifconfig -a to see all interfaces and the status.
Also iwconfig for wireless interfaces.
I would think that if you don't not have the correct drivers/modules it wouldn't even show up or function.

OFF TOPIC WARNING.

jasohl's sig:
I like it. But is it original, or attributable?

If you want to get closer to the actual hardware, you may be able check and control the state with rfkill.

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/...ntation/rfkill

However, I notice now that you are running centos: so your kernel may be too old (pre 2.6.31).

Cheers,


Evo2.

Are you sure that this is so? -- I have the use of a Toshiba laptop which has a wireless on/off slide switch its side, & it appears to work at the hardware level.

What tests did you do?

Is there a manual that explicitly says that these buttons interface w/ the OS & the software?

Please provide a link to information on the laptop, it will help us better help you.

I can't take credit for it. I don't remember where I first heard it, and upon Googling it turns up in many places. So I do not know who to attribute the originality. Perhaps just anonymous.

Can you turn them off in BIOS? I must admit I'm not completely sure, but I *think* my laptop had an option in the BIOS to turn the radio completely off, so if that's the case with you too, it's the easiest option.

Nice! :) This is first time I get so many replays in so quick time :)
Thank you all.

So about your demands:

iwconfig shows:
lo no wireless extensions.
peth0 no wireless extensions.
sit0 no wireless extensions.
virbr0 no wireless extensions.
vif0.0 no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
vif0.1 no wireless extensions.
veth1 no wireless extensions.
vif0.2 no wireless extensions.
veth2 no wireless extensions.
vif0.3 no wireless extensions.
veth3 no wireless extensions.
xenbr0 no wireless extensions.

Like I understand there is not only no wireless extensions for each of them, but there is no wireless interface at all, most of them like I understand belong to Xen (right?)

Output of ifconfig -a don't show more interfaces that you see above.

I downloaded rfkill, but it is not work (like you thought), more of that I don't have /dev/rfkill.

Here is provider's page related to my laptop:
http://gigabyte.com/search/search.aspx?kw=w566
(there are two versions (U and N, I don't know how to determine which of them is laptop that I use)

In user manual there is nothing that connects between wireless and OS, but from my experience, in past, when I try to run wireless, I remember that pushing side buttons get any result.

I actually found in BIOS option to disable wireless LAN, and now it make me much more calm.

So generally, now I more sure that wireless is inactive, but if you have something additionally to say I will more than glad to hear.

Well you could, if you wanted, turn the room (or a smaller volume of it) into a Faraday cage, which, if done right, should prevent the electromagnetic radiation from leaking out. There are some problems, though; it's probably uncomfortable, expensive, difficult and makes you look more or less out of your mind :) in addition to it being mostly useless, if your hardware is turned off.

Or you could just take apart the computer and remove/break the wireless circuits...(I'd say turning the device off in BIOS is enough)

Hehe, I think the real reason he wishes it to be off is so it won't suck the battery power, so a farraday cage may not be that useful.

BIOS ftw