I have ubuntu 8.10 installed on my Lenovo 3000 G430 laptop (415228Q).
Wireless worked fine initially. I once happened to close the external switch for wireless when it was connected. Then it stopped working.

Now $sudo iwlist scan gives the output:
eth1 Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument

$sudo iwconfig gives output:
eth1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Powerff
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementmode:All packets received
Link Quality=5/5 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Try sudo ifdown eth1, then sudo ifup eth1 and see if it comes back to life.

If not, post the output of ifconfig.

Looks like the wireless interface may be powered off via bios setting or something.

Thanks for the reply.

I get the following output:

$sudo ifdown eth1
ifdown: interface eth1 not configured

$sudo ifup eth1
Ignoring unknown interface eth1=eth1

$sudo ifconfig
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:21:00:56:a2:ba
inet6 addr: fe80::221:ff:fe56:a2ba/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:19

My /etc/network/interfaces shows only the following:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Hey thanks for your help.. but just loading the defaults in bios worked!! It's very strange and such a simple solution came to me after spending so many hours trying several things!! Thanks again.