[SOLVED] Wifi killed by Slackware, help!

sunnieside-up · 07-19-2012, 01:36 AM

So I installed slackware 13.37 on my Lenovo laptop, and the wifi in windows stopped working. I investigated with an ubuntu live cd, and found it said my card was disabled by a hardware switch. But my switch was set to on. I tried using rfkill:

Code:

$sudo rfkill unblock all
$rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

But it's not hard blocked by my switch! No matter what I do with rfkill, I can't lift the block on my card. And when I say:

Code:

$sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

I needed wifi fast, so I thought I would just wipe my whole drive and install ubuntu.... but it's still not working, same problem! Please help! I didn't know software could mess stuff up like this!

sorinm · 07-19-2012, 04:20 AM

Reset the BIOS, pull out the battery and let the laptop rest a few minutes unplugged from the power supply. It should be fine after this.

dc_eros · 07-19-2012, 08:30 PM

I think I have experienced the same. Is there any other method aside from opening the laptop and resetting BIOS?

TIA

damgar · 07-19-2012, 08:46 PM

My laptop with Windows Vista and Ubuntu would do something similar and I just had to remove the laptop battery, not the cmos battery for a few minutes. It never did it on Slackware. It was strange.

sunnieside-up · 07-19-2012, 11:42 PM

Thanks for the responses! I have loaded default bios settings but that did not work. Now i am looking for the bios battery. May take a while.

sorinm · 07-20-2012, 12:40 AM

NOT the bios battery, detach the LAPTOP battery and then unplug it from the power source. Let it unplugged 10...15 minutes and see if the wifi works. I encountered the same problems with some Fujitsu Siemens laptops.

sunnieside-up · 08-04-2012, 02:43 PM

Removing the laptop battery didn't solver the issue. However, I figured that since Slackware made the issue, it could solve it. So I reinstalled slackware... and it did miraculously unblock my wifi. Then I unceremoniously wiped it off the face of my computer. Goodbye slackware, I am happily using Debian now. Thanks all.

sorinm · 08-04-2012, 04:54 PM

troll?

dc_eros · 08-04-2012, 07:21 PM

I solved mine by pressing some keys while in Windows 7/Windows XP, then reboot after activating it.

For my leonovo, it's Fn+F5, and for my old laptop it's Fn+F8.