Wireless card won't turn on: ipw2200 & rf_kill = 2
Hello all, long time reader first time poster.
My old vaio recently died, so I received a handmedown laptop (the brand is PCLaptops, a company that exists in utah). I installed debian stretch on it, and everything is working well except for the wireless card, which will not connect to the wireless network. After running ifup eth1, my computer will not connect to the network. Running iwconfig gives: Quote:
catting the file /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/*/rf_kill gives an output of "2", which according to the ipw2200 readme means: Quote:
I'm not really sure how to try to fix this, there seem to have been many threads involving similar problems, but the solutions for them have not worked for me. There is an external switch on my laptop which can turn the card on or off. Currently this switch is set to on, but the problem still exists with the switch set to off. I have tried unloading and reloading the ipw2200 module, with no effect. I checked the BIOS, but there is no setting to change the wireless card. I can confirm the wireless card works with windows on this laptop. Information about my system which may or may not be useful: Running Debian/Squeeze. Quote:
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firmware-ipw2x00 version: 0.18 (corresponds to firmware version 3.0 for Intel Pro Wireless 2200) possibly useful dmesg output: Quote:
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Thanks in advance for your help. If you need any more info, just give a holler. Edit: further digging, i ran the command nm-tool, which gave the following output. Quote:
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There is an external switch on my laptop which can turn the card on or off. Code:
ipw2200: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On: Code:
Dec 11 20:55:29 baraddur NetworkManager: <info> Trying to start supplicant... On my Debian Lenny i had a problem with the network manager, and i found (google) to uninstall that manager and to config manually wich solved the problem. |
Hey davno, thank you for the response.
My output of dmesg was for when the switch was set to the 'on' position (with windows this meant the card was on). Changing the switch to off and restarting the computer gave the same output for dmesg and syslog. uninstalling network manager (via apt-get purge network-manager) also gave the same output for dmesg. Maybe i should try using a different driver for my intel 2200 card? |
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I am now fairly convinced there was some software running on windows to turn the card on or off.
Some more nosing around led me to find the program rfswitch. Using some of the commands listed in the README, I was led to believe that the kernel module pbe5 might actually help me. So, I compiled and installed the module. However, this did nothing. Nosing around a bit more, I found some people who claimed that if they started their laptop in windows, enabled the wireless card, then restarted into linux, the card would be enabled. So, I tried reformatting my computer and reinstalling windows. I installed the intel wireless drivers. Unfortunately, I'm now having the same problem in windows. Windows can see the card, and correctly install the drivers, but the intel drivers inform me that the wireless card is switched off, and that I should switch it on. SO, here's what I think happened. I think my computer was using another driver to control the power settings. So the last time i used the computer, i must have had the wireless card switched to off when my computer was last shut off while running windows. So somehow I have to contact my laptops manufacturer to track down what drivers they used, and then install those and see if i can switch my wireless card to on. or i could just replace the card. Anyways, thanks for all your help. |
I've never had problems with my IPW2200, I typically compile my own driver and modify the code to jack up the TX power by 50% if for some reason I "might" need to connect to a wireless network from half a block away when in a pinch..."not that it happens often or anything".
Trouble is for most folks is that they don't know that this wireless device requires one to install the firmware separately as outlined in this article. The non-modified driver/module is included with the Linux kernel, no need to build your own if you're linking to a typical AP. Just install the firmware, reboot, and your card is ready. |
The following should fix it:
Code:
#rfkill list -- I know long time has passed since you asked, but hope this will help other people. |
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