Arch Linux

ingegnue

Member

Registered: 2014-06-01

Posts: 15

[SOLVED] RF-kill(ed) my wireless (new installation, netctl, ath9k)

Hello, I'm probably an intermediate user. I have some formal training in PC maintenance. The hardest distro I installed and used before Arch was Debian. But I felt like I needed more control and simplicity, and to get to know GNU/Linux more intimately than what I was pushed to with Debian-style distros. My laptop is also pretty old, so I want to do more with less. It is my goal to install very few packages which are small as possible.

I embarked on the Arch adventure last weekend, following the Beginner's Guide to install it. Everything worked, including my wifi - but I expected as much, since I replaced my Intel card for an Atheros precisely for that reason. It works without any intervention in Trisquel, and I can even check that using my Trisquel live DVD so I know it hasn't died.

But I'm totally getting owned this weekend. When I booted up again after the install and configuration (I've touched nothing else outside the Beginner's Guide), I was going to migrate to Parabola, but could not connect to the Internet. My wireless LED is indeed on, and its switch is BIOS-mapped to the Fn+F2 keys, although toggling the keys does not seem to change the LEDs' on/off state (if that means anything).

So since I can't beam the bash output to my phone, I had to type this with my thumbs, which I feel is something I should never do! I spent all day researching and documenting the problem; hopefully I can find something useful to add to the wiki then, idk.

I chose netctl with wpa_supplicant, nothing fancy. I made a netctl profile and enabled it to start at every boot. I'm using WPA2 encryption, and the SSID is hidden. It looks a bit like this:

Description='A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection'
Interface=wlp3s0
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa

IP=dhcp

ESSID='MYESSIDHERE'
# Prepend hexadecimal keys with \"
# If your key starts with ", write it as '""<key>"'
# See also: the section on special quoting rules in netctl.profile(5)
Key='MYKEYHERE'
# Uncomment this if your SSID is hidden
Hidden=yes

Here's the logs. No typos here -- the terminal spits out the '-' in 'my-network' as various symbols, so I won't omit that.

# netctl start my-network
Job for netctl@my\x2dnetwork.service failed. See 'systemctl status netctl@my\x2dnetwork.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details. 
# systemctl status netctl@my-network.service
 • netctl@my-network.service -- Networking for netctl profile my/network
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/netctl@.service; static)
   Active: inactive (dead)
   Docs: man: netctl.profile(5)
# journalctl -xn
- - Unit netctl@my\x2dnetwork.service has begun starting up.
    network [315]: Starting network profile 'my-network'...
    network [315]: Failed to bring the network up for profile 'my-network'
    systemd [1]: netctl@my\x2dnetwork.service: main process exited, code = exited, status = 1/FAILURE

'failed, failed, failed'
Okay... Well, I haven't installed any conflicting services, so I think that's not it... Even double checked.
So is the wlp3s0 even up? I check, and get a surprise!

# ip link set wlp3s0 up
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
# ip link show wlp3s0 <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000

Again, the LED is on. There is one for Bluetooth and one for wifi -- the network card doesn't support Bluetooth however so I am not sure where the Bluetooth LED is controlled (I thought it was the wireless somehow), if that matters.

I did not install rfkill, and any commands or even "man" page for it do not work. I guess that's what I'll have to do.

Here's my network card in the lspci -k:

# lspci -k
Network Controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X
Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-express) (rev 01)
Subsystem: Quanta Microsystems, Inc. EM303 802.11bgn Wireless Mini PCIe Card [AR9281]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Kernel modules: ath9k

I'm going to try installing rfkill from my flash drive, but first I need to read up on how to do that from the command line (I've been spoiled by those shiny GUIs). Update coming soon, suggestions welcome.

P.S. Dat registration quiz!

Last edited by ingegnue (2014-06-02 03:23:53)

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [SOLVED] RF-kill(ed) my wireless (new installation, netctl, ath9k)

It sounds as though you have already figured out that you need to install the rfkill package.  Do that and you will have the help and man page. 

Installing a package from a USB key (or anywhere that isn't a repository) requires the --upgrade (-U) switch rather than the more typical use of the --sync (-S) switch.  You should still have access to the pacman man page though, and the tab completion for pacman's switches is quite good.

ingegnue

Member

Registered: 2014-06-01

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] RF-kill(ed) my wireless (new installation, netctl, ath9k)

I booted up my Trisquel live DVD and searched for rfkill in the packages database, then clicked Download From Mirror to download the package to my flash drive.
I booted up Arch, mounted the flash drive using mkdir /mnt/usbflash and mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbflash.
I installed it using pacman -U /mnt/usbflash/rfkill-0.5.tar.xz
To unmount, it was simply umount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbflash

Thank goodness it was only a soft-block!

# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
               Soft blocked: yes
              Hard blocked: no
# rfkill unblock wlan

Simply doing this and putting up the wlan didn't make me able to do an update, so I rebooted. Then I could connect.

Why does this soft block even happen in the first place?

Marking this solved.

jouke

Member

Registered: 2009-10-14

Posts: 72

Re: [SOLVED] RF-kill(ed) my wireless (new installation, netctl, ath9k)

Sorry to come to the party after it is over, but you could also have added "RFKill=auto" to your netctl profile.
Not many people seem to know this, but netctl does not need the rfkill utility to switch rfkill states.

ingegnue

Member

Registered: 2014-06-01

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] RF-kill(ed) my wireless (new installation, netctl, ath9k)

Thanks jouke, I will try that since I doubt I'll ever need rfkill again! Someone should put that in the wiki (unless I missed it).

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [SOLVED] RF-kill(ed) my wireless (new installation, netctl, ath9k)

Thanks jouke, I will try that since I doubt I'll ever need rfkill again! Someone should put that in the wiki (unless I missed it).

It is on the man page.  Typically the wiki is not meant to regurgitate the already existing documentation, and netctl actually has some pretty good docs.