You are not logged in.

Pages: 1

Topic closed

#1 2015-11-08 19:36:51

todayalemon
Member
Registered: 2013-06-09
Posts: 17

[SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

Hello there!

Out of the blue, (or at least could not track down an obvious culprit, maybe following an update), my wifi stopped working, indicating "airplane mode" triggered by a hardware switch.

Following this hint I tried to unblock it via rfkill, without success, however:

rfkill list                                                                                                                                                    ~
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes
1: tpacpi_wwan_sw: Wireless WAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes

I got a Thinkpad X220 with the following relevant parameters:

lspci | grep Network                                                                                                                                       ~
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] (rev 34)
uname -a                                                                                                                                                       ~
Linux mnl 4.2.5-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Oct 27 08:13:28 CET 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux

sudo rfkill unblock all does not help, the Fn+F5 combo does not change anything, BIOS does not seem to have any effect:

rfkill event                                                                                                                                               ~
1447011172.089711: idx 0 type 2 op 0 soft 0 hard 1
1447011172.089775: idx 1 type 5 op 0 soft 0 hard 1
1447011172.089783: idx 2 type 1 op 0 soft 0 hard 1

Boot parameters are:

cat syslinux.cfg

DEFAULT arch
PROMPT 0        # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt 
TIMEOUT 10

UI menu.c32

#oppressed color settings#

LABEL arch
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/mapper/lvmpool-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:crypt rw lang=de locale=de_DE.UTF-8 i915.modeset=1 i915.i915_enable_rc6=7 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 quiet splash
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img

LABEL archfallback
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/mapper/lvmpool-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:crypt rw lang=de locale=de_DE.UTF-8
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux-fallback.img

LABEL hdt
        MENU LABEL HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)
        COM32 hdt.c32

LABEL reboot
        MENU LABEL Reboot
        COM32 reboot.c32

LABEL poweroff
        MENU LABEL Poweroff
        COM32 poweroff.c32

iwlwifi module gets loaded:

lsmod | grep wifi                                                                                                                     
iwlwifi               172032  1 iwldvm
cfg80211              466944  3 iwlwifi,mac80211,iwldvm

dmesg hints in the same direction:

dmesg | grep wifi                                                                                                                              
[   14.186133] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
[   14.244613] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: loaded firmware version 18.168.6.1 op_mode iwldvm
[   14.268740] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG disabled
[   14.268744] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUGFS disabled
[   14.268746] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING enabled
[   14.268748] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6205 AGN, REV=0xB0
[   14.268904] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled
[   14.269101] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to disable radio.
[   14.343865] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0 wlp3s0: renamed from wlan0

I would appreciate any help, what to google, where to start...
What output is needed to help me track down the problem?

Thank you in advance!

Last edited by todayalemon (2015-11-09 10:44:31)

Offline

#2 2015-11-08 19:41:30

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,803

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

as you discovered, rfkill wont help a hard block.  If you cannot figure out why it is hard blocked, it is possible it could be something else. 
What are the output of uname -a and pacman -Qi linux   (assuming you are using the stock kernel).  Do the version numbers match?  If not, it could be a problem with the system being unable to load firmware to the wifi system.  You may also look for messages in journalctl --boot to that effect.

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

Offline

#3 2015-11-08 19:48:06

todayalemon
Member
Registered: 2013-06-09
Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

Hi!
Thanks for that quick reply.
I posted uname -a above, this is the pacman output (sorry about the language, can I define it before printing output?]:

$ pacman -Qi linux  
Name                 : linux
Version              : 4.2.5-1
Beschreibung         : The Linux kernel and modules
Architektur          : x86_64
URL                  : http://www.kernel.org/
Lizenzen             : GPL2
Gruppen              : base
Stellt bereit        : Nichts
Hängt ab von         : coreutils  linux-firmware  kmod  mkinitcpio>=0.7
Optionale Abhängigkeiten: crda: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
Benötigt von         : acpi_call  tp_smapi
Optional für         : Nichts
In Konflikt mit      : Nichts
Ersetzt              : Nichts
Installationsgröße   :  73,54 MiB
Packer               : Tobias Powalowski <tpowa@archlinux.org>
Erstellt am          : Di 27 Okt 2015 05:14:44 BRST
Installiert am       : Mo 02 Nov 2015 22:20:17 BRST
Installationsgrund   : Ausdrücklich installiert
Installations-Skript : Ja
Verifiziert durch    : Signatur

Offline

#4 2015-11-08 19:56:31

ayekat
Member
Registered: 2011-01-17
Posts: 1,590

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

todayalemon wrote:

sudo rfkill unblock all does not help, the Fn+F5 combo does not change anything, BIOS does not seem to have any effect

Just to rule out the obvious: Fn+F5 on an X220 is the soft block. The hard block is the switch on the left side of the laptop - have you made sure that one is fine?

pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

Offline

#5 2015-11-08 19:56:38

todayalemon
Member
Registered: 2013-06-09
Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

The journalctl --boot is a long output, grepped for "wifi":

$ journalctl --boot | grep wifi                                                                                             
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: loaded firmware version 18.168.6.1 op_mode iwldvm
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG disabled
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUGFS disabled
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING enabled
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6205 AGN, REV=0xB0
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to disable radio.
Nov 08 17:05:56 mnl kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0 wlp3s0: renamed from wlan0
Nov 08 17:05:57 mnl NetworkManager[527]: <info>  keyfile: new connection /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/homewifi_28C (7e97c27a-098b-4368-9d98-8cd431e0880b,"homewifi_28C")
Nov 08 17:05:57 mnl NetworkManager[527]: <info>  rfkill2: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill2) (driver iwlwifi)
Nov 08 17:05:57 mnl NetworkManager[527]: <info>  Loaded device plugin: NMWifiFactory (/usr/lib/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-wifi.so)
Nov 08 17:05:58 mnl NetworkManager[527]: <info>  (wlp3s0): new 802.11 WiFi device (carrier: UNKNOWN, driver: 'iwlwifi', ifindex: 2)

Offline

#6 2015-11-08 20:01:05

todayalemon
Member
Registered: 2013-06-09
Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

ayekat, you made my day, although in quite a shameful way (at least I got the forum right).
In two years I never accidentally hit that thing, completely forgot about it.
sorry to take your time guys!

Offline

#7 2015-11-09 09:15:21

ayekat
Member
Registered: 2011-01-17
Posts: 1,590

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

I think it's normal - I could fill entire books with things that made me go "What the -" for minutes/hours/days until I found out what stupid little thing I had done to cause it. smile

Don't forget to append/prepend [SOLVED] to your thread title to mark it as solved.

pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

Offline

#8 2015-11-09 10:45:32

todayalemon
Member
Registered: 2013-06-09
Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

Yeah, life.
yikes

Offline

#9 2015-11-17 00:37:39

01
Member
Registered: 2013-09-14
Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

Addendum: this happened to me after an update, however I did not have rfblock installed to unblock the wifi card. Without wifi, I couldn't install rfblock on a laptop. Irritating. To solve the catch 22, this also worked:

# echo 0 > /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/soft

Note that multiple paths are relevant; /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill{0..3}/soft existed on my system.

Source:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=124474.0

Offline

#10 2018-10-24 15:17:56

sb56637
Member
Registered: 2009-02-18
Posts: 63

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

Hi, please excuse the necro-bump, but I think that it definitely has its merits in this case. I did consult the Code of Conduct first:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping.22

Code of Conduct wrote:

If you have a version-agnostic or corresponding solution, necrobumping may be appropriate if the thread is not more than a year or two old.

I simply wanted to express my sincere thanks to @ayekat for this post:

ayekat wrote:

Just to rule out the obvious: Fn+F5 on an X220 is the soft block. The hard block is the switch on the left side of the laptop - have you made sure that one is fine?

Eureka! I can't believe that's all it was. I'm not even an Arch user at the moment, but after updating my Linux system I was sure that a buggy kernel had somehow fried my Thinkpad T530's WiFI hardware. Frankly I didn't even know that this laptop *has* a hard kill switch, assuming that the Fn+F5 was the only way. I must have bumped the recessed switch while moving the laptop. Thanks SO MUCH, as you just saved me from losing a day of work and possibly even discarding a perfectly good laptop. smile

Offline

#11 2018-10-24 15:21:16

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,754

Re: [SOLVED] rfkill problem: wifi card blocked (iwlwifi)

While the sentiment is appreciated, simply necroing to express your gratitude to an existing old solution usually doesn't qualify.

I'm going to use this opportunity to close this old thread.

Closing.

Offline

Pages: 1

Topic closed

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB