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#1 2011-07-15 07:47:26

erville
Member
From: Philippines
Registered: 2011-04-12
Posts: 15

Device phy0 is hard blocked on Lenovo s10-3 with ath9k

Hi. wireless was working perfectly before. i don't know what caused the issue but presumably it had something to do with this hard switch (sliding switch) at the side of the laptop. i think i slid it to off (block wifi) before shutting down, then before starting it up again, i slid it back to on (unblock wifi). after that, phy0 is hard blocked.

Here's the situation:
Right after a fresh restart, sliding switch is set to on (unblock wifi)

erwin@ev-archlinux ~ rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    yes
        Hard blocked:    no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    yes
        Hard blocked:    yes

Then, after pressing Fn+F5 (which is another wireless switch/toggle)

erwin@ev-archlinux ~ rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    no
        Hard blocked:    no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    no
        Hard blocked:    yes

It fixes the soft blocks (which can also be done through rfkill unblock all). Then, I try the sliding switch, i slide it to off (block wifi)

erwin@ev-archlinux ~ rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    no
        Hard blocked:    yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    no
        Hard blocked:    yes

It hard blocks ideapad_wlan. So I try to slide it back to on again, hoping that both hard blocks would be unblocked. But no.

erwin@ev-archlinux ~ rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    no
        Hard blocked:    no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked:    no
        Hard blocked:    yes

Device phy0 is stubborn, it doesn't respond to the hard (sliding) switch.

I found this link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/782137 and i managed to get phy0 (hard) unblocked by sleep and wakeup, but i still can't connect to any wireless network (don't know if this is another issue)
I also found this funny fix, but i can't pull it off: http://glonek.co.uk/linux-mint/wireless … d-blocked/

So yes, my wifi is down and i'm crying for help. help!

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#2 2011-07-26 09:22:45

henri
Member
Registered: 2011-07-26
Posts: 1

Re: Device phy0 is hard blocked on Lenovo s10-3 with ath9k

I got the same problem, which occurred without any reason... on my S103T with Atheros  AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter.
I tried booting with Fn+F5 or switching the slide-button on the right side of the S10, tried to reset the BIOS with defaults, without any success.
I use 2.6.37.6-smp kernel with a Slackware 13.37 distro, kernel modules are correctly loaded.

root@lenovo:~# rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: ideapad_killsw: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes

Last edited by henri (2011-07-26 09:24:08)

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#3 2011-09-21 14:00:40

Kaspias
Member
Registered: 2011-03-31
Posts: 2

Re: Device phy0 is hard blocked on Lenovo s10-3 with ath9k

Gentlemen, I have terrible news. After much frustration, it has been made apparent to me that the phy0 switch is dependent upon the Lenovo Energy Management software for Windows. There is a secondary toggle dependent on that silly software. Alas my ideapad Y570 is not fit for Linux.

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#4 2014-06-15 18:43:43

ugeuder
Member
Registered: 2010-05-06
Posts: 4

Re: Device phy0 is hard blocked on Lenovo s10-3 with ath9k

erville wrote:

Hi. wireless was working perfectly before. i don't know what caused the issue...

I suddenly had the same issue. Although this thread is very old and unsolved, Google brought it up at a top rank. So I thought I might well post how I got over the issue

1. The rfkilll tool is useful for seeing what's going on, install it
2. Different kernels/distros behave differently. If no progress with your normal distro, just boot another one. LiveUSB should be enough. E.g. in OpenSUSE 13.1 with the 3.11 distro kernel Bluetooth was completely gone. In Ubuntu 13.10 with a 3.15 mainline kernel moving the hardware kill switch turned Bluetooth on and off. That did not yet solve my WiFi issue, but at least it showed me that the killswitch was no physically broken as I had first feared. (Sorry, didn't have Arch installed on this machine and solved the problem before I got to it...)
3. Some forum discussions suggest to reset the BIOS. I could not do this, because my S10-3t is one that was delivered with a BIOS password by Lenovo. Although there is a leaked Lenovo memo on the internet confirming the issue, my local local Lenovo support is unwilling to help. Guess whether I'm still willing to recommend that company, although I used to like their machines
4. Anyway, instead I removed the battery and pressed the power button for half a minute or so.
5. After that I booted Windows (which has all the Lenovo tools), pressed Fn+F5, which after several trials brought up some Bluetooth and WiFi settings pop-up window. I turned on WiFi and Bluetooth in that dialog and, ...
6. Rebooted to Linux. Problem solved.

(not sure whether step 4 was necessary)

So don't give up all hope the problem is fixable. Unfortunately yet a another reason, not to completely throw away the original windows installation in laptops with all kinds of hardware and BIOS extensions. I'm quite sure it would also have been possible to hack around the issue using only Linux, but luckily I didn't need to go that deep this time.

Last edited by ugeuder (2014-06-15 18:44:32)

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#5 2014-06-15 18:49:56

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,441
Website

Re: Device phy0 is hard blocked on Lenovo s10-3 with ath9k

ugeuder, I'd be surprised if they held out hope for three years.  Please do not "necrobump" old threads

FWIW, I had this same machine and same problem.  No password is needed to reset the bios, you just need to remove the cmos battery (some dissassembly required).  Without windows, this is the only solution.  Then the follow up is a dab of glue on the toggle switch to ensure it never happens again.

CLOSING.


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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