[SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

Laurent · 2010-10-23 11:44:30

Something very odd happened a couple days ago and I can't seem to solve it. =?

I was working with my laptop on battery, but because conky for some strange reason doesn't work when I boot on battery (I haven't solved that yet), I didn't notice that I had not enough battery left, so after one houre surfing the internet, my laptop fell out.

The day after, I booted on AC, and I had no internet connection.
Coincidence, I tought, and I retried it when my battery had fully recharched, nothing.
I rebooted, nothing.
I rebooted again, nothing.
I'm using netcfg to connect with my wireless network

$ iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Network is down
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 No scan results
# netcfg chomsy
:: chomsy up [BUSY]
> WPA Authentication/Association Failed [FAIL]

So, I tought, lets try it the old fashioned way ;-]

# /etc/rc.d/network start
:: Starting Network [DONE]
# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Network is down
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 No scan results
# iwconfig wlan0 essid **** key s:****
# dhcpcd wlan0
dhcpcd[4828]: version 5.2.5 starting
dhcpcd[4828]: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[4828]: timed out

Okay, it's normal it timed out because it can't find any network, but why can it not find any network, when it previously did without any problem?

Then I tought, mayby it has something to do with laptop-mode not fully supporting my laptop (it doesn't want to scale my cpu when on battery for instance).
But disabling laptop-mode gives no result.

I don't get it? Is it possibly a hardware problem? =S
I'm using an HP Compaq nx6110

Laurent

EDIT: solved

Last edited by Laurent (2010-10-23 22:15:13)

R00KIE · 2010-10-23 13:51:37

Atheros card and AMD cpu? Any calibration timeout messages in the output of dmesg?

lagagnon · 2010-10-23 14:08:50

Many laptops have a very small switch somewhere on the case, which turns off the wireless transmitter to save power. You haven't accidentally turned that off have you?

Laurent · 2010-10-23 17:40:03

@lagagnon: Unfortunately, I haven't found any little switch, tough there is a button, but that one isn't configured.

@ROOKIE: no, Broadcom card en Intel cpu, no timeout in calibration messages.
However, I found this one a bit strange:

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

I have googled for it, and didn't find any solutions, but it was almost always with the same network driver; b43-fwcutter
This means it is a software problem, doesn't it? ;-]

I even found an arch topic about it: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=106912
He was encountering the same problem after a system update.
But I can't remember I did an update that evening? And I had not been drinking alcohol

EDIT: checked my pacman logs, I didn't update nor installed anything that day
It's just one big mystery, even conky just stopped working after I had booted the fallback kernel XD

Last edited by Laurent (2010-10-23 18:14:19)

R00KIE · 2010-10-23 18:17:35

Check if the card isn't soft blocked by some reason with 'rfkill list all'.

Laurent · 2010-10-23 19:30:35

after plugging in the cable and installing rfkill, it outputs:

$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes

dmesg tells me I'm using phy0

b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 478.104 (2008-07-01 00:50:23)
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

Good news: conky works again (I've never understood that program XD)

EDIT: could it be that somehow some driverfile could be got corrupted?
Next step: trying to reinstall all the necessary drivers

EDIT: I reinstalled the drivers: nothing
I downgraded the drivers: nothing

But then, i found this topic: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=49823
Apparently, I found out that pushing the function button together with the wifi button toggles my wifi on or off
It looks like I still have to learn a lot of laptops =þ

@lagagnon: it seems you were right ;-]
@ROOKIE: thank you too =]

Last edited by Laurent (2010-10-23 22:10:03)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-23 11:44:30

[SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

#2 2010-10-23 13:51:37

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

#3 2010-10-23 14:08:50

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

#4 2010-10-23 17:40:03

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

#5 2010-10-23 18:17:35

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

#6 2010-10-23 19:30:35

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless down after working on battery

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