[SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

akshay2000 · 2011-08-09 14:22:33

Hello. I've just finished the installation of Arch along with Gnome on my Dell XPS L401x and trying to iron out some glitches.

My main issue is that my hardware wireless switch doesn't work once I disable wireless. If I leave wireless on by switch and then reboot, both bluetooth and WiFi seem to work fine. But, once I disable wireless through the switch, I can't turn it on again. Even if I press the switch, the wireless LED on the laptop turns on, but the blooth settings of Gnome tell me that its disabled by hardware switch. Case is somewhat similar with WiFi. (I can't be sure about WiFi, networkmanager daemon is not running. When I use it, its unable to connect Wired network, but that's another issue. I can connect with network daemon without any glitches! Still, one can post the solution in this thread!) I don't know what is going wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by akshay2000 (2011-11-02 16:46:06)

Dheart · 2011-08-10 20:50:24

Try installing rfkill (pacman -S rfkill) and use rfkill list to view device status and rfkill unblock DEVICE to enable your wireless...
I haven't tested it, I don't know if it'd work.

akshay2000 · 2011-08-12 09:33:13

Dheart wrote:

Try installing rfkill (pacman -S rfkill) and use rfkill list to view device status and rfkill unblock DEVICE to enable your wireless...
I haven't tested it, I don't know if it'd work.

I already have installed it. But I see, when you run it, you are in side the program. How do you exit from it? Or I'm supposed to enter command while inside it? But, I don't think it lets me type anything!

schlumpfimsumpf · 2011-08-13 13:01:31

For my netbook i wrote a small workaround skript. I gave my normal users sudo rights to execute rfkill. Behind the wireless-switch key i laid the skriped below.

skript:
#!/bin/bash

blocked=$(rfkill list wlan | grep "Soft blocked: yes")

if [ -z "$blocked" ]; then
sudo rfkill block wlan
else
sudo rfkill unblock wlan
fi

akshay2000 · 2011-08-13 17:29:15

schlumpfimsumpf wrote:

For my netbook i wrote a small workaround skript. I gave my normal users sudo rights to execute rfkill. Behind the wireless-switch key i laid the skriped below.
skript:
#!/bin/bash
blocked=$(rfkill list wlan | grep "Soft blocked: yes")
if [ -z "$blocked" ]; then
sudo rfkill block wlan
else
sudo rfkill unblock wlan
fi

Does one need sudo for the script? Becasue, rfkill didn't ever need it! And I'd like to know how do you customize buttons in Arch!

schlumpfimsumpf · 2011-08-13 19:05:15

Your right sudo is not needed. For binding keys to events you can use your desktop enviroment (xfce, gnome, kde, lxde, ......) or xbindkeys for bindings within the hole x-server.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-09 14:22:33

[SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

#2 2011-08-10 20:50:24

Re: [SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

#3 2011-08-12 09:33:13

Re: [SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

#4 2011-08-13 13:01:31

Re: [SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

#5 2011-08-13 17:29:15

Re: [SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

#6 2011-08-13 19:05:15

Re: [SOLVED] Hardware Wireless Switch on Dell XPS

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