Dual Boot Breaks Wireless

Hi I’m a regular OpenSuse user, but recently I had to download Windows7 on my computer for work. Everything was fine for a while, but now when I switch to windows, the wireless doesn’t work sometimes (sometimes it works just fine). When this happens wireless is broken on the Linux side as well. The only way I know to fix it is to hard wire the laptop when booted into windows, and then everything is back to normal. It’s really starting to tick me off and I have no idea what may be causing it. I didn’t even know the two partitions can effect each other.

Help please?

Thank you!

On 03/16/2011 09:36 PM, snowblind27 wrote:
>
> Hi I’m a regular OpenSuse user, but recently I had to download Windows7
> on my computer for work. Everything was fine for a while, but now when I
> switch to windows, the wireless doesn’t work sometimes (sometimes it
> works just fine). When this happens wireless is broken on the Linux side
> as well. The only way I know to fix it is to hard wire the laptop when
> booted into windows, and then everything is back to normal. It’s really
> starting to tick me off and I have no idea what may be causing it. I
> didn’t even know the two partitions can effect each other.

Windows sometimes messes up network devices by setting Wake-On-Lan. If that is
an option in the BIOS, disable it.

lwfinger,

Thanks for the reply, but Wake-On-Lan already is set to disabled.

If I were to hazard a guess,
Your network is confused whenever you join the network using the same DHCP lease (because both OS use the same NIC) but with different Hostnames.

Simple solution is probably to refresh your DHCP lease
From Windows

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

From openSUSE assuming you’re running Network Manager
Click on Network Manager tray icon
Click on your Network entry

When you’re in a Work Environment, there may be additional issues as well… like “proving” your machine is a valid host in the network authenticating to your network security (like Active Directory, possibly Internet Gateway, etc). Normally if DHCP, DNS and AD are all integrated (like in AD) recreating your DHCP lease ought to address everything but depending on actual network services, configuration and authentication/authorization YMMV.

If you have further issues, post again with detailed info(as much as can be shared in a public forum).

HTH,
Tony

Tony,

I tried the ipconfig /release; ipconfig /renew; and it said:
“No Operation Can be performed on Wireless Network Connection while it has media disconnected”

And again once, I connected the ethernet cable and wireless started working magically.

Install rfkill ( zypper in rfkill )

Then post result of

/usr/sbin/rfkill list

If it seems any are locked do
as su -: rfkill unblock all

Another question.

If you SHUTDOWN rather than perhaps as you have been doing (rebooting?)
Does that make a difference?

This thread vaguely reminds me of a situation many, many years ago but I can’t clearly remember what the cause was. Somewhere I seem to remember something about only being able to authenticate over one of the connections (wired in your case) which then permits “any” network traffic.

At the moment, I suspect either machine identity on your Network. Would need to know what type of Network Authentication is implemented (eg Active Directory, openLDAP, NIS, etc) and if/how your wireless router is configured to authenticate.

In other words, enterprise network security often authenticates not only the User (typically Username/password) but often the machine (certificate, MAC address, etc).

If this situation exists, you (more likely your network SysAdmin) either needs to select/configure an authentication method that’s common to both your OS or configure both machine accounts as valid (using the same NIC).

Tony

caf…
no, rebooring vs. shutting down does not make a difference. but I will try rfkill when I get to my computer and post it here.

Thank you

caf here is the result of rfkill:

root >/usr/sbin/rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
Thank you!

OK

You are saying then, that if the wireless is not working (because sometimes it does yes), if you connect the wired the wireless comes to life?