> AK,
> I did type it all in. I appreciate your patience. It will probably take
> a few days to get to a cable.
>
Well, considering this, I suspect you mistyped at least the cat command in my
first reply.
As far as I can see, you have an atheros card, most likely powered by the
“ath9k” kernel module (aka “driver”) as lspci shows a 9xxx-number for your
device.
This driver is dependant on two other kernel modules mac80211 and cfg80211 which
means to the best of my knowledge there must be
a /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill$NUMBER (starting from 0) as the module cfg80211
depends on another kernel module called “rfkill” (which is not the program
rfkill, but they are related).
The program rfkill is a user space application to communicate with the rfkill
module.
Let me show you the outputs on my system:
lspci -knn | grep -A3 -i Atheros
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network
Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01) Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp.
Device [144f:7173] Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Yes, by coincidence my wireless device is also driven by ath9k.
find /sys/class/ -iname “rfkill”
/sys/class/misc/rfkill
/sys/class/rfkill
Yes, there is a rfkill sub directory in /sys/class (even two, but let’s ignore
that for now).
Now let’s have a look and split the command from my first answer into two single
commands.
cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill*/state
1
This means “Radio is on”
cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill*/hard
0
This means “not blocked by hardware switch”, which would be a crucial
information as this type of block is done by a hardware switch and can not be
unblocked by rfkill.
If rfkill is installed, things become easier:
/usr/sbin/rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft bl1: ocked: no
Hard blocked: no
Now let’s block wifi by software (soft block)
/usr/sbin/rfkill block wifi
/usr/sbin/rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
And the other commands give
cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill1/state
0
Radio is off
cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill1/hard
0
blocked by software and not by hardware.
As you (and me also) suspect radio being turned off, this information would be
useful in order find out if the suspicion is true or not.
Unblocking soft locks via rfkill is quite easy
/usr/sbin/rfkill unblock wifi
/usr/sbin/rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft bl1: ocked: no
Hard blocked: no
This could also be done without rfkill, but I think for some user new to linux,
rfkill is the better idea.
However, if you get a “Hard blocked: yes” unblocking with rfkill will most
likely be impossible, there are very few “exceptions” most of them depending on
other rfkill devices present in the system which simulate a hard block, so the
complete output of rfkill list is importatnt.
In most cases, unblocking a hard block will work via a hardware switch, a key
combination or even worse by setting UEFI/BIOS parameters or even more worse
there is a setting done by a (pre)installed Windows system, which (in most
cases on shutdown) sends a non-documented/non-standard “switch radio
off”-command to the BIOS/UEFI that can not be understood/reverted by linux.
But this is all speculation withut further facts and I am writing this down
here in order for other users reading this thread in the future to get some
idea what is behind all this “black magic” of
Radio
Frequency
Kill Switches
(which btw. explains the name “rfkill”).
So let’s try this:
You say you are running 13.2, fine, but that is not sufficient information to
give dedicated advise on which rfkill package to install, you will have to find
out yourself by having a look at the output of
arch
If this outputs “x86_64” you will need to download this package
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/repo/oss/suse/x86_64/rfkill-0.5-4.1.2.x86_64.rpm
if the output is “i586” or “i686”, download this one
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/13.2/standard/i586/rfkill-0.5-4.1.2.i586.rpm
Copy the package from a USB to your linux machine, I would prefer the /tmp
folder.
Now you can install the package manually by running
sudo rpm -Uvh /tmp/rfkill*.rpm
If you use another folder, you must adjust the command accordingly, the output
should look like this:
sudo rpm -Uvh /tmp/rfkill*.rpm
Preparing… ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing…
1:rfkill-0.5-4.1.2 ################################# [100%]
Now you can run rfkill commands and see what is going on.
However, if you manage to run the script and post it’s output file, that would
give a lot more useful information, especially if there is another problem not
visible yet.
AK
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
(R.J. Hanlon)
