Radio special key Fn-F2 and light

English Hardware
1

Hi,

I’ve just installed openSUSE 11.2 64-bit KDE4 on my brand new Asus UL30A-QX130V laptop. It comes with an Intel 5100 wi-fi card. The wireless works out of the box, the radio switch Fn-F2 works, that is it turns the radio ON and OFF but the radio light always stays ON. Just wondering if there’s any way to turn it ON/OFF with the radio?

The laptop also comes with Bluetooth and is activated by the same radio key. Does the Bluetooth stay ON all the time or it turns ON/OFF with the wi-fi radio?

Apart from this nuisance, everything seems to work. I’ve downloaded a Live CD ISO, made a bootable USB stick with it and installed openSUSE in about 3-5 minutes! USB is so much faster than CD/DVD. And now I have a perfect home network all running Linux:

Desktop + Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop + Asus UL30A-QX130V laptop (all running 100% Linux)
D-Link DVA-G3670B wireless VoIP modem/router with printer server (I’m sure it runs on embedded Linux)
Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 (runs Linux)

PS. I moved to a new apartment and I was waiting for a week for my naked ADSL connection. I got that new Asus laptop which came with Windows 7 Premium. So I had a long long week to have a look at the new “improved” windows. OMG! The whole week seemed like a bad never ending hangover with nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea. Who on earth would use that cr*pware and even pay money for it? Yak. It literally takes 20 click to do anything in Win7. How’s that an improvement? After I’ve installed the new openSUSE, it’s like feeling alive again. (just had to take it off my shoulders)

2

I use openSUSE 11.2 on Asus UL30A and have 3 issues:

  1. Wireless radio always comes ON on boot. Is there any way to boot with radio OFF and only to turn it ON/OFF when required? (don’t want to bake myself)
  2. It also comes with Bluetooth, when it’s enabled it can’t find any devices. Does it mean it can’t find the laptop Bluetooth transmitter or another Bluetooth device like a mobile phone? Is there any way to turn Bluetooth ON/OFF separately from the wi-fi radio?
  3. The Wi-fi/Bluetooth radio LED is always ON regardless whether the radio is ON or OFF. Any way to make the light work with the radio? Fn-F2 turns the radio ON/OFF but doesn’t affect the LED.

Thank you for your help.

3

On 12/17/2009 05:16 PM, linuxoidoz wrote:
>
> I use openSUSE 11.2 on Asus UL30A and have 3 issues:
>
> 1. Wireless radio always comes ON on boot. Is there any way to boot
> with radio OFF and only to turn it ON/OFF when required? (don’t want to
> bake myself)
> 2. It also comes with Bluetooth, when it’s enabled it can’t find any
> devices. Does it mean it can’t find the laptop Bluetooth transmitter or
> another Bluetooth device like a mobile phone? Is there any way to turn
> Bluetooth ON/OFF separately from the wi-fi radio?
> 3. The Wi-fi/Bluetooth radio LED is always ON regardless whether the
> radio is ON or OFF. Any way to make the light work with the radio? Fn-F2
> turns the radio ON/OFF but doesn’t affect the LED.

Too little info!!!

What wireless card/driver. Have you loaded the module “asus-laptop”?

4
  • Wi-fi is Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100 ABGN PCI
  • Bluetooth is Broadcom BT-253 USB.

The wifi driver is ipw-firmware-8-109.2. Can’t find a bluetooth driver/firmware.

Where can I find the asus-laptop module?

Here are my modules:

Module Size Used by
nfs 405312 0
lockd 95636 1 nfs
fscache 52016 1 nfs
nfs_acl 4072 1 nfs
auth_rpcgss 56800 1 nfs
sunrpc 266984 5 nfs,lockd,nfs_acl,auth_rpcgss
af_packet 28680 4
ip6t_LOG 7980 6
xt_tcpudp 4104 2
xt_pkttype 2248 3
xt_physdev 2968 2
ipt_LOG 7660 6
xt_limit 4076 12
vboxnetadp 116012 0
vboxnetflt 125804 0
vboxdrv 1737004 1 vboxnetflt
rfcomm 89960 6
snd_pcm_oss 60032 0
snd_mixer_oss 22728 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq 78528 0
snd_seq_device 10460 1 snd_seq
sco 24076 2
bridge 75144 1
stp 3340 1 bridge
llc 8848 2 bridge,stp
bnep 23208 2
l2cap 50696 16 rfcomm,bnep
autofs4 36816 1
edd 13232 0
i915 282536 1
drm 227808 2 i915
i2c_algo_bit 8396 1 i915
cpufreq_conservative 10360 0
cpufreq_userspace 4364 0
cpufreq_powersave 2152 0
acpi_cpufreq 11544 0
ip6t_REJECT 6856 3
nf_conntrack_ipv6 26600 4
ip6table_raw 3720 1
xt_NOTRACK 2248 4
ipt_REJECT 4136 3
xt_state 2920 8
iptable_raw 3560 1
iptable_filter 4520 1
ip6table_mangle 5000 0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns 3400 0
nf_conntrack_ipv4 14232 4
nf_conntrack 102912 5 nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_NOTRACK,xt_state,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_defrag_ipv4 2856 1 nf_conntrack_ipv4
ip_tables 24536 2 iptable_raw,iptable_filter
ip6table_filter 4552 1
ip6_tables 26072 4 ip6t_LOG,ip6table_raw,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter
x_tables 30768 12 ip6t_LOG,xt_tcpudp,xt_pkttype,xt_physdev,ipt_LOG,xt_limit,ip6t_REJECT,xt_NOTRACK,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,ip_tables,ip6_tables
fuse 87984 1
loop 22292 0
dm_mod 101448 0
arc4 2568 2
ecb 4168 2
cryptomgr 109904 0
aead 10792 1 cryptomgr
pcompress 3560 1 cryptomgr
crypto_blkcipher 18028 2 ecb,cryptomgr
crypto_hash 17416 1 cryptomgr
snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi 17964 1
btusb 20156 2
bluetooth 122372 9 rfcomm,sco,bnep,l2cap,btusb
crypto_algapi 25904 7 arc4,ecb,cryptomgr,aead,pcompress,crypto_blkcipher,crypto_hash
snd_hda_codec_realtek 317868 1
iwlagn 206280 0
snd_hda_intel 37088 2
iwlcore 239468 1 iwlagn
mac80211 257312 2 iwlagn,iwlcore
snd_hda_codec 111112 3 snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 11216 1 snd_hda_codec
cfg80211 123264 3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
sg 40128 0
snd_pcm 117808 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 32152 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 97608 15 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
uvcvideo 74196 0
videodev 46848 1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat 19148 2 uvcvideo,videodev
v4l2_compat_ioctl32 12776 1 videodev
serio_raw 7916 0
pcspkr 3720 0
rfkill 28176 2 bluetooth,cfg80211
iTCO_wdt 15056 0
atl1c 45868 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4908 1 iTCO_wdt
snd_page_alloc 12600 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
intel_agp 37136 1
video 29156 1 i915
ac 6416 0
battery 15824 0
asus_laptop 25100 0
button 8360 0
ext4 401040 3
jbd2 115072 1 ext4
crc16 2504 1 ext4
fan 6352 0
thermal 25160 0
processor 56900 3 acpi_cpufreq
thermal_sys 21888 4 video,fan,thermal,processor

5

On 12/17/2009 09:46 PM, linuxoidoz wrote:
>
> - Wi-fi is Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100 ABGN PCI
> - Bluetooth is Broadcom BT-253 USB.
>
> The wifi driver is ipw-firmware-8-109.2. Can’t find a bluetooth
> driver/firmware.

Firmware is for the cpu on the wireless card. The driver is for the
main cpu. Your driver is iwlagn.
>
> Where can I find the asus-laptop module?

It is built in. Your lsmod output shows it loaded.

I’m guessing, but those special laptop modules usually control
response to the Fn keys.

I don’t know anything about the Bluetooth. To learn what driver it
uses, you need to post the output of the ‘lsusb’ command. The ID
numbers that are listed will show what driver is needed.

6

lsusb:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 064e:a136 Suyin Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0b05:1751 ASUSTek Computer, Inc.
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 0461:4d15 Primax Electronics, Ltd Dell Optical Mouse
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

KInfoCenter:

BT-253

Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
Serial #: 002243D18775

Class
224
(Wireless)
Subclass
1
(Radio Frequency)
Protocol
0

USB Version
2.00

Vendor ID
0xb05
(ASUSTek Computer, Inc.)
Product ID
0x1751

Revision
0.00

Speed
12 Mbit/s

Channels
0

Max. Packet Size
64

I’ve just compiled the latest Intel iwlang driver and it didn’t make any difference, the LED’s always ON.

Where can I find the asus-laptop module you’ve mentioned?

7

Know what? I’ve just discovered accidentally that the radio LED does work but only after suspend to RAM/HDD. It’s already a breakthrough. When the laptop gets out of suspension, I can turn the radio ON/OFF and the LED follows the radio.

Now,if I reboot, the radio is ON again as is the LED and switching the radio has no effect on the light.

Any thoughts?

8

Can’t see the wood for the trees?

9

On 12/18/2009 05:36 AM, linuxoidoz wrote:
>
> Know what? I’ve just discovered accidentally that the radio LED does
> work but only after suspend to RAM/HDD. It’s already a breakthrough.
> When the laptop gets out of suspension, I can turn the radio ON/OFF and
> the LED follows the radio.
>
> Now,if I reboot, the radio is ON again as is the LED and switching the
> radio has no effect on the light.

Anything differences logged in ‘dmesg’ after the suspend that there
was at the start?

It may be a bug in the asus-laptop module. I do not have the hardware,
thus I don’t know.

10

Here’s the dmesg before suspend:

dmesg | grep iw

6.432564] iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, 1.3.27kds
6.432569] iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2009 Intel Corporation
6.432733] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
6.432747] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
6.432827] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 1000 Series BGN REV=0x6C
6.465516] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 0 802.11a channels
6.465618] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: irq 28 for MSI/MSI-X
7.144104] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'

21.434223] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode
21.450874] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 128.50.3.1
21.532277] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
21.532342] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
21.532397] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
21.536039] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[28847.593250] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[28847.593317] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[28847.593369] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[28847.593425] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX

And here it is after suspend:

dmesg | grep iw

6.432564] iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, 1.3.27kds                     
6.432569] iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2009 Intel Corporation                                        
6.432733] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17                         
6.432747] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64                                        
6.432827] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 1000 Series BGN REV=0x6C         
6.465516] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 0 802.11a channels                  
6.465618] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: irq 28 for MSI/MSI-X                                               
7.144104] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'

21.434223] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode
21.450874] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 128.50.3.1
21.532277] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
21.532342] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
21.532397] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
21.536039] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[28847.593250] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[28847.593317] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[28847.593369] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[28847.593425] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[29255.738705] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0xf (was 0x100, writing 0x105)
[29255.738745] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x4 (was 0x4, writing 0xfeafe004)
[29255.738755] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x3 (was 0x0, writing 0x8)
[29255.738768] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100000, writing 0x100006)
[29258.544307] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[29258.544392] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[29258.544471] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[29258.544510] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX

And here another one after Fn-F2 (radio OFF):

dmesg | grep iw

6.432564] iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, 1.3.27kds                     
6.432569] iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2009 Intel Corporation                                        
6.432733] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17                         
6.432747] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64                                        
6.432827] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 1000 Series BGN REV=0x6C         
6.465516] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 0 802.11a channels                  
6.465618] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: irq 28 for MSI/MSI-X                                               
7.144104] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'

21.434223] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode
21.450874] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 128.50.3.1
21.532277] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
21.532342] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
21.532397] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
21.536039] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[28847.593250] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[28847.593317] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[28847.593369] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[28847.593425] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[29255.738705] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0xf (was 0x100, writing 0x105)
[29255.738745] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x4 (was 0x4, writing 0xfeafe004)
[29255.738755] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x3 (was 0x0, writing 0x8)
[29255.738768] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100000, writing 0x100006)
[29258.544307] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[29258.544392] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[29258.544471] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[29258.544510] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX

And here another one after Fn-F2 (radio ON):

dmesg | grep iw

6.432564] iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, 1.3.27kds                     
6.432569] iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2009 Intel Corporation                                        
6.432733] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17                         
6.432747] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64                                        
6.432827] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 1000 Series BGN REV=0x6C         
6.465516] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 0 802.11a channels                  
6.465618] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: irq 28 for MSI/MSI-X                                               
7.144104] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'

21.434223] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode
21.450874] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 128.50.3.1
21.532277] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
21.532342] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
21.532397] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
21.536039] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[28847.593250] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[28847.593317] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[28847.593369] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[28847.593425] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[29255.738705] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0xf (was 0x100, writing 0x105)
[29255.738745] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x4 (was 0x4, writing 0xfeafe004)
[29255.738755] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x3 (was 0x0, writing 0x8)
[29255.738768] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100000, writing 0x100006)
[29258.544307] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[29258.544392] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[29258.544471] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[29258.544510] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX
[29403.263248] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::radio
[29403.263322] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::assoc
[29403.263374] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::RX
[29403.263424] Registered led device: iwl-phy0::TX

11

Plus is there any way to disable the wireless on boot? Is there a config file or something?

12

If I blacklist the iwlagn, the wireless is disabled on boot and I can’t get it to work without loading the module. And when it’s shown as disabled I don’t know if it’s just the disabled interface or the hardware is disabled (I think it’s just the interface).

But I need to boot with the wireless radio (hardware) OFF so that I can turn on my laptop on a plane. At the moment I couldn’t find anything which would disable the hardware on boot (with the ability to turn it on easily if required). Fn-F2 does disable it but only after it’s booted. There’s gotta be some sort of config file for the NetworkManager? I remember in all previous Suse versions you could set this in YAST, now it’s all disabled and controlled through the NM but the NM doesn’t have that option to disable wireless hardware anymore.

Please help if you know how. Thank you.

13

On 12/20/2009 05:06 PM, linuxoidoz wrote:
>
> If I blacklist the iwlagn, the wireless is disabled on boot and I can’t
> get it to work without loading the module. And when it’s shown as
> disabled I don’t know if it’s just the disabled interface or the
> hardware is disabled (I think it’s just the interface).
>
> But I need to boot with the wireless radio (hardware) OFF so that I can
> turn on my laptop on a plane. At the moment I couldn’t find anything
> which would disable the hardware on boot (with the ability to turn it on
> easily if required). Fn-F2 does disable it but only after it’s booted.
> There’s gotta be some sort of config file for the NetworkManager? I
> remember in all previous Suse versions you could set this in YAST, now
> it’s all disabled and controlled through the NM but the NM doesn’t have
> that option to disable wireless hardware anymore.

Turn off the “Autoconnect” Option in the connection. That should keep
it from trying to connect on boot.

The dmesg output should tell you why it is disabled after you load the
module.

If you want to force wireless off, you need to get a laptop that
actually contains a radio on/off switch - some manufacturers do not
try to save 15 cents by using a Micro$oft-inspired, software
implemented excuse for a switch.

14

The autoconnect doesn’t disable hardware on boot, it just prevents software auto connection to wireless networks. And it’s unchecked anyway.

I have a Dell laptop which also comes with Fn-F2 radio switch function, same as my Asus laptop. But the radio stays OFF in Dell on boot but it’s always ON in Asus. So it’s a software config issue, Asus specific. But if it works as it should in one and not in the other, this means Linux can do this but some config has to be changed on Asus. I need to know where I can find this option and disable the radio hardware on boot. There’s gotta be something in the boot config somewhere, I just don’t know where to look.

15

On 12/20/2009 06:06 PM, linuxoidoz wrote:
>
> The autoconnect doesn’t disable hardware, it just prevents auto
> connection to wireless networks. And it’s unchecked anyway.
>
> I have a Dell laptop which also comes with Fn-F2 radio switch function,
> same as my Asus laptop. But the radio stays OFF in Dell on boot but it’s
> always ON in Asus. So it’s a software config issue, Asus specific. But
> if it works as it should in one and not in the other, this means Linux
> can do this but some config has to be changed on Asus. I need to know
> where I can find this option and disable the radio hardware on boot.
> There’s gotta be something in the boot config somewhere, I just don’t
> know where to look.

I don’t know either, but I would suspect a bug in the Asus module. The
kernel MAINTAINERS file lists Corentin Chary <corentincj@iksaif.net>
as the maintainer and
acpi4asus-user@lists.sourceforge.net as the mailing list for the
driver. Send your problem to them.

16

OK, I’ve sent an email to the asus module maintainers and submitted a bug on Novell: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=566321

Hope someone will help.