# Can't use both wifi and cable in same time, wi-fi driver bug

## petan

Well, there is this kernel bug in first place that not many people seem to pay attention to https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=176891 maybe some uber-kernel-hacker could?

So, the problem basically is that this latitude E5550 has hardware switch on keyboard - FN + PrtScr which works in BIOS and Windows and toggles wi-fi hard block rfkill, but not in linux. I tried all sort of kernels, right now I run vanilla 4.8 which works best with this laptop as it at least support most of all hardware in this box, while official gentoo kernel version doesn't support it very much (it's simply too old and laptop too new). So yes before you tell me that it's my problem not running gentoo kernel - I tried that one too, it didn't work there either, plus many other things stopped working with gentoo kernel.

So the problem is, that there is no way to toggle hard block of wi-fi. If it gets blocked while in Windows or BIOS, there is no way to re-enable it from Linux, you have to reboot to something that supports it. Another problem is that plugging ethernet cable also temporarily put hard block and removes it when I unplug the cable. So I can't connect to both wi-fi and cable ethernet in same moment.

The FN + PrtScr produces keycode 255, I also get this in dmesg

```
[40764.314470] atkbd serio0: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x88 on isa0060/serio0).

[40764.314475] atkbd serio0: Use 'setkeycodes e008 <keycode>' to make it known.
```

I know I could map this to some command but there is no such command in linux that turns off hard block rfkill because it's a hard block, there are commands only for soft blocks. I don't know if this is bug in keyboard driver, wi-fi driver or both, but I would love to finally get rid of it. Did someone ever had similar problem and figured out solution?

The wi-fi is Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 7265 and driver I use iwlwifi with iwlmvm

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## Roman_Gruber

It starts with the kernel.

And Enabling "Staging drivers", "rfkill" switch, hardware related modules which are pretty well hidden. That needs some work to go through the config with an editor or searching all options.

You may use first a livedvd which has a very recent setup, the newer the better to verify that the functionality is really not provided by "linux", in general terms speaking. e.g. linux mind livedvd for example.

kernel 4.7.x fixed many of issues with my notebook Asus g75vw, which is ~2-3 years old now... Laptops have many issues with the UEFI introduction and windows 7 / 8 / 10 madness with bios

The above post reflects my opinion of course

It seems you are using Dell hardware. Dell sometimes shipps hardware with linux? is this the case for your hardware?

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## petan

This laptop has official support by DELL for ubuntu, I downloaded and unpacked .deb driver package they provide, there are drivers mostly for graphics (which indeed was a big deal with gentoo kernel, but vanilla 4.8 finally does support it natively) sound card and regarding wi-fi there is only firmware.

I don't know if I should install that firmware though, it's for ubuntu 14 and that is using significantly older kernel than my gentoo. Sources obviously are not available, it's all proprietary precompiled software I would rather avoid unless necessary.

I will try to look for more options in kernel though maybe I will figure out something, but I am afraid I won't. I am messing up with this for quite some time and still no luck. I will try LiveCD as well, but from what I remember, nope, even LiveCD didn't work with this wi-fi. I actually had to use entirely different PC to install gentoo on, just because network didn't work on this laptop, then I just moved the HDD to laptop and recompiled everything with optimizations for this CPU. I remember I had to mess with kernel a lot in order to get it work at all.

It's silly that after all these years since wi-fi standard was introduced, linux kernel support is still in its cradle. I don't remember having any laptop where wi-fi worked really flawlessly. It usually does work to a point, but some features are just broken. Always. Just this time it's too much because it forces me to reboot my system all time and that is super annoying, I hate to reboot.

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## Hu

Generally, hardware support is a function of hardware quality and documentation quality.  Wireless is complex enough, and many vendors do odd things, that supporting wireless cards with poor or missing documentation is painfully slow.  This can be further exacerbated by cards for which mandatory firmware is inconvenient to obtain (e.g. if it is embedded as a resource in a Windows driver, and you must install the Windows driver, then extract the firmware from inside the driver file).  If your wireless card does not work, blame the vendor who shipped it without providing a functioning Linux driver.  They are the ones best positioned to make it work well, whether by building the card to be compatible with a working card, by writing a driver for the new card, or by providing quality documentation so that someone else can write a driver for it.

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## Logicien

 *petan wrote:*   

> 
> 
> It's silly that after all these years since wi-fi standard was introduced, linux kernel support is still in its cradle. I don't remember having any laptop where wi-fi worked really flawlessly. It usually does work to a point, but some features are just broken. Always. Just this time it's too much because it forces me to reboot my system all time and that is super annoying, I hate to reboot.

 

I have use a lot of different Linux wireless modules, ath5k, ath9k, rt2800usb, rt73usb, iwlwifi and b43. I never made a benchmark and compare their performances with other operating systems. I can say the material they have drive was working on Linux. I never seen any major problem except with b43 but the last time I used it, it was working too.

I always check if the material a computer contain is supported by Linux before to buy. I often buy recent used computers. They are enough old to be fully supported by Linux and enough recents for today use. Linux need time to support newest material as Linux is not a priority for compagnies.

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