# iwlagn: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch [solved]

## 0000000000000

Just bought a new computer that came with Intel Wifi 5100 wireless card

iwconfig recognizes it, however iwlist reports no scan results

iwlagn is enabled in kernel and modprobed

iwl5000-ucode is installed

dmesg reports thread title

```
modprobe -r iwlagn && modprobe iwlagn && ifconfig wlan0 up
```

fixes it until next boot, is there a more permanent solution other than putting above line into local.start?

thanks

enabling rfkill support in kernel has resolved this issueLast edited by 0000000000000 on Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:14 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## d2_racing

Hi, can you post this :

```

# emerge --info

# equery list iwl

# lsmod

# cat /etc/conf.d/net

# rc-update show

# cd /usr/src/linux && cat .config | grep -i kill

```

----------

## bunder

if the "radio" is turned off on boot, you might need to check the bios to see if it's set to turn on at boot.  some bioses also have a hardware/software switch setting, which might need setting.

cheers

----------

## swimmer

Did you check if there is a button to push for wireless? If so did you switch it? Just a thought ...

HTH

swimmer

----------

## 0000000000000

emerge --info

```
> Portage 2.2_rc23 (default/linux/x86/2008.0, gcc-4.3.1, glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.28-gentoo.666 i686)

> =================================================================

> System uname: Linux-2.6.28-gentoo.666-i686-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T6400_@_2.00GHz-with-glibc2.0

> Timestamp of tree: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:10:01 +0000

> app-shells/bash:     3.2_p39

> dev-lang/python:     2.4.4-r13, 2.5.2-r7

> dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r6

> sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1

> sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.18.1-r2

> sys-devel/autoconf:  2.63

> sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2

> sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3

> sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4

> sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.26

> virtual/os-headers:  2.6.27-r2

> ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

> CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

> CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"

> CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

> CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc"

> CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d"

> CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"

> DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

> FEATURES="distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"

> GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"

> LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"

> MAKEOPTS="-j3"

> PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

> PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"

> PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

> PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

> SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

> USE="7zip X a52 aac aalib acl acpi alsa amrnb animgif berkdb bzip2 ccache cdparanoia cli cpio cpufreq cracklib crypt cups dri dts encode firefox fortran gdbm gimp git gpm gtk hal iconv ipv6 isdnlog jpeg jpg libcaca libev libevent live lzo mad matrox midi mpeg mudflap musepack ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg openmp pam pcre perl png pppd python readline reflection sdl session spl ssl sysfs tcpd theora unicode vorbis win32codecs x264 x86 xanim xcb xorg xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel usb-audio" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse synaptics ps2mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel vesa v41 fbdev"

> Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

```

equery list iwl

```
> [ Searching for package 'iwl' in all categories among: ]

>  * installed packages

> [I--] [  ] net-wireless/iwl5000-ucode-5.4.0.11 (0)

```

 lsmod

```
> Module                  Size  Used by

> ipv6                  202100  12 

> nf_conntrack_ipv4      15884  2 

> nf_defrag_ipv4          5760  1 nf_conntrack_ipv4

> xt_state                5888  2 

> nf_conntrack           54728  2 nf_conntrack_ipv4,xt_state

> xt_tcpudp               6784  20 

> xt_multiport            6784  2 

> iptable_filter          6528  1 

> ip_tables              13584  1 iptable_filter

> x_tables               15236  4 xt_state,xt_tcpudp,xt_multiport,ip_tables

> snd_pcm_oss            36640  0 

> snd_mixer_oss          16128  1 snd_pcm_oss

> snd_seq_oss            28928  0 

> snd_seq_midi_event      9600  1 snd_seq_oss

> snd_seq                43760  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

> snd_seq_device          9612  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

> snd_hda_intel         374544  0 

> iwlagn                 80260  0 

> snd_pcm                60804  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel

> iwlcore                70784  1 iwlagn

> snd_timer              20232  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

> snd_page_alloc         11272  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

> snd_hwdep               9988  1 snd_hda_intel

> snd                    44452  9 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep

> mac80211              109840  2 iwlagn,iwlcore

> joydev                 12480  0 

```

cat /etc/conf.d/net

```
> # This blank configuration will automatically use DHCP for any net.*

> # scripts in /etc/init.d.  To create a more complete configuration,

> # please review /etc/conf.d/net.example and save your configuration

> # in /etc/conf.d/net (this file :]!).

> iwconfig_wlan0="power on"

```

 rc-update show

```

>       NetworkManager | battery      default                  

>                acpid | battery      default                  

>            alsasound |         boot                          

>                  atd |              default                  

>             bootmisc |         boot                          

>              checkfs |         boot                          

>            checkroot |         boot                          

>                clock |         boot                          

>          consolefont |         boot                          

>             cpufreqd | battery      default                  

>         cpufrequtils | battery      default                  

>                 dbus | battery      default                  

>               dhcdbd | battery      default                  

>                 hald | battery      default                  

>             hostname |         boot                          

>             iptables | battery      default                  

>              keymaps |         boot                          

>          laptop_mode | battery                               

>                local | battery      default nonetwork        

>           localmount |         boot                          

>              modules |         boot                          

>               net.lo | battery boot default                  

>             netmount | battery      default                  

>            rmnologin |         boot                          

>            syslog-ng | battery      default                  

>              urandom |         boot             

```

cd /usr/src/linux && cat .config | grep -i kill 

```

> # CONFIG_RFKILL is not set

> # CONFIG_IWLWIFI_RFKILL is not set

> # CONFIG_IWL3945_RFKILL is not set

```

I have not yet looked in BIOS, will do that at next reboot, and pressing the wireless button has no effect.

I went ahead and installed NetworkManager and added it to default runlevel which I did not really wish to do, but has the effect of "solving" the issue. Though I would prefer to not have to use NetworkManager.

Thanks.

----------

## bunder

 *Quote:*   

> pressing the wireless button has no effect. 

 

probably won't with rfkill turned off.   :Wink: 

----------

## d2_racing

Were you using iwconfig or wpa_supplicant ?

----------

## 0000000000000

iwconfig

i am in the midst of switching to 64 bit and have compiled in rfkill support, hopefully that will fix it

----------

## d2_racing

Hi, if you still have the problem, then you should disable the RFkill switch inside your kernel.

----------

## 0000000000000

It previously had been disabled, but apparently stuck in the off position.

Adding support for it in the kernel has solved the problem.

Thank you

----------

## d2_racing

No problem  :Razz: 

----------

## Joseph K.

Phew, this thread just saved me a lot of frustration, thank you!  I always wondered why my rf kill switch stopped working several kernel versions ago but didn't really care until yesterday it magically switched over to 'disabled'.  Now that I've enabled the rf_kill options in the kernel, I'm back in the driver's seat.   :Smile: 

----------

