Wireless stopped working on wifes netbook

[jcg624]

The wireless suddenly stopped worked on my wifes netbook. Enable wireless is grayed out and I am unable to turn it back on.
She has never done the updates. I currently have it connected hard wire to do the updates. Linux Mint 13 mate edition
is on the netbook.
inxi -fx
CPU: Single core Intel Atom CPU N455 (-HT-) cache: 512 KB bmips: 3325.15
Clock Speeds: 1: 1667.00 MHz 2: 1667.00 MHz
CPU Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx
fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl
est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm dts

sudo lshw -C network
PCI (sysfs)
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 05
serial: 5c:26:0a:3e:0f:9a
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw ip=192.168.1.101 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:43 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0f2c000-f0f2cfff memory:f0f18000-f0f1bfff
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 88:25:2c:d2:18:0c
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192ce driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
resources: irq:17 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:f0100000-f0103fff


rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 5c:26:0a:3e:0f:9a
inet addr:192.168.1.101 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::5e26:aff:fe3e:f9a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:36723 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:30861 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:35191702 (35.1 MB) TX bytes:7196592 (7.1 MB)
Interrupt:43

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2128 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2128 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:192020 (192.0 KB) TX bytes:192020 (192.0 KB)

iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on

eth0 no wireless extensions.



The Soft Block And Hard Block both say yes How do I get those turned off?

I would appreciate any help.

Thank you

[Angtagapagligt]

Hello jcg624,

in common cases there is a button on the netbook which switches the wifi on and off.
Could you check if this button is in "off state"? It should be somewhere at the case. Sometimes you have to press "FN + F5 (or simliar)"...
http://images.google.de/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=968&q=wifi+button&oq=wifi+button&gs_l=img.3..0i19l9.1232.2850.0.3048.11.8.0.3.3.0.86.592.8.8.0....0...1ac.1.21.img.RQWYVsPVkys#tbm=isch&sa=1&q=wifi+button+on+laptop&oq=wifi+button+&gs_l=img.3.0.0i19l8.4679.4679.0.6562.1.1.0.0.0.0.125.125.0j1.1.0....0...1c.1.21.img.S3WTq_XM4y4&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.49478099,d.ZWU&fp=c30dda173ac4937d&biw=1280&bih=968

So long ...
Angta

[jcg624]

Thanks for the response. There is no physical switch. The FN + F5 do not have any effect.

[Angtagapagligt]

Thanks for the response. There is no physical switch. The FN + F5 do not have any effect.

It is not necessarily "FN + F5". It could be FN + F1 etc.
You have to check if there is a symbol on the keyboard (in the same color as the "FN"-key itself) which shows some kind of antenna.
You could give me the manufacturer and model of the netbook.

[jcg624]

The key combo to enable disable the wireless is fn +f2. It is a Dell Inspiron Mini 1018 .


Realtek 8188CE WLAN

[Angtagapagligt]

Try this:

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lexical/hwe-wireless
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl8192ce-dkms

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3525/t/19352306.aspx
http://ubuntuforums.org/announce.html?t=1604101

[TBABill]

I'm not sure if it will have the desired effect of unblocking the hard block or not, but could try

Code: Select all

sudo service network-manager restart

and

Code: Select all

sudo rfkill unblock all

for the soft block.

[jcg624]

Thanks. I will try these later after work.

Will let you know how it goes.

[TBABill]

Another possible combination to overcome the hard block could be to try in a terminal (copy and paste it!!!!)

Code: Select all

sudo rfkill unblock all
for x in `for i in \`lspci -nn | grep 02[80] | awk '{print $1}' | tr ' ' '\n'\`; do lspci -vvvs $i; done | grep "Kernel driver in use:" | awk '{print $NF}'`; do sudo rmmod $x; sudo modprobe $x; done
sudo rfkill unblock all

It basically does the unblock all, then looks for network devices, then deactivates drivers for them, reactivates them, and then performs the unblock command again. Worth a shot and doesn't make permanent changes. Apparently it's been used to overcome hard blocks when users don't have a switch set to off and Linux believes it does.

http://lkubuntu.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/how-to-fix-rfkill-issues/

[jcg624]

Still no wireless. starting to think maybe the wireless card went bad.

[TBABill]

Did she happen to get a kernel update? If so perhaps try booting into an older kernel and see if it works?

[jcg624]

She would not know if there ws a Kernel update. How do u boot into a previous kernel.

[TBABill]

You would normally see more than one option at the Grub screen if you had more than one. You just select the one you want to use. If you don't see that then the kernel is not the issue at all.

[jcg624]

What if I don't see the grub screen? Is there a way to have that come up on start or see what it is in a terminal window.

[Matt267]

jcg624,

It might be worth downloading and running in "live" mode an older distribution with an older kernal and then try to reactivate the wireless card. I have a dell mini 1018 and if I disable the wireless card within network manager with a newer kernel, I can't reactivate even with rfkill etc. The only way for me to reactivate the card is to boot to a older kernel (try a live mode of mint 10, but note it won't have the drivers) and reactive the wireless card there then reboot to your normal OS/kernel.

Matt

[jcg624]

Might be an issue with the wireless card on the netbook. I restored netbook with factory installed software.

The wireless card has a red x on it. I am unable to enable it with fn+f2 switch.


Thanks for all help.