Ubuntu
gnome-nettool package

0: eeepc-wlan: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes -> eeepc_laptop: BIOS says wireless lan is blocked, but the pci device is present -> Wireless not working on ASUS EEE PC 701SD in Ubuntu 11.10

Asked by Ian Shade

Hello hopeful saviors. Ubuntu 11.10 has been installed on my computer for a couple of months now, with absolutely no issues until about a week ago; when my wireless stopped working. I can still set up a wired connection, just no wireless. I attempted downgrading to 11.04, then rebooting 11.10 fresh, but to no avail.

Here is the Terminal response to the code

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet
       vendor: Atheros Communications
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: b0
       serial: 00:22:15:ae:8e:1a
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=ATL1E driverversion=1.0.0.7-NAPI duplex=full firmware=L1e ip=192.168.0.14 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:44 memory:fbfc0000-fbffffff ioport:ec00(size=128)
0: eeepc-wlan: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 11.10"
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller [8086:2590] (rev 04)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller [8086:2592] (rev 04)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller [8086:2792] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:2668] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2660] (rev 04)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2662] (rev 04)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:2664] (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 [8086:2658] (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 [8086:2659] (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 [8086:265a] (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 [8086:265b] (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:265c] (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev d4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:2641] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller [8086:2653] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:266a] (rev 04)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet [1969:1026] (rev b0)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
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 001 Device 002: ID 058f:6335 Alcor Micro Corp. SD/MMC Card Reader
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 093a:2700 Pixart Imaging, Inc.
H/W path Device Class Description
=========================================================
                                  system Notebook
/0 bus 701SD
/0/0 memory 64KiB BIOS
/0/4 processor Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 900MHz
/0/4/5 memory 32KiB L1 cache
/0/4/6 memory 512KiB L2 cache
/0/1f memory 1GiB System Memory
/0/1f/0 memory 1GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)
/0/100 bridge Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller
/0/100/2 display Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller
/0/100/2.1 display Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller
/0/100/1b multimedia 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/1c bridge 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1
/0/100/1c.1 bridge 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2
/0/100/1c.1/0 eth0 network AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet
/0/100/1c.2 bridge 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 3
/0/100/1d bus 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1
/0/100/1d.1 bus 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2
/0/100/1d.2 bus 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3
/0/100/1d.3 bus 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4
/0/100/1d.7 bus 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller
/0/100/1e bridge 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
/0/100/1f bridge 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge
/0/100/1f.2 scsi1 storage 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 8069MB ASUS-PHISON SSD
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 6680MiB EXT4 volume
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 1013MiB Extended partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/2/5 /dev/sda5 volume 1013MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
/0/100/1f.3 bus 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller
/0/1 scsi2 storage
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk 7948MB SCSI Disk
/0/1/0.0.0/1 /dev/sdb1 volume 6564MiB EXT4 volume
/0/1/0.0.0/2 /dev/sdb2 volume 1013MiB Extended partition
/0/1/0.0.0/2/5 /dev/sdb5 volume 1013MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
Linux ian-701SD 3.0.0-12-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 7 14:50:42 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[ 0.000000] Found optimal setting for mtrr clean up
[ 0.000000] found SMP MP-table at [c00ff780] ff780
[ 0.005145] SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
[ 0.119728] ACPI: No dock devices found.
[ 0.119734] HEST: Table not found.
[ 0.134256] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 0.134284] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 0.134366] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 0.140109] Switching to clocksource hpet
[ 0.143949] Switched to NOHz mode on CPU #0
[ 0.160323] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 13 devices
[ 0.366068] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input0
[ 0.371155] ACPI: Lid Switch [LID]
[ 0.386331] ERST: Table is not found!
[ 0.540622] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.541415] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.542038] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.542643] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.543230] hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.959927] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 1.052262] usb 1-5: new high speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd
[ 1.200710] Switching to clocksource tsc
[ 1.304078] usb 1-8: new high speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[ 1.553710] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[ 2.094501] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[ 2.124234] scsi2 : usb-storage 1-5:1.0
[ 2.127742] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 5.659105] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[ 5.820845] eeepc_laptop: Get control methods supported: 0x2101711
[ 6.249846] elantech: assuming hardware version 1, firmware version 2.0.34
[ 6.325122] elantech: firmware version 2.0.34/2.6.0 detected, enabling jumpy cursor workaround
[ 6.418627] eeepc_laptop: BIOS says wireless lan is blocked, but the pci device is present
[ 6.418636] eeepc_laptop: skipped wireless hotplug as probably inappropriate for this model
[ 7.215843] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Digital_Camera (093a:2700)
[ 7.225524] input: Digital_Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.0/input/input8
[ 7.226064] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 7.682417] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 100x30
[ 8.081722] input: HDA Intel Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input9
[ 8.082425] input: HDA Intel Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input10
[ 12.318319] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 14.752998] type=1400 audit(1324179442.698:17): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" pid=801 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 14.754220] type=1400 audit(1324179442.698:18): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-*" pid=801 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 626.460116] ATL1E 0000:03:00.0: eth0: NIC Link is Up <100 Mbps Full Duplex>
[ 626.460514] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 637.104034] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 1549.695543] usb usb2: root hub lost power or was reset
[ 1549.695597] usb usb3: root hub lost power or was reset
[ 1549.695649] usb usb4: root hub lost power or was reset
[ 1549.695700] usb usb5: root hub lost power or was reset
[ 1549.936029] usb 1-5: reset high speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd
[ 1550.119040] PM: resume of drv:usb-storage dev:1-5:1.0 complete after 416.869 msecs
[ 1550.228022] usb 1-8: reset high speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[ 1554.528563] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 1573.237355] ATL1E 0000:03:00.0: eth0: NIC Link is Up <100 Mbps Full Duplex>
[ 1573.237752] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 1583.952026] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
 Release Date: 08/08/2008
  Serial services are supported (int 14h)
 Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
 Product Name: 701SD
 Serial Number: 89OAAQ047209
 Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
 Product Name: 701SD
 Serial Number: EeePC-0123456789
 Manufacturer: ASUSTek Computer INC.
 Serial Number: 0x00000000
 Manufacturer: Intel
 Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
 Manufacturer: Manufacturer0
 Serial Number: SerNum0
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
# which ath5k cannot recover. To prevent this condition, stop
blacklist ath_pci
blacklist eth1394
# replaced by p54pci
blacklist prism54
# replaced by b43 and ssb.
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist uart6850
blacklist twl4030_wdt

[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true
WimaxEnabled=true
sudo: hwinfo: command not found
Warning: bad ps syntax, perhaps a bogus '-'? See http://procps.sf.net/faq.html
root 733 0.0 0.3 26888 3928 ? Ssl 19:37 0:00 NetworkManager
root 4980 0.0 0.0 2736 568 ? S 20:20 0:00 /sbin/dhclient -d -4 -sf /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-dhcp-client.action -pf /var/run/dhclient-eth0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-23c82100-ea65-41b4-8a06-19a00572514a-eth0.lease -cf /var/run/nm-dhclient-eth0.conf eth0
ian 7899 0.0 0.0 5664 784 pts/4 S+ 20:39 0:00 egrep --color=auto icd|etwork
Module Size Used by
bnep 17923 2
bluetooth 148839 7 bnep
parport_pc 32114 0
ppdev 12849 0
binfmt_misc 17292 1
vesafb 13489 0
snd_hda_codec_realtek 254125 1
snd_hda_intel 24262 2
snd_hda_codec 91754 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80468 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
snd_rawmidi 25241 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
joydev 17393 0
snd_seq 51567 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
uvcvideo 67271 0
snd_timer 28932 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
i915 505108 4
drm_kms_helper 32889 1 i915
videodev 85626 1 uvcvideo
drm 192226 5 i915,drm_kms_helper
snd 55902 13 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i2c_algo_bit 13199 1 i915
video 18908 1 i915
soundcore 12600 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14115 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
eeepc_laptop 19464 0
sparse_keymap 13658 1 eeepc_laptop
psmouse 73673 0
serio_raw 12990 0
lp 17455 0
parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
usb_storage 44173 2
uas 17699 0
atl1e 32809 0

Forgive me if have left out anything, feel free to ask, I consider myself a n00b to the world of Ubuntu, but I am hoping this can be fixed.

Thank you!!

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu gnome-nettool Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Mark Rijckenberg
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Best Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said : 		#1

The following Terminal output (that you sent us) seems to indicate the
issue that your wireless card is having:

"
0: eeepc-wlan: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no

[ 6.418627] eeepc_laptop: BIOS says wireless lan is blocked, but the pci device is present

"

So your wireless card is probably disabled by a hardware switch, a
special key combination (Fn-F2, etc...), by incorrect BIOS settings for
wireless, or a COMBINATION of these factors...

There might also be a BIOS option that allows you to have the wireless
functionality controlled "By application"

Search for the "by application" option in the BIOS and select it (if
possible)....

Then reboot and retest wireless.

Also run the following 2 Terminal commands to try to change the rfkill
state of your wireless chipset after rebooting:

rfkill unblock all

sudo rfkill unblock all

Then retest wireless .

Revision history for this message
Ian Shade (ianshade) said : 		#2

Thanks Mark Rijckenberg, that solved my question.

Revision history for this message
tam853 (tam853) said : 		#3

Thanks, sudo rfkill unblock all solved the same problem of mine too.

Revision history for this message
PTTools Support (support-precisiontranslationtools) said : 		#4

It seems this problem has resurfaced. I just bought a new Asus Notebook K450JF. This machine has UEFI only. All security locks are disabled for all hardware in setup. It uses the Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter. I temporarilly installed Win8 and the adapter works fine. It fails to enable on the new new 14.04 Trusty Tahr Beta 2.

I followed the instructions on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI and successfully installed the with UEFI support. I followed the instructions above:

~$ rfkill list all
0: phys0: Wireless LAN
         Soft blocked: no
         Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
         Soft blocked: yes
         Hard blocked: no

~$ rfkill unblock all

~$ sudo rfkill unblock all

~$ rfkill list all
0: phys0: Wireless LAN
         Soft blocked: no
         Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
         Soft blocked: yes
         Hard blocked: no

As you can xee, the "unblock" options didn't change the status of the soft-blocked adapter.

I also tried the fix for hard-blocked adapters from these two resources but no luck:
     http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12785026#post12785026
     http://askubuntu.com/questions/351594/wireless-disabled-by-hardware-switch

Details:

~$ lspci -nnk | grep -A2 0280
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0032] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: AzureWave Device [1a3b:2c97]
 Kernel driver in use: ath9k

~$ lsmod | grep -e ath9k -e asus
ath9k 164164 0
ath9k_common 13551 1 ath9k
asus_nb_wmi 16990 0
ath9k_hw 453856 2 ath9k_common,ath9k
asus_wmi 24191 1 asus_nb_wmi
sparse_keymap 13948 2 acer_wmi,asus_wmi
ath 28698 3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
mac80211 626489 1 ath9k
cfg80211 484040 3 ath,ath9k,mac80211
video 19421 4 i915,acer_wmi,nouveau,asus_wmi
wmi 19177 4 acer_wmi,mxm_wmi,nouveau,asus_wmi

~$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no

Suspend and resume notebook:
Wireless not activate.

~$ echo "options asus_nb_wmi wapf=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/asus_nb_wmi.conf
[sudo] password for user:
options asus_nb_wmi wapf=1

After reboot:

~$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no

Revision history for this message
PTTools Support (support-precisiontranslationtools) said : 		#5

Ok, solved the problem with a little guessing. The "acer-wireless" looked odd in the above output. Suspected it might be conflicting with the real wireless adapter.

So, I found this ubuntuforums.org thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1884245&p=11483954#post11483954

It has the exact same reference to:
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes

So, I implemented it's solution:

~$ echo "blacklist acer_wmi" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

on reboot, this fixed the problem. the "acer-wireless" reference disappeared and the true physical wireless LAN works.