Ubuntu
gnome-nettool package

1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes -> DISABLED AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) not working on Lenovo Ideapad Z570 in Ubuntu 11.10

Asked by quake

I've got problem with my lenovo Ideapad-Z570. I think my wireless card is disabled and I don't know how to enable it.

here is the information given by some commend:

quake@quake-Ideapad-Z570:~$ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for quake:
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: d0:df:9a:98:35:57
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.0.0-14-generic-pae firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:17 memory:d0500000-d050ffff

quake@quake-Ideapad-Z570:~$ rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

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Ubuntu gnome-nettool Edit question
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Solved by:
Mark Rijckenberg
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Revision history for this message
quake (389727498-7) said : 		#1

quake@quake-Ideapad-Z570:~$ sudo iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=14 dBm
          Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

Revision history for this message
quake (389727498-7) said : 		#2

actually, I've tried:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

but it does remove the DISABLE in "sudo lshw -C network" session, but my laptop still can't find any wireless access point.

Also, once I click in the "Enable Wireless" in the "Connection menu", the DISABLE comes back automatically!

Besides, I'm using Ubuntu 11.10(latest version).

Revision history for this message
Best Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said : 		#3

0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

Please read the last remark from Ultraman at the following location:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=924554

Ultraman solved it by blacklisting the acer_wmi module, which your computer has loaded into memory.

Please copy-paste the following command into the Terminal and then press <ENTER>:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Using the gedit editor, please ADD the following configuration line into the file:

blacklist acer_wmi

Using the gedit editor, SAVE the change to the

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file.

Then REBOOT and retest wireless. This blacklist operation should make the change permanent, even after rebooting.

This should force the Linux kernel to stop loading the acer_wmi module, which is probably causing the kernel to soft block your wireless card via the INVALID "acer-wireless: Wireless LAN" interface.

acer-wireless is for ACER computers, not for Sony or Lenovo machines....

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/laptop/457107-lenovo-b560.html

Read the remarks from forumuser Bilincaltix....

Revision history for this message
quake (389727498-7) said : 		#4

Thanks Mark Rijckenberg, that solved my question.