SOLVED with rfkill: wifi switch gets off, no way to restore

[francois]

This is a peculiar behavior under porteus, that I did not have under other distributions. It has plagued my pleasure for years intermitently with using my favorite desktop:
I get into porteus and there is no way to access wifi. To remediate, I load into windows put on the wifi on and back into porteus the wifi is now functioning. See:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=2055

In the above, brokenman states a temporay solution, that dates back for the old timers to the era of slax:
I have heard only one other such strange instance back in slax when the user swore that booting into windows and enabling wifi allowed them to connect in linux too. I don't see how it could be related unless the wifi carders are working with MS and have an onboard chip (not likely).

The problem is that I have erased definitely windows from my toshiba z930 satelite laptop. All I have is linux distributions all over the hard disk.

In despair of having to reinstall windows otherwise than as a virtualguest in porteus, I have tried the same procedure by booting in Elementary OS. There I have restored wifi switch to on. The same result was there porteus wifi would be again functional.

Though I have repeated these manipulations a few times, I am unable to reproduce the cutoff of the wifi.

My reflexion here is that porteus is linux and ubuntu is linux? What is missing in porteus?
Answer (thanks to : Some soft or hard switch is off. You have to enable them. A small package called rfkill will permit to enable the wifi switchs to on. The explanation and resolution could be found in:
http://www.digimantra.com/linux/rfkill- ... ux-laptop/

[libernux]

To check what is going on please install "rfkill".

Post the output of:

Code: Select all

/usr/sbin/rfkill list all

.

[fanthom]

sometimes i'm also hit by this and only full power off helps. rfkill package is 5KB only - will be added to next release.
thanks

[francois]

Thanks libernux and fanthom. This rfkill permits enabling/disabling of wifi. Here is a link about its usage:
http://www.digimantra.com/linux/rfkill- ... ux-laptop/

The solution to unblock wifi is to use rfkill twice in a row if once is not enough:

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fl@toshiba-Z930:~ $ rfkill unblock all
fl@toshiba-Z930:~ $ rfkill unblock all

[francois]

First post has been updated to give the rationale and solution.

[gotPortee]

Beny - I cannot figure out how to get rfkill to perform a LIST
Can you give me the correct syntax to use rfkill - in order to list the status of what is blocked and unblocked?

[Ed_P]

gotPortee have you tried this?

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su
toor
rfkill