software switch disabling wireless (acerhk)

[FunnyZen]

Hello everybody,

it seems that my wireless does not work due to a problem with the switch button that does not respond. My card is recognized (Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g]) and I have installed the drivers, but cannot scan any networks. The button doesn't respond when I press it (no light) and I have the following output

dmesg | grep b43

b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
b43-phy0 debug: Found PHY: Analog 3, Type 2, Revision 7
b43-phy0 debug: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, Version 0x2050, Revision 8
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input10
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
b43-phy0 debug: Chip initialized
b43-phy0 debug: 32-bit DMA initialized
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0 debug: Wireless interface started
b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to DISABLED
b43-phy0 debug: Adding Interface type 2
b43-phy0: Radio turned on by software
b43-phy0: The hardware RF-kill button still turns the radio physically off. Press the button to turn it on.

My laptop is an Acer aspire 5022WLMi. I've come across this blog http://nanoagent.blogspot.com/2006/10/linux-wireless-lan-setup-for-acer.html according to which you have to compile and install acerhk. So I thought I should give it a try, but cannot compile. It seems that when compiling with 'make' it does not find the kernel headers. I have no output but I guess so because I found that the acerhk makefile looks for them in a folder that does not exist. I have recently installed Fedora 9 from an install DVD. How can I found if the kernel headers are installed and what is their location? I was not able to locate them. Also if they are not installed how can I get them? I don't have a wired connection and I can have wireless only under Windows XP.

Has anybody else encountered this problem and is this solution with acerhk working?

[bbfuller]

I suggested that this problem be the subject of a new thread as the original thread implied that the problem was with the wireless drivers, not the switch that controls the card on/off status.

[FunnyZen]

It seems that the kernel-headers (but no kernel-devel) are installed since I have this output

rpm -qa | grep kernel

kernel-headers-2.6.25-14.fc9.i386
kernel-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686
kerneloops-0.10-11.fc9.i386

but I don't know the path to them. At 'lib/modules/2.6.25-14.fc9.i386' there is a 'build' link which the make file of acerhk is looking for and which points to '/usr/src/kernels' but the link is broken since no such directory exists. Any idea of what to do?

[bbfuller]

Hello FunnyZen

By default, kernel-devel doesn't get installed. I doubt it's an option to get it from your install media if you installed from CD as I don't believe it's on the disc.

If you are prepared to delve through the folders (or search) you'll probably find it on the DVD.

For one brief moment Fedora did make it easy to install extra packages from the DVD but I can't say if it's there now as most of my installs have been from CD.

If you can find the package on you dvd all well and good.

If not you can find the package matching your kernel here:

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/Packages/

You can then install it with:

yum localinstall <packagename>

make sure you've used the cd command from the command line to move into the directory where you have your kernel-devel saved.

[FunnyZen]

Hello bbfuller

The files in the url you provided are the same as in the DVD I used to install Fedora 9. But strangely enough there is no kernel-devel package there, only kernel and kernel-headers. I managed to find a file named 'kernel-devel-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686' in a site I think called 'rpmfinder' or something like this. But when I tried to install it with the command you told me, hoping that this is the package I want, it prompted an error that it cannot connect to the fedora repository. Why does it try to do so, since I have the package on the disk (I type the command being in the directory where the kernel-devel is) and how can I install it without having a connection?

[bbfuller]

Hello FunnyZen

Try your kernel-devel file ith the command:

rpm -i <complete name of file>.rpm

Make sure the file version matches that of your installed kernel.

[FunnyZen]

Hello bbfuller

I've installed the kernel-devel package so when trying to make/install the acerhk I have the following

make

make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/root/acerhk-0.5.35 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686'
scripts/Makefile.build:46: *** CFLAGS was changed in "/root/acerhk-0.5.35/Makefile". Fix it to use EXTRA_CFLAGS. Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/root/acerhk-0.5.35] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686'
make: *** [acerhk.ko] Error 2


which I have no idea of what it means. I tried various things suggested in other posts like use 'make acerhk.ko' instead of 'make' or commenting the line 'include("linux/config.h")' in the acerhk.c file, but nothing worked.

Also, is there any specific directory that I need to have the acerhk folder when trying to compile/install? Like a drivers folder, maybe. I have compiled/installed another package in the past but, as acerhk, i had it in the home directory and it worked.

[bbfuller]

Hello FunnyZen

It's been a long time since I needed to compile anything so I'm not really sure what to suggest.

Is there an entry "CFLAGS" in the Make script you are using?

What happens if you edit it to "EXTRA_CFLAGS" without the inverted commas of course?

[FunnyZen]

Hi bbfuller

I've done so, after this acerhk was installed but with some warnings on compiling, so I'm not sure if the installation is a proper one

make

make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/usr/src/acerhk-0.5.35 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686'
CC [M] /usr/src/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.o
/usr/src/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c: In function ‘init_input’:
/usr/src/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.c:2227: warning: ignoring return value of ‘input_register_device’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
WARNING: modpost: Found 2 section mismatch(es).
To see full details build your kernel with:
'make CONFIG_DEBUG_SECTION_MISMATCH=y'
CC /usr/src/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.mod.o
LD [M] /usr/src/acerhk-0.5.35/acerhk.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686'



make install

mkdir -p /lib/modules/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686/extra
cp -v acerhk.ko /lib/modules/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686/extra/
`acerhk.ko' -> `/lib/modules/2.6.25-14.fc9.i686/extra/acerhk.ko'
depmod -a


But anyway I tried to do 'modprobe acerhk usedritek=1 autowlan=1' after this, as said in the end of this tutorial http://nanoagent.blogspot.com/2006/10/linux-wireless-lan-setup-for-acer.html. After this it is supposed that the button should respond, but not in my laptop... I don't know what's wrong and I don't really understand the warnings on compiling. And also it is said that you need to add a line at the 'boot.local' file to load the driver at startup but I can find no such file, is there any other such file on Fedora?

[bbfuller]

Hello FunnyZen

What the make script seems to be saying is that it isn't really confident about your kernel

The Linux kernel changes frequently and unfortunately, make scripts are not always changed to take account of them. Whether that makes any difference to the functioning of the finished product is only something that experience will tell when you come to use it.

In this case it doesn't sound hopeful.

My guess is that after the 'modprobe' command, it would work if it was going to work.

I suspect that the command in boot.local would be to save having to modprobe after every boot.

I've seen this comment on the subject elsewhere:

you could put it in your .bash_profile file. Of course, this would not work if you logged in as someone else

but haven't actually tried it.

Have you ever considered going for a pcmcia card, or usb. That shouldn't be under the control of your wireless switch.

[FunnyZen]

Hello bbfuller,

I was thinking of installing Fedora 8 with the hope that it would work on another kernel, but maybe I should try using a card or usb first, it may work. Thanks for your help anyway!!