[ubuntu-uk] Toshiba Satellite Wireless Lock-down?

[pete smout]

On 11/07/13 00:12, James Tait wrote:
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> Hi all,
>
> Recently my wife's laptop has been experiencing some wireless issues -
> slow performance, drop-outs and the like.  We have numerous
> wireless-enabled devices in the house and although we have the
> occasional blip, none of the other devices seem to be affected to the
> same extent, so I figured it was probably related to the laptop itself
> and set about trying to figure out what the problem might be.
>
> The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L450-188 running Ubuntu 12.04 with
> the LTS backport kernel from Raring.  The original wireless card in it
> is a Realtek RTL8191SE.  I tried replacing it with the Atheros-based
> card from my son's EeePC, but although the card was apparently
> recognised, and the ath5k module loaded, the card was disabled:
>
> jtait at mothership:~$ rfkill list
> 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
>          Soft blocked: no
>          Hard blocked: yes
>
> rfkill unblock has no effect - no error, but the card remains hard
> blocked.  The wireless key (Fn-F8) simply toggles the soft block, and
> the laptop has no hardware switch that I can see.  There's a setting
> in the BIOS that doesn't seem to have any effect.  So I picked up an
> Intel IWL4965AGN card on eBay for a couple of quid and tried that, but
> the result was the same:
>
> jtait at mothership:~$ rfkill list
> 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
>          Soft blocked: no
>          Hard blocked: yes
>
> I've tried countless "solutions" on ubuntuforums and so on.  Is it
> possible that Toshiba have decided to lock the laptop down to a
> specific kind of wireless card?
>
> JT
> - --
> - ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------
> James Tait, BSc                        |    xmpp:jayteeuk at wyrddreams.org
> Programmer and Free Software advocate  |        Tel: +44 (0)870 490 2407
> - ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------
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Hi,

My Acer laptop (intel Wifi card) suffered wifi probs on 12.04, never did 
get to the bottom of it, but upgrading to 13.04 solved it! I know this 
is not necessarily a solution but if you can pin down what has changed 
between the versions it might help (I have to admit once it 'fixed 
itself' I stopped looking!) if it helps ill post the output of some 
helpful commands below, and if you want any other info I would be happy 
to provide it.
pete at petes-lappy:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory 
Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 
Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 
Integrated Graphics Controller (secondary) (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI 
Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio 
Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express 
Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express 
Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express 
Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express 
Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI 
Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HM (ICH8M) LPC Interface 
Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE 
Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) 
SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller 
(rev 03)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M 
Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
06:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 
[Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
07:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller 
(rev 05)
07:00.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro 
Host Adapter (rev 22)
07:00.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host 
Adapter (rev 12)
07:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
pete at petes-lappy:~$ rfkill list
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
         Soft blocked: no
         Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
         Soft blocked: no
         Hard blocked: no

Hope this helps

regards

Pete S