centrino - Radio Frequency Kill Switch

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 12:48:02AM +0000, alan at comm-tech.org wrote:

> Although drivers are loading on this laptop, the onboard wifi device
> will not activate. 
> 
> dmesg:
> ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 0.11
> ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2004 Intel Corporation
> ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:06.0[A] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
> ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
> ipw2200: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
> Kill switch must be turned off for wireless networking to work.
> 
> Apparently this is to do with the wifi button to the left of the
> keyboard that turns on the wireless device. In order for windows to use
> the device, it uses software hooked to this button to activate the wifi
> device, but I cannot find the equivalent for Linux.
> 
> I have been trying the solution here: http://rfswitch.sourceforge.net/,
> but cannot compile the driver in Ubuntu suggested by the Laptop Support
> Table. (possibly cos its ipw2100) Has anyone come across these Switches
> on newer Laptops, and how to get them working in Ubuntu?

These switches are fairly common, but the ones I have seen are "hard"
(physical) switches, rather than "soft" (software-controlled) ones, and so
they don't present much of a problem.

A software-driven switch would require a driver, possibly the one you found,
or possibly a different one.  I would try to get the rfswitch driver working
first.

-- 
 - mdz