Acer Aspire 4520 WiFi button

[Colin Brace]

Hi all,

This past weekend I upgraded my Acer Aspire notebook to 8.10. For some 
reason, I can't get the wireless working.

The 4520 has an Atheros wireless chipset. lspci:

07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 
802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

Following the release notes, I installed 
“linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-7-generic” which I understand contains 
the ath5k module that should support the AR242x chipset.

However, I can't seem to switch the WiFi on. Pressing the WiFi button 
has no effect; no LED is switched on or off. Googling the issue, I 
encountered this post which alludes to the problem:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4172878&postcount=105

The writer suggests that it might be necessary to boot Windows (!) to 
switch the wireless on. Unfortunately, I erased Vista when I bought the 
machine.

FWIW, with my previous Aspire, of which the wireless worked flawless 
under Ubuntu,  the WiFi interface was activated by default at boot time; 
a bright orange LED indicated this.

Any one have any ideas for me?

TIA

-- 
  Colin Brace
  Amsterdam
  http://lim.nl