2009-07-23 15:01:53

by Larry Finger

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: howto ignore rfkill switch

Helen Gray wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a laptop with a dodgy rfkill switch. It switches on and off
> randomly when touch the laptop panel above it. To avoid the problem,
> I've installed a PCMCIA card but network manager shut it down when the
> switch goes off.
>
> Is there a way to ask network manager to ignore the rfkill switch?

What driver is used by the internal card? On my system, I have an
internal BCM4311 that uses b43, and I also use several USB cards for
testing. Before the latest rewrite of rfkill, I was able to switch off
the BCM4311 without affecting the USB sticks. Now I have to unload
b43, otherwise all radios are killed. Once b43 is unloaded, the
position of the rfkill switch is irrelevant.

If you do not wish to use the internal device at all, you should
blacklist that driver.

Larry


2009-07-23 15:16:25

by Carl Karsten

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: howto ignore rfkill switch

On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Larry Finger<[email protected]> wrote:
> Helen Gray wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a laptop with a dodgy rfkill switch. It switches on and off
>> randomly when touch the laptop panel above it. To avoid the problem,
>> I've installed a PCMCIA card

Sounds like it would be good to just disable the switch, right? From
what I gather, the switch signals the OS, which then runs code to
disable the wifi hardware, so overriding that is very possible.


--
Carl K