Re: wi-fi hardware disabled

[Klaus <klaus.doering999@gmail.com>]

On 23/12/13 20:47, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 08:14:29PM +0200, andrey.rybak@bilkent.edu.tr wrote:
> > hi everybody!
> > in my network icon in Gnome3 i have "wi-fi hardware disabled". How i can
> > enable it?
> >
> > # lspci -k|grep -i wi -A 3
> > 03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network
> > Adapter (rev 01)
> > 	Subsystem: AzureWave Device 2c97
> > 	Kernel driver in use: ath9k
> >
> > # ip a l wlan0
> > 3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default
> > qlen 1000
> >      link/ether 24:0a:64:8f:52:73 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
> >
> > Why i have wlan0 down?
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> I think it's because it comes that way from the bios, but I could be
> wrong. In the case of /etc/network/interfaces, you shouldn't need to
> do anything special. If you want to run iwlist, or do something else
> that requires the card to be up, then ifconfig up wlan0 should enable
> wlan0. Someone else will have to help you as far as enabling it in gnome.
>
> Greg
Is this a dual-boot system, with Windows being the other? If so, it may 
be the case that the Win driver shuts down the wifi card, and not even 
the BIOS can re-enable it. I had that problem on an Acer Travelmate a 
while ago.
From memory, in Windows (mine happened with Vista...) check the Device 
Manager -- Wifi Adapter -- Properties, somewhere there was an entry like 
"windows is allowed to shut down this device to save power". Try and 
disable that feature and make sure Wifi is enabled before you shutdown 
Windows.

--
Klaus