[arch-general] EEE 1000H - control of Wifi device
Hello all, A few days ago I installed Arch on an EEE-1000H. Things work very well and I'm sort of impressed by how easy it worked out to be (there were a few hickups but nothing serious). Today I discovered one possible problem. The key combination 'Fn + F2' enables or disables the wireless network device. If you hit it accidentally there's no more wifi. Using netcfg (I'm using the version from testing) doesn't bring it back, as the wlan0 device doesn't exist. The solution is hitting again 'Fn + F2', then netcfg the wireless profile. No big deal for me, but the end users of this machine are less technically inclined. So I'm looking for either - a way to disable the action of this key combination (while leaving the other F-keys intact), or - a way to re-enable the wireless device from a script. The trick mentioned on the EEE-901 wiki echo 1 > /sys/......./wlan0 doesn't work - there's no such file on the 1000H Any hints will be appreciated ! Ciao, -- FA O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 5:16 PM, <fons@kokkinizita.net> wrote:
Hello all,
A few days ago I installed Arch on an EEE-1000H. Things work very well and I'm sort of impressed by how easy it worked out to be (there were a few hickups but nothing serious).
Today I discovered one possible problem.
The key combination 'Fn + F2' enables or disables the wireless network device. If you hit it accidentally there's no more wifi. Using netcfg (I'm using the version from testing) doesn't bring it back, as the wlan0 device doesn't exist. The solution is hitting again 'Fn + F2', then netcfg the wireless profile.
No big deal for me, but the end users of this machine are less technically inclined. So I'm looking for either
- a way to disable the action of this key combination (while leaving the other F-keys intact), or
- a way to re-enable the wireless device from a script.
The trick mentioned on the EEE-901 wiki
echo 1 > /sys/......./wlan0
doesn't work - there's no such file on the 1000H
Any hints will be appreciated !
Isn't this what rfkill is for? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 05:36:31PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
Isn't this what rfkill is for? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill
There are rfkill entries in /sys I'll try, but AFAIK rfkill is for bluetooth. Ciao, -- FA O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 05:36:31PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
Isn't this what rfkill is for? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill
You're right: /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/rfkill/rfkill0/state controls the wifi device. Problem solved. Thanks ! -- FA O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:19 +0100, fons@kokkinizita.net wrote:
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 05:36:31PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
Isn't this what rfkill is for? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill
You're right: /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/rfkill/rfkill0/state controls the wifi device. Problem solved.
Thanks !
-- FA
O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
There is some weak support for this in netcfg [testing] that uses that sysfs location. However that sysfs location is deprecated, so I have some lofty plans to update netcfg to the rfkill tool in the next version. James
Am 18.02.2010 02:19, schrieb fons@kokkinizita.net:
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 05:36:31PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
Isn't this what rfkill is for? http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill
You're right: /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/rfkill/rfkill0/state controls the wifi device. Problem solved.
Use the rfkill utility from core. It will display the rfkill devices and modify their state. As James said, using the sysfs interface is depreacted and it will disappear soon. If you want to avoid deactivating your wireless by accident, I guess you need to modify the settings of the ACPI module like mentioned in the other subthread.
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 11:39:38AM +0100, Thomas Bächler wrote:
Use the rfkill utility from core. It will display the rfkill devices and modify their state. As James said, using the sysfs interface is depreacted and it will disappear soon.
(/me reads rfkill.c) Rfkill depends on the sysfs interface at least for reading names. The rest is indeed done via /dev/rfkill.
If you want to avoid deactivating your wireless by accident, I guess you need to modify the settings of the ACPI module like mentioned in the other subthread.
Well, since I don't have /etc/acpi at all it looks like this switch works without any soft support at all. So I guess it just can't be disabled. -- FA O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
Well, since I don't have /etc/acpi at all it looks like this switch works without any soft support at all. So I guess it just can't be disabled.
unless you install acpid and acpi-eeepc-generic. acpid puts acpi event-handling in userspace, so then you can /dev/null fn+f2. acpi-eeepc-generic provides all the expected functionality and very straight-forward bash-script configuration for acpid. make like the sneaker adverts! -kludge
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:43 AM, kludge <drkludge@rat-patrol.org> wrote:
Well, since I don't have /etc/acpi at all it looks like this switch works without any soft support at all. So I guess it just can't be disabled.
unless you install acpid and acpi-eeepc-generic. acpid puts acpi event-handling in userspace, so then you can /dev/null fn+f2. acpi-eeepc-generic provides all the expected functionality and very straight-forward bash-script configuration for acpid.
make like the sneaker adverts!
-kludge
AFAIK, that won't work because the wifi hotkey is handled by the eee-laptop kernel module. Or, at least it is on my 1005HA. I don't believe there is a way to stop the module from processing certain hotkeys, other than removing it altogether.
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 12:25:51PM -0800, epinull wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:43 AM, kludge <drkludge@rat-patrol.org> wrote:
Well, since I don't have /etc/acpi at all it looks like this switch works without any soft support at all. So I guess it just can't be disabled.
unless you install acpid and acpi-eeepc-generic. acpid puts acpi event-handling in userspace, so then you can /dev/null fn+f2. acpi-eeepc-generic provides all the expected functionality and very straight-forward bash-script configuration for acpid.
make like the sneaker adverts!
-kludge
AFAIK, that won't work because the wifi hotkey is handled by the eee-laptop kernel module. Or, at least it is on my 1005HA. I don't believe there is a way to stop the module from processing certain hotkeys, other than removing it altogether.
What would be the consequences of removing that module ? Ciao, -- FA O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Fons Adriaensen <fons@kokkinizita.net> wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 12:25:51PM -0800, epinull wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:43 AM, kludge <drkludge@rat-patrol.org> wrote:
Well, since I don't have /etc/acpi at all it looks like this switch works without any soft support at all. So I guess it just can't be disabled.
unless you install acpid and acpi-eeepc-generic. acpid puts acpi event-handling in userspace, so then you can /dev/null fn+f2. acpi-eeepc-generic provides all the expected functionality and very straight-forward bash-script configuration for acpid.
make like the sneaker adverts!
-kludge
AFAIK, that won't work because the wifi hotkey is handled by the eee-laptop kernel module. Or, at least it is on my 1005HA. I don't believe there is a way to stop the module from processing certain hotkeys, other than removing it altogether.
What would be the consequences of removing that module ?
Ciao,
-- FA
O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
You'd lose quite a bit of functionality: Fan control; FSB scaling; camera, card reader, wifi and bluetooth toggling; maybe more. You'd also lose the rest of the hotkeys. Really, I wasn't recommending you remove it. I was just pointing out that kludge's suggestion wouldn't work in your situation.
Mu investigations where that the BIOS controlled Fn+F2, but it could be the kernel module which I did not suspect at the time and so have not tested. On my EeePC 1000, bios previous to revision 1003 did not controlled Fn+F2; acpi-eeepc-generic needed to be used to enable/disable wifi. On newer bios though, the bios seems to control directly the Fn+F2. See my entry about it on acpi-eeepc-generic's wiki: http://code.google.com/p/acpi-eeepc-generic/wiki/Wireless
On 02/17/2010 05:16 PM, fons@kokkinizita.net wrote:
Today I discovered one possible problem.
The key combination 'Fn + F2' enables or disables the wireless network device. If you hit it accidentally there's no more wifi.
that's expected behavior, as indicated by the 'wifi' icon in blue on the 'f2' key.
No big deal for me, but the end users of this machine are less technically inclined. So I'm looking for either
- a way to disable the action of this key combination (while leaving the other F-keys intact), or
is it safe to presume you installed acpi-eeepc-generic? because it has a configuration file that let's you customize every key combination.
- a way to re-enable the wireless device from a script.
ummm... did you try hitting fn+f2 again? if that didn't work, file a bug against big-gie's script package. a more cutting question might be: why are you saddling end-users who can't figure out the function keys with archlinux? the ubuntu netbook remix runs beautifully on the 1000h. -kludge
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 05:40:44PM -0600, kludge wrote:
On 02/17/2010 05:16 PM, fons@kokkinizita.net wrote:
Today I discovered one possible problem.
The key combination 'Fn + F2' enables or disables the wireless network device. If you hit it accidentally there's no more wifi.
that's expected behavior, as indicated by the 'wifi' icon in blue on the 'f2' key.
Yes.
No big deal for me, but the end users of this machine are less technically inclined. So I'm looking for either
- a way to disable the action of this key combination (while leaving the other F-keys intact), or
is it safe to presume you installed acpi-eeepc-generic? because it has a configuration file that let's you customize every key combination.
If that is a package name, no. Everything seems to work without it, including e.g. the display brightness keys. This is a 1000H which apparently needs less specific support.
- a way to re-enable the wireless device from a script.
ummm... did you try hitting fn+f2 again? if that didn't work, file a bug against big-gie's script package.
You've been reading too fast :-) As I wrote, hitting Fn+F2 again and then restarting the profile works. I just don't expect my end users to remember that. They get Arch because it enables me to deliver exacly what is required, which turned out to be very problematic with the more bloated distros. All they do is to click some desktop icons, one of them to select the wireless network. It calls a script using netcfg. What I'd want to do is to make that script enable the wireless device as well, if it was disabled. Or make sure it never get disabled. Ciao, -- FA O tu, che porte, correndo si ? E guerra e morte !
On 02/17/2010 06:03 PM, fons@kokkinizita.net wrote:
is it safe to presume you installed acpi-eeepc-generic? because it has a configuration file that let's you customize every key combination.
If that is a package name, no. Everything seems to work without it, including e.g. the display brightness keys. This is a 1000H which apparently needs less specific support.
- a way to re-enable the wireless device from a script. All they do is to click some desktop icons, one of them to select the wireless network. It calls a script using netcfg. What I'd want to do is to make that script enable the wireless device as well, if it was disabled. Or make sure it never get disabled.
ah. apologies for my snappish attitude. do try acpi-eeepc-generic. the following is from my /etc/conf.d/acpi-eeepc-generic (on a 1000HE): # On some models, calling the script can prevent the card from being re-enabled. If # you have that problem, just don't call the script and let the BIOS dis/enable the card. # See http://code.google.com/p/acpi-eeepc-generic/wiki/Wireless COMMANDS_WIFI_TOGGLE=("/etc/acpi/eeepc/acpi-eeepc-generic-toggle-wifi.sh") COMMANDS_WIFI_UP=() COMMANDS_WIFI_DOWN=() COMMANDS_WIFI_PRE_UP=() COMMANDS_WIFI_POST_UP=("/etc/rc.d/wicd start" "@wicd-client") COMMANDS_WIFI_PRE_DOWN=("pkill wicd-client" "/etc/rc.d/wicd stop" "pkill wpa_supplicant" "pkill dhcpcd") COMMANDS_WIFI_POST_DOWN=()
participants (8)
-
Aaron Griffin
-
epinull
-
Fons Adriaensen
-
fons＠kokkinizita.net
-
James Rayner
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kludge
-
Nicolas Bigaouette
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Thomas Bächler