[sf-lug] rfkill (was Meeting notes from Sunday 7 February 2016)

[Akkana Peck]

maestro writes:
> quoting bobbie s.:
> >showing me about the 'rfkil"
> >command I was able to get it working immediately
> >on reboot.
> 
> bobbie,
> just for clarity the command i showed you IS part of 'rfkill' and was in
> fact 'rfkill list'. this command gives output as to if your WLAN has soft
> and/or hard blocks.
> 
> e.g.
> [code:]
> 
> #rfkill list
> Wireless LAN
> Soft blocked: no
> Hard blocked: no
> 
> it can be used to troubleshoot network connection problems/issues...

It can, but at least with my Asus netbook (Broadcom BCM4313 wi-fi,
brcmsmac module) it never solves anything. Trying to associate with
certain access points (I've hit this at a couple of hotels) puts
this machine into a mode where it's both hard and soft blocked,
and rfkill unblock all doesn't remove even the soft blocks.

Once in this mode, unloading/reloading the module doesn't help
either; even rebooting doesn't cure it. The only thing I've found
that helps is to reboot into the Ubuntu that came on the machine
when it shipped. That does something that magically clears the block
(I wish I knew what it did!), and I can reboot again into Debian and
now the wi-fi card works again, at least to connect to some other
AP, like a mi-fi or my phone.

There's some level of wi-fi block that rfkill can neither list nor
clear; and the blocks that rfkill *does* list, it often can't clear.

And maestro, I tend to agree with you about the state of wi-fi on
Linux. I understand why support for proprietary cards like Broadcom,
where the drivers have to be reverse engineered, isn't great; but
even with Intel cards, the tools, like rfkill, ifup/ifdown, ip,
ifconfig, iwconfig, wpasupplicant, are so poorly documented that
using them to establish or debug a connection involves a lot of
painful trial and error.

        ...Akkana