Wireless nightmare - ipw2200

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 05:30:12AM +0300, Kihara Muriithi wrote:
> Hi pals,
> 
> I have a laptop that I have been using for a long time - 2 years - a
> Toshiba satellite Pro. I haven't had a reason to complain until now. I
> have been using an ethernet cable all along, but I am in a situation
> where I seriously need wireless connection. This have proved to be not
> that easy.
> 
> The card the laptop have is ipw2200 from Intel. I have the necessary
> driver and firmware, according to the numerous web pages I have come
> across. The OS even does see it, but it wouldn't work. I have searched
> the net for a couple of days, but don't have a solution yet. Here is
> what I have:
> 
> dmesg info:
> [root at kerberos kihara]# dmesg | grep ipw
> ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.0kmprq
> ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
> ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
> ipw2200: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
> ipw2200: Detected geography ZZM (11 802.11bg channels, 0 802.11a channels)
> 
> iwconfig
>           radio off  ESSID:off/any
>           Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
>           Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power=off   Sensitivity=8/0
>           Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
>           Encryption key:off
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
> 
> [root at kerberos kihara]# dmesg | grep eth1
> eth1: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xf8a86000, 00:0f:b0:9a:5c:47, IRQ 23
> eth1:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'
> 
> The issue seem to be this line 'ipw2200: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:'
> I am at a loss how to fix it. I have looked at the bios and they don't
> have anything that could help. I have a feeling re-installing might
> not help also. See, I have tried using live ubuntu and hit the same
> snag, the kill switch. What am I missing? Would there be someone here
> who have came across this problem and has a fix? I would be very
> grateful for any help.

There is often a button or fn+F# to enable/disable the wireless
radio.

--
Len Sorensen
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