[EN] [SOLVED] HP wmi / wifi issue after upgrade to Kernel 3.9-0

[louispolaire]

Hi,

This is my first message on this forum, so let's introduce myself: I'm louis and proud user of siduction for 1 month now.

I have an issue with the network manager.

Since the upgrade to kernel 3.9, when I log in to my session I have to activate the wireless network by hand.

Yesterday I suddenly was not able to login via ssh to my server.
What I realized is that I was connected using a wireless connexion with the MAC address from eth0 (which is usually wired).

I managed to connect to my server after changing the eth0 MAC address to the wlan0 MAC address. But this is more a workaround than a proper solution.

I would like to know if I can do something for everything to go back in order.

[dibl]

Personal opinion (not siduction official policy) -- I like wicd.  I use it on my netbook, and on both the laptops I support.  It is happy in KDE, LXDE, or whatever DE.  I cannot remember the last time I had trouble with it (if I ever did).

[louispolaire]

Hi,

Same problem with wicd : wlan0 is down at startup (and it requires more effort to activate)

I found a workaround adding this line to /etc/rc.local :

Code: [Select]

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager string:WirelessEnabled variant:boolean:true

But again more a workaround than a proper solution.
When I updated to kernel 3.9, I had some warning concerning non-free packages (I'm using iwlwifi). May that me related ?

[ayla]

Hi,

I'm using networkmanager since a few month on my notebook.
Made a d-u this minute. No problem here, auto connected to my Wlan router after reboot.
So maybe this issue is not one of networkmanager itself?


Linux tendara 3.9-0.towo-siduction-amd64
network-manager:
  Installiert:           0.9.4.0-10
Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

greets
ayla

[louispolaire]

Ok problem solved.

It turns out it was related to a HP driver (hp-wmi) that seems to have been enabled by the kernel 3.9 update.
 

Code: [Select]

rfkill list
gave me a lot of entries like hp-wifi, hp-Bluetooth etc... hp-wifi was soft blocked and phy0 was hard blocked on startup

what I did was :

Code: [Select]

modprobe -r hp-wmi
nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
and add

Code: [Select]

blacklist hp-wmi to the file
reboot and it's connecting directly just fine.

now I just have only two entries to rfkill list : phy0 for wireless and hci0 for bluetooth.

the MAC adress problem is also gone.

I think the title of the topic can be changed to [solved] and the title modified to be "HP specific". (I did not manage to do it myself :?)

Cheers !

[dibl]

Nice job troubleshooting it!  Subject modified as requested.

[ghettoblaster]

Thanx alot! Had the same Problem on an EliteBook 8730w, blacklisting hp-wmi solved the disabled WLAN-Card. Good work!