(solved) wifi extension on hp6910 dont work

[floppy]

hello,
I tried the wifi extension on a hp6910 notebook.
I already made working wireless with command in the start script. See http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,9831.msg53702.html#msg53702
I made now:
- load firmware-iwlwifi and wireless-3.0.3 on boot
- start wifi.. but nothing happens. No wireless is recognized (WPA2 net)
I had the feeling the wifi extension was goot because it started on my wife asus (same wlan net) but not on this hp laptop.
So, few advice to find the issue would be appreciated.

[Juanito]

do you see any relevent errors using dmesg? If you start wifi from a terminal window, do you see any errors?

[floppy]

Juanito,

"dmesg" result (end):
...
[    7.016280] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    7.325565] EXT4-fs (sdb1): mounting ext2 file system using the ext4 subsystem
[    7.338063] EXT4-fs (sdb1): warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended
[    7.514928] EXT4-fs (sdb1): mounted filesystem without journal. Opts: (null)
[   10.362446] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[   10.514539] iwl4965: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi 4965 driver for Linux, in-tree:
[   10.514542] iwl4965: Copyright(c) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation
[   10.514614] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[   10.514624] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   10.514650] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN, REV=0x4
[   10.553367] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: device EEPROM VER=0x36, CALIB=0x5
[   10.553828] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 19 802.11a channels
[   10.553996] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[   10.614417] iwl4965 0000:10:00.0: loaded firmware version 228.61.2.24
[   10.614662] Registered led device: phy0-led
[   10.614729] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-4965-rs'

Other messages...

"sudo ifconfig wlan0 up" gives
ifconfig: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

"ifconfig wlan0 up" gives
ifconfig: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Permission denied

"iwlist wlan0 scan" gives
wlan0 Failed to read scan data: Network is down

"iwconfig"
wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any 
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

"lsmod"
Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P 
acpi_cpufreq           12288  1
mperf                  12288  1 acpi_cpufreq
cpufreq_powersave      12288  0
cpufreq_userspace      12288  0
cpufreq_stats          12288  0
cpufreq_conservative    12288  0
iwl4965                69632  0
iwl_legacy             40960  1 iwl4965
mac80211              114688  2 iwl4965,iwl_legacy
cfg80211               94208  3 iwl4965,iwl_legacy,mac80211
squashfs               24576 39
scsi_wait_scan         12288  0
zcache                 12288  0
zram                   12288  1
loop                   16384 78
pata_pcmcia            16384  1
pcmcia                 28672  1 pata_pcmcia
hp_wmi                 12288  0
ppdev                  12288  0
sparse_keymap          12288  1 hp_wmi
sdhci_pci              12288  0
sdhci                  20480  1 sdhci_pci
yenta_socket           20480  0
pcmcia_rsrc            16384  1 yenta_socket
serio_raw              12288  0
parport_pc             24576  0
pcspkr                 12288  0
parport                24576  2 ppdev,parport_pc
mmc_core               45056  1 sdhci
pcmcia_core            16384  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
video                  16384  0
hp_accel               20480  0
lis3lv02d              16384  1 hp_accel
backlight              12288  1 video
battery                12288  0
input_polldev          12288  1 lis3lv02d
ac                     12288  0
wmi                    12288  1 hp_wmi
e1000e                 94208  0

There is no error by starting wifi in a terminal with "wifi" command.

[maro]

There is no error by starting wifi in a terminal with "wifi" command.

I'm now confused, is it all working or not?

Anyway, IMHO the two "interesting" pieces of information are "Operation not possible due to RF-kill" (after sudo ifconfig wlan0 up) and "Tx-Power=off" (in the iwconfig output). I've seen the latter on my notebooks if I would have the WLAN switch (e.g. a slide switch or a toggle button) in the OFF position. But apart from this (hardware) switch there seems to be also for some systems a kind of "software switch" (which could be independent from the former).

You should be able to find out more by installing the 'rfkill.tcz' extension and running rfkill list

Of course I can't possibly know what your system will report, but my hunch is that you might find at least one '... blocked: yes' somewhere in the result. Again not knowing your details I could imagine that at least the 'Soft blocked: yes' could be overcome with: rfkill unblock all

[floppy]

Thanks Maro.

rfkill list gives:
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: yes
1: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: yes
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: yes

With a previous version of tcl and wpa_supplicant compat_wireless firmware_iwlwifi, it worked (see the link in the first post). The hardware did not change on this laptop. (I m writing from my usb modem).
Curious.. curious.. it is curious..

Last news: by starting the wifi.tcz several time it says now: "found wifi device wlan0" "standby for scan of available network".. then no networks are indicated. Perhaps the last firmware_iwlwifi dont make running my laptop (the previous with tcl3.6 made it)

[curaga]

Hard blocked eh? Are you sure the hw switch is on?

[floppy]

HW blocked? How?
In fact, nobody changed something on this laptop since 2010 (it worked with the previous firmware_iwlwifi and tcl3.6).
So, I suppose the last firmware dont work with this wifi and the compaq/hp 6910.

[curaga]

Maybe the laptop has a fn-key combination instead of a physical switch? That could have been pressed by accident.

[Rich]

Or maybe it somehow got disabled in the BIOS.

[maro]

I also like to suggest to run the rfkill list on TC 3.x and compare the results.

What I find odd is the combination of 'Soft blocked: no, Hard blocked: yes'. In my testing when I changed the switch from ON to OFF the settings went from
    Soft blocked: no, Hard blocked: no
first to
    Soft blocked: yes, Hard blocked: no
and that was immediately followed by
    Soft blocked: yes, Hard blocked: yes

[floppy]

Hello,
I had a look into the BIOS and could not really find something. I saved again the BIOS parameters.
But, by thinking that I had in the previous running tcl3.6 "compat_wireless", on boot, but that I had no "wireless_tools" now in this tcl4.0, then I modified my onboot.lst by including wireless_tools.
And now, it works.
So, I think this is the reason (missing wireless_tools TCE).
Or perhaps the rfkill I added on boot.
I will have a look again into my BIOS: but I dont think I modified anything there.
If I find something (BIOS modified? RFkill not necessary anymore?), I will post the result here.
This topic is closed for me.