On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 7:08 AM, Fletcher Bonds <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks - I looked at that stuff and it's useful, but appears to all be stuff > I'd utilize after after I get over this first obstacle in my path. > > The Compaq Presario C751NR laptop has a button on the left side of the of > the work area about 3/4 of inch above the F1 key. > see: > "http://www.tapchilaptop.com/uploads/Image/21.4.08/Compaq_C714NR_big2.jpg"; > This is an illuminated key - Blue is on, Orange is off. > > This I think is a direct equivalent to the airplane mode mechanical switch > many laptops have on them. It disables the onboard wireless. Without > Vista, I can't get the fraking thing to turn back on - with vista > off/on/off/on/off/on all day no problem - which leads to the logical > conclusion that it's a "soft-key". Essentially equivalent to the mail, > internet, media player, etc keyboard some cookie-cutter PCs come with which > expect to transmit a signal to the supporting OS and have something occur > except in this instance I suspect this button communicated directly with > Vista's driver for the wireless chip. Like Press button -> Button tells > Vista to off the wireless -> Vista driver tells chip to toggle itself off. > As if there were no or little onboard bios support for controlling the > chip. > > Unfortunately for me when Vista seized it's chest, made gurgling noises and > fell over dead, the button was in it's off state. Now I press the button > under Debian (with either the default Atheros linux module loaded or with > that disabled and the ndiswrapper/madwifi driver config running) and no one > appears to be there to hear the signal. It stays orange. > > Without reloading Vista -which would be a challenge since I don't have the > media and the system restore disks won't work on the new harddrive > (different size, no secret partition) - I gotta figure out a way to tell the > onboard wireless chip to go back to an ON state. It's less important to me > whether or not the soft-key ever works again. I'd be happy as a clam to > have it permanently in the ON state (instead of permanently off).
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/how-to-turn-wireless-card-off-with-wicd-688203/ Maybe iw2200 on will work? It's been a while since I've had issues with Linux wireless. I seem to remember iw2200 working for me in the past. > On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:13 PM, Chris Miller <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> It didn't disappear in the great bit-bucket in the sky, it was just >> the mod-team certifying that it was indeed Not Spam (TM). >> >> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Fletcher Bonds <[email protected]> wrote: >> > I've got Debian (Lenny) running pretty well on my Compaq Presario C751NR >> > laptop. I got this thing as a refurb and it came with Vista (yech). >> >> That's enough to make anyone suicidal. >> >> > Problems I'm encountering though if anyone has suggestions are: >> > >> > Wireless: >> > There's a button on the laptop above the keyboard to turn the wireless >> > on/off - it's been in the off state since I dumped Windows. The Compaq >> > bios >> > is all but useless (dumbed down to the point that no advanced features >> > are >> > accessible). I can not for the life of me figure out how to turn this >> > back >> > on. I have tried the ndiswrapper/madwifi solutions to load a driver for >> > it >> > and it does show up in lspci, but it never shows up ifconfig. I'm >> > guessing >> > it has something to do with the fact the button is soft-offed somehow >> > and if >> > I could just toggle it on life would be goodness. >> >> Yeah, there's a command to turn wifi on and off... >> >> Should be in here somewhere: >> >> http://wirelessdefence.org/Contents/LinuxWirelessCommands.htm >> > > > > > -- Registered Linux Addict #431495 http://profile.xfire.com/mrstalinman | John 3:16! http://www.fsdev.net/ | http://www.fsdev.net/~cmiller Parents, Take Responsibility For Your Kids! http://www.whattheyplay.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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