-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Fletcher,
Install kismet and aircrack...I had a wireless nic that was acting a bit odd and it would only power on when I forced it to with iwconfig or kismet/aircrack would force it on 'iwconfig ath0 txpower on' should be all you need to get the ball rolling. Then again...I think I fixed that with firmware or something! What I read is that the light really has no bearing on whether the wifi is on or not, but there is probably someone who has mapped that button to a script to load and unload the wireless modules. You are thinking about this the wrong way. The button is an accessory, not a component of the internal card. You can do it all from the command line. The state of the wireless device is not stored or trapped if the machine is turned off. If you got Vista back on it and pressed the button...the card would reset on reboot/boot/powerdown. Use of the button is not compulsory Bryan Fletcher Bonds 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). | | On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:13 PM, Chris Miller | <[email protected] <mailto:[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] | <mailto:[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 | | | | | - -- A healthy diet includes Linux, Linux and more Linux. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkmuzwIACgkQh+MLjl5SKYQVFgCcDz4b3oJGDHE3JvQ3GYPpvSSa WgcAn1Bz1imYLj4ZP2ie/WHV/MkhGnrK =ZcH2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. 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