Why does my wireless stop working in Ubuntu if I turn it off in Windows?

Question

I recently installed the latest version of Ubuntu with wubi, everything works fine, I installed the driver for my wireless card, works great, but I found this problem:

On Windows 7, if I turn off the wireless card, then turn off Windows 7, then boot Ubuntu, my wireless card won't work.

Is this normal? Is there a fix for this?

I have a Dell Inspiron 1440

Answer 1

On Windows 7, if I turn off the wireless card, then turn off Windows 7, then boot Ubuntu, my wireless card won't work.

The proprietary drivers/software for your wireless card/laptop in Windows have a way of telling the wireless card to switch off. Unfortunately, it appears the open-source drivers in Ubuntu/Linux cannot.

The only solution is to not "turn off" the card before you shutdown Windows -- you don't need to do that anyway, it's not like the card will consume power once the laptop is shut down.

Apparently I have to keep turned on my wireless on windows 7 in order to work on ubuntu.... this is pretty disappointing

You can only use either Wubi-buntu OR Windows at any one time. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about.

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What's the real solution?

Support wireless card manufacturers who provide proper Linux drivers or at least disclose enough information for the open-source community to write such drivers. Get a new mini-pcie wireless card; I recommend the Intel 6205/6230/6300 - works great with iwlwifi.

Answer 2

There may a setting in the BIOS that will help. I have noted settings that prevent the hardware switch working, and there may also be ways to enable/disable the wifi independent of the operating system.