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My Toshiba Satellite p855-335 Notebook wouldn't turn the wireless on.

There are several existing threads on Ubuntu Forums which I've tried, for instance:

In particular, none of the following helped:

  • I have reset the BIOS to defaults.
  • I installed a fresh installation of 15.10 and pressed the 'wireless' key (Fn+ F12).
  • I have tried the 'Battery Trick' (of the second link above). If it's any help, the wireless LED at the bottom right corner of the laptop is showing red.

The following were suggested in some threads, but don't help:

$ cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill2/hard
1
$ sudo echo 0 > /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill2/hard
bash: /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill2/hard: Permission denied
$ cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill2/state
2

$ sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi
$ sudo rfkill unblock all
$ sudo modprobe iwlwifi
$ rfkill list all
0: Toshiba Bluetooth: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: yes

Some history:

The whole issue started when my laptop's battery ran out while in airoplane mode. We ended up shipping it back to the manufacturer, and they replaced the motherboard. When it came back, it was stuck on hotspot mode with the wi-fi turned off. I deleted the hotspot mode, but the Wi-fi is still turned off.

I attach the results of the wireless-info script ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=370108 ) here.

UPDATE: If I use evtest and press the Fn + F8 keys (Next Track) followed by the Fn + F12 keys (Wi-Fi) followed by the the Fn + F8 keys (Next Track), followed by CTRL + C I get the following (http://pastebin.com/mzBa6W5H).

So it's possible that the WIRELESS button isn't recognised by Ubuntu.

But, if I press the MUTE button, nothing appears either, but Ubuntu does in fact mute the volume control.

If I type sudo rfkill event and press the Wi-Fi key 4 times, I get the following interaction.

  • UPDATE: I've tried backporting to the latest stable version (4.4.2v) as described here, but it doesn't seem to change anything, even though modinfo iwlwifi shows the the driver has been backported.
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  • 1
    Have you went into BIOS and reset to defaults?
    – Jeremy31
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:26
  • 1
    Did you pull the small coin battery from the motherboard when you did the battery trick?
    – Jeremy31
    Dec 15, 2015 at 11:37
  • That's not possible with my model, as the battery is soldered to the motherboard.
    – Ohad Kammar
    Dec 15, 2015 at 12:02
  • 1
    I am just about out of ideas. Have you updated the BIOS, flashing it might reset the rfkill
    – Jeremy31
    Dec 15, 2015 at 21:49
  • 2
    That is expected behavior
    – Jeremy31
    Dec 16, 2015 at 15:36

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
3

I looked around trying to find an answer for you and there is a user reporting that disconnecting the laptop from the mains power supply, removing the battery and then pressing and holding the power button for 30 seconds before replacing the battery and rebooting the laptop resolved the issue. Presumably this sequence is performing a factory reset on the BIOS or something or it could be just simply removing the battery did the trick either way it's worth a try maybe it will work for you also.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/44040-43-wireless-function-working-toshiba-satellite

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  • Thank you for suggesting this. Unfortunately, already tried this battery trick without any results.
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 29, 2016 at 10:17
2

Give this a shot-- $rfkill unblock all

$rfkill list all shows the soft blocked decives too.

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1
  • Thanks for the answer, but I already tried it, with and without sudo, with no effect. (See description above)
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 20, 2016 at 10:08
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Your laptop has no WiFi because it is in airplane mode, the same mode it was in when you sent it back to Toshiba. Press the Fn key and F12 simultaneously to turn Wi-Fi back on.

If this does not work check that your F12 key is working.

Install evtest sudo apt-get install evtest

Run it and press the Fn + F12 keys. Sudo evtest then select keyboard.

You tried evtest with the combination Fn + F8 keys (Next Track) followed by the Fn + F12 keys (Wi-Fi) followed by the the Fn + F8 keys (Next Track), followed by CTRL + C. This showed no result for the Wi-Fi key combination, but the others were as expected.

Next killall gnome-settings-daemon then xev | grep keycode then press Fn + F12 to see if a keypress event is detected.

Two key press events are detected for each keystroke.

: state 0x0, key code 246 (keysym 0x1008ff95, XF86WLAN), same_screen YES,

This proves your keyboard hardware and firmware are performing correctly.

Next sudo rfkill event and pressing the Fn + F12 keys 4 times, gives the result 

$ sudo rfkill event
1464557444.818056: idx 0 type 2 op 0 soft 0 hard 0
1464557444.818150: idx 2 type 1 op 0 soft 0 hard 1
1464557444.818155: idx 4 type 2 op 0 soft 0 hard 0
1464557446.759506: idx 2 type 1 op 2 soft 1 hard 1
1464557447.304231: idx 2 type 1 op 2 soft 0 hard 1
1464557447.898459: idx 2 type 1 op 2 soft 1 hard 1
1464557448.410745: idx 2 type 1 op 2 soft 0 hard 1
^C

This shows rfkill is intercepting the event and responding properly, but the hard stop is not responding. If you look on the Toshiba Satellite forumyou will find that this problem is pretty common, and seems to occur every time a new operating system is brought out. The response from Toshiba is always to update to the latest driver so its pretty conclusive the issue is a bug in the Intel Linux driver iwlwifi.

Next try upgrading to the latest driver using backports. Unfortunately this did not work which means the bug is not fixed yet. In fact it is bug 1538289

So you need to report the bug. ubuntu-bug iwlwifi Follow the instructions, but instead choose 1538289 rather than opening a new bug.

Once you have done the community minded thing and reported the bug, you want your Wi-Fi back. It is reported that removing the BIOS battery, pressing the power button for 30S and the re-inserting the battery will restore the WiFi. You cannot do this as your battery is soldered in.

You could unsolder one end of the battery and hold the power switch for 30S. You should only do this if: you own the laptop, it is out of warranty, you have the tools and expertise to unsolder and solder the battery. None of these apply to you.

A rather lengthy way of switching out of airplane mode is to install Windows 7, update to the latest drivers, switch the WiFi on, remove Windows and reinstall Ubuntu. There is an easier way...

Now about that bounty

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18
  • That does not work, unfortunately.
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 23, 2016 at 14:09
  • Why did you send it back to Toshiba and what did they say they did to it? Do any of the Fn + function key combinations work?
    – Steve Roome
    May 23, 2016 at 14:55
  • Ah, there's progress! Unfortunately, /lib/udev/keymap and /lib/udev/ffindkeyboards have been removed in the latest versions of Ubuntu. But using evtest ( recommended here forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=1395051 ) I used evtest, and pressing the wireless key doesn't generate any event! (Pressing FN+wireless generates F12.) I'll update the question --- what do I do next?
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 26, 2016 at 16:51
  • @OhadKammar Leave it with me. I will do some research and get back to you. Do any of the other Fn + function key combinations work? When you click on the keyboard character in the right of the top bar and select Keyboard layout chart what do you see?
    – Steve Roome
    May 26, 2016 at 18:09
  • I see this
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 26, 2016 at 20:23
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+100

It's a long shot, but it sounds like you may be hardware savvy enough to give it a go. This is a total shot in the dark, but try pulling your wifi card and loading BIOS defaults. Then boot up. Hit Fn + F12 (not much should happen). Then shut down, replace your card, and repeat the same process but see if it comes back after booting back up again.

Now, this part is for the hardware timid because I don't know how comfortable you are with hardware. If you know your stuff, then just skip this part.

To remove the wifi card, start by pulling your battery and see if you can pull the screws off any cover plates. Toshiba laptops are hit or miss as to whether you can get to the wireless card. If you find it under one of the user access panels under the laptop, pay attention to which wire is plugged in where and touch something metal on the laptop like a video port to ground yourself from ESD. Detatch the wifi antenna cables from the card, then unscrew the card and carefully remove it by lifting up and pulling the card out of the socket. Wifi card removed. Now follow the directions above.

To replace, just follow the exact opposite of the last paragraph, but remember to remove the battery and discharge any electrostatic buildup on a solid metal piece before touching anything electronic. Then replace card and re-attach antenna cables exactly like they were before you removed them.

Good luck!

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  • Thanks. I'll give it a try when I'm done travelling (I'll reinstate the bounty if it works).
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 23, 2016 at 14:12
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Do any of the other Fn Key combinations work in linux ? It seems like your laptop has a software controlled rfkill and is unable to activate it . This could be that the driver isn't fully supported or you have been unlucky that it has regressed.

Have you tried doing that key combination whilst in the BIOS setup page ? This should allow the switch to be flipped to on then you can leave it on until you can get the soft switch working in linux.

There is an outside chance that your wireless card has some dodgy firmware on it that is causing problems , if you can boot another os or maybe an earlier ubuntu livecd it should put different firmware in that might fix it or at least allow you leave the wifi killswitch on

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  • Thanks! Briefly, as I'm in a conference: other fn keys work. I've tried pressing f12 while in bios with no results. I'll see whether I can boot other os when I'm back from my travels.
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 25, 2016 at 7:12
  • This does not answer the question, to request more information on a post, please use comments, the answer section is only for actual answers.
    – Mark Kirby
    May 28, 2016 at 20:33
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Well this is same problem that i faced by me long time ago while using my dell laptop. The solution to the question is very simple. There must be an 'Fn' key in your keyboard,right next to left 'ctrl' key. Well..just Press 'Fn'+'F2-key' (in my dell laptop it was F2 if if it fails just look for wireless marking on the 'F'keys and try that combination).

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1
  • Thank you, but this does not solve my problem.
    – Ohad Kammar
    May 29, 2016 at 21:40

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