Hello,

I have a Compaq Presario CQ43 laptop with Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS. Recently I unexpectedly lost my wireless connectivity capabilities. When I go to the upper right corner of the screen I try to enable the Wireless NIC but it is gray out. Therefore I'm not able to be wireless connected. Any idea or technicall approach that I can take to resolve this is issue will be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

can you confirm that you have not turned it off via some hardware switch/button? And what does rfkill tell you? Ie what is the output of:
If that output indicates the device is blocked you can probably unblock it by running the following:
Evo2.

1 members found this post helpful.

lists all USB devices: lsusb -v
sometimes help: turning off and turn it on again
more say - maybe I can more

Hello evo2

Thanks for your rapid response. Check the output of the rfkill list all:

root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/usr/sbin# rfkill list all
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes

After unblocking through the command sudo rfkill unblock all , this is the output of the rfkill list all:

root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/usr/sbin# rfkill list all
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

and the "enable wireless" still gray out.

By the way the only hardware switch button that it is on my laptop is on key F12 and that's amber which means that that wireless NIC is on.

TRK-Hun:

I've just applied the command you mentioned, it install something but it did not worked.

Thanks,

Hi,
Well, it still seems to be blocked. Please try toggling the hardware key. Also note that some laptops automatically turn of the wireless if there is also an ethernet cable connected. Finally, please check your bios for any settings related to turning the wifi on/off.

HTH,

Evo2.

Can you open a terminal and give the output of this.
Can you connect to an ethernet cable?

Hello Evo2:

I've tried to toggling the hardware key but it was not succesful , it does not change from amber to white (I've just found out that amber means that the wireless NIC is turn off , white indicates that the Wireless NIC is on). I've saw an article on HP website that this issue (that the F12 key light does not change from amber to white even by pressing multiple times F12 key) is due to a corrupted or missing wireless NIC driver.

Rubian:

Here I send you the output you requested from me:

------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# uname -a
Linux evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC 3.2.0-57-generic-pae #87-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 12 21:57:43 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 05)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3672]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
--
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10ec:8176] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1629]
Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 058f:a001 Alcor Micro Corp.
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# lsmod
Module Size Used by
pci_stub 12550 1
vboxpci 22911 0
vboxnetadp 13328 0
vboxnetflt 27240 0
vboxdrv 252228 3 vboxpci,vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt
joydev 17393 0
arc4 12473 2
snd_hda_codec_realtek 174313 1
hp_wmi 13652 0
sparse_keymap 13658 1 hp_wmi
snd_hda_intel 32719 3
snd_hda_codec 109562 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80916 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
uvcvideo 67203 0
videodev 86588 1 uvcvideo
snd_rawmidi 25424 1 snd_seq_midi
psmouse 86546 0
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 51592 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 28931 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
serio_raw 13027 0
snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 62218 15 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,sn d_seq_device
rtl8192ce 75529 0
rtl8192c_common 69519 1 rtl8192ce
rtlwifi 95855 1 rtl8192ce
mac80211 436493 3 rtl8192ce,rtl8192c_common,rtlwifi
rts_pstor 353252 0
cfg80211 178877 2 rtlwifi,mac80211
soundcore 14635 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14108 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
i915 428127 2
wmi 18744 1 hp_wmi
drm_kms_helper 45466 1 i915
drm 197641 3 i915,drm_kms_helper
mac_hid 13077 0
i2c_algo_bit 13199 1 i915
mei 36570 0
video 19115 1 i915
parport_pc 32114 0
rfcomm 38139 0
bnep 17830 2
ppdev 12849 0
bluetooth 158447 10 rfcomm,bnep
lp 17455 0
parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
binfmt_misc 17292 1
r8169 56396 0
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Power Managementn

eth0 no wireless extensions.
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 127.0.0.1
search la.ad.dole.net
------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for your assistance, hope this can help me to restablish the wireless connection.

These threads from the Ubuntu forums might help:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/35247...n-ubuntu-13-04

http://askubuntu.com/questions/68198...s-driver-fails

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...2#post12729812
Follow the advice in that thread. That should fix it for you.
I've ran in to that problem installing Zorin on a friends laptop.

Did you get it fixed?

Rubian,

Thanks for your advice. I think we made a progress, now when I go to the upper right corner of the screen, the option "enable wireless" is no longer gray out. I can check it, but the option "wireless network" still gray out and I can't change the light on F12 key (wireless activation key) from amber to green, no matter how many times hit that key or how much time I press it.

TECH LOG:
---------------------------------------------------------
evelezp@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:~$ rfkill list
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
---------------------------------------------------------

I'm still not able to use my wireless NIC with Ubuntu

Any idea ?

Did you try pushing FN F12?

Yes Rubian , I've just tried and it did not worked.

- FN+F12

- F12

Any other idea ? , I was thinking in uninstalling the wireless network driver and reistalling it but I'm not sure how can I achieve this (these are my first steps in linux so my knowledge is quite limited).

Thanks in advance for all the suggestions and comments,

Hi,
It's worth trying.
Then check rfkill again.

Evo2.

Hello Evo2,

I've tried your recommended commands:

root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# modprobe -r rtl8192ce
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# modprobe rtl8192ce
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# rfkill unblock all
root@evelezp-Presario-CQ43-Notebook-PC:/home/evelezp# rfkill list
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

now the " Enable Wireless " option at the upper right corner of the screen is gray out and I'm still not able to connect wireless. Should I reboot the computer after this process ?

Regards,