Q4OS Forum

Newbie_Flo

Member

Registered: 2019-03-19

Posts: 5

Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

Hi All,

I´m new to Linux and don´t know much about Computers, so please be Patient with me.

I´ve encountered the Problem with Q4OS (but also the latest Mint Version) that I can only install them when I set the WiFi Card to "Locked" in BIOS.
After Installation, the Laptop (Asus X71SL from 2008, WiFi Card is an AzureWave AW-NE771 according to Google) is working but doesn´t recognise that it has a WiFi Card installed. When I set WiFi to "unlocked" in the BIOS, the Laptop will freeze just a few seconds after power on, with a blinking Cursor on a black Screen :-(

I tried "iwconfig" and "rfkill unblock all" in the terminal, but no effect (terminal says it doesn´t recognise these commands?!).

Really looking forward to get some advice from you guys!!!

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

Hello and welcome to Q4OS.

Taking the last question first - iwconfig and rfkill require the use of sudo - see below.

WiFi can be a bear....however, the first question is whether there is a problem in the first place. My initial response is that it could just be the way the language in the BIOS has been translated. For example is it possible that Locked and Unlocked are simply mistranslations of Enabled and Disabled?

The fact that the machine won't boot with it set to unlocked is a bit of a puzzle.

First of all I would set it to locked, boot up and connect on wifi.
Run

sudo rfkill list all

That will tell you about your wifi and bluetooth are doing if fitted. Here I will mention an issue I have had with machines that combine Bluetooth and Wifi on one card. Pressing the Wifi button would switch it off - but it could only be switched back on by going to BIOS and doing a default reset.

If it shows everything as on, I would then use the Fn F2 combination which I think is what your machine uses to switch Wifi off and on.
If this functions correctly then that's fine.
If it disables it - but does not re-enable it then click the newtork/wiifi icon in the system tray bottom right and click Deactivate Connection>Disable Wireless and then repeat to Enable Wireless. I have found that brings wifi back on on some awkward hardware.

Running rfkill to get an indication of what is on or off at each stage will give you some useful info in understanding what is going on.

All this does is give you some idea of what your machine is doing - but as to whay - I have no idea.

Next question - does it matter? If you have a way of making it work then is that sufficient?

Newbie_Flo

Member

Registered: 2019-03-19

Posts: 5

Re: Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

Hi bin,
thanks for your quick reply! It motivated me to start some new tries, unfortunately with little to no success.

Concernig  sudo rfkill, l will attach a screenshot showing me fighting with the console. Please note that I try it without and then with sudo. After entering a wrong password intentionally, I insert the correct one afterwards. Then 2 times "sudo rfkill list all" without getting any list out. Same story with iwconfig, it just throws out "command unknown" or "Befehl nicht gefunden" in German...

Concerning Fn F2 and locking/unlocking the WiFi via seperate switch on the laptop: no effects at all. WiFi never worked as Q4OS is not able to identify ANY Wifi hardware installed to my laptop.I am connected now via LAN, which works good but I want to use the WiFi card which worked 10 years under Vista.

Can I post any other information on my hardware that is useful for you? lspci works in the concole, for example...

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Attachments:
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bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

OK - thanks for the info.

In terminal / Konsole enter:-

sudo apt-get install inxi

then

inxi -F

Copy and Paste the results back here please.

This chip should  - I think - work with the Atheros driver

Newbie_Flo

Member

Registered: 2019-03-19

Posts: 5

Re: Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

Good Morning,

after the first command, 4 packages were installed, so this part worked well.

Then entered inxi -F which gave the following output:

florian@q4os-desktop:~$ inxi -F
System:    Host: q4os-desktop Kernel: 4.9.0-8-686-pae i686 (32 bit)
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 3 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
Machine:   Device: laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X71SL v: 1.0
           Mobo: PEGATRON model: X71SL v: 1.0
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: 203 date: 09/08/2008
Battery    BAT0: charge: 27.5 Wh 95.8% condition: 28.7/75.9 Wh (38%)
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T5800 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2000 MHz 1: 1600 MHz 2: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA G98M [GeForce 9300M GS]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1440x900@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce 9300M GS/PCIe/SSE2
           GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.106
Audio:     Card Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Azalia Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.0-8-686-pae
Network:   Card: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 191 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
           driver: sis190
           IF: enp0s4 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full
           mac: 00:23:54:58:fa:c8
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 480.1GB (3.3% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: SanDisk_SSD_PLUS size: 480.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 437G used: 12G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 3.22GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 147 Uptime: 8 min Memory: 370.6/3034.1MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.5

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

Hmmm so it's completely missing the wifi card.

I suspect that this may be because windows flipped something in the firmware on the card - this was exactly the issue I had with the HP.

On the basis that it shouldn't do any harm I would be inclined to go back in to the BIOS.

Have a look for any setting relating to switching between cable and wifi for LAN - that may be behind it. If not then locate the Reset to Default - then boot up Q4OS and see if it has made any difference. Hopefully you'll see the blue wifi light flash as it starts to boot.

If that doesn't work I'm a bit stumped but do update as others may be able to contribute.

Newbie_Flo

Member

Registered: 2019-03-19

Posts: 5

Re: Installation only possible when WiFi card is locked in BIOS

I did the BIOS reset, but again the laptop doesn' t start but freezes seconds after power up.
With a single BIOS change in Ithe Security Menue, under I/O security settings, I put the WiFi card to locked and the OS starts again. What the hell...

Maybe it gives someone a clue if I describe where the freeze happens:
After power up and the first lines where you see the hardware starting, it changes to a black screen - so far, so good.
Then I see the following:

Loading Q4OS operating system...
Loading initial RAM disk...

#here the laptop freezes with a blinking cursor if WiFi is not set to "locked" in BIOS
#with the described BIOS seting, it continues with the following:

/dev/sda1: clean, 185814/29114368 files, bla bla bla

Welcome to Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)!
#then starting up as normal

Any idea how this could be caused?