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85860
September 15th, 2014 01:00
M4800, Ubuntu 14.04 - WiFi switch not working
Hi!
I recently received a new DELL Precision M4800 and am running Ubuntu on it.
While everything seems to be running fine (except for occasional graphics issues when docking/undocking), the WiFi hardware switch does not work for turning off wifi. It turns off Blutetooth, but wireless keeps running.
While not a showstopping problem, it is seriously annoying. Especially when I want to make sure I'm using a cable-based LAN connection for certain tasks. Hunting around the net, I found several instances of people having the same problem. Is there any information about this issue? Or, even better, a known way to fix this?
Since Dell supports Ubuntu 12.04 on this machine, there must be some way to get this running, right?
Best regards,
Christian
ctonhaeu
5 Posts
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September 15th, 2014 01:00
Additional note: On the M4600 that I used before, the switch is working perfectly fine under Ubuntu 14.04.
On the M4800 it does not.
Voltara
2 Posts
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September 23rd, 2014 11:00
I'm in the same situation as you - upgraded from a M4600 to M4800 (with the Ultimate-N 6300), and found the RF kill switch does not work properly on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
I tested several versions of the Linux kernel, and found that the switch works as of kernel 3.14. (Ubuntu 14.04 runs kernel 3.13.)
It looks like our options are:
1) Run a newer, unsupported kernel package
2) Sit tight for another month and wait for Ubuntu 14.10, which will ship with kernel 3.16 or later
3) Report the issue to Ubuntu and ask that the fix be backported to the LTS release
ctonhaeu
5 Posts
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October 7th, 2014 01:00
I would never have expected to get a reply in this forum.
Thank you for that information, you really helped me out! :)
I'll just sit and wait for 14.10 and a newer Kernel. Well, maybe if I'm extremely bored at work I might try to switch to another kernel package before, but I'd rather wait.
Another thing: Do you happen to use a display connected via DisplayPort? I have a Dell U3014 connected via DP to the M4800 and if the display is connected when the X-Server is starting up, X will crash - badly.
If I wait until X has loaded and then connect the display, everything's fine.
Seems like the bug is in the proprietary NVIDIA drivers somewhere, because it does not happen when I switch to Nouveau. However, Nouveau's far too slow on the K1100M - moving windows around on the desktop is jerky, 3D is abysmal. Ah, well, another round in the waiting game I guess... ;)
Anyway, thanks again for your reply! :)
Voltara
2 Posts
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October 7th, 2014 08:00
No problem... I just happened to have exactly the same problem, and found your post when searching for fixes.
I have not tried connecting a display yet, with DisplayPort or any other kind of connector. A few more things I'd try, to try and rule out various possibilities:
- Disable "Optimus" in the BIOS video settings. In case you're not familiar, NVIDIA's Optimus technology is a power-saving feature where you're actually running 2 graphics chipsets: Intel integrated, and NVIDIA discrete (which is only powered on when you're running applications that need it.) By disabling Optimus in BIOS, you run NVIDIA only. This helps to rule out issues caused by the Intel chipset, and by Optimus.
- Enable "Optimus" in BIOS. Maybe you're already running NVIDIA-only? Enabling the Intel graphics might help. Note: To get Optimus working properly in 14.04, I had to add the line ' BusID "PCI:01:00:0" ' to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
If you think it's still the NVIDIA proprietary drivers, there are several versions available through the official apt repositories (nvidia-304, nvidia-310, nvidia-319, nvidia-331) so one of those might work for you. I'm running version 331.
ctonhaeu
5 Posts
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October 8th, 2014 02:00
I have already disabled Optimus in the BIOS since it made the desktop behave in strange ways when it comes to maximizing windows. It used to pull the windows across the external display plus half of the notebook display for some reason... This behavior was so annoying that I turned off Optimus. However, I had two external displays connect via DVI at that time, so I might try that out.
I did not, however, have to add the BusID line to xorg.conf.nvidia... o0
I already have the newest NVIDIA drivers installed (nvidia-331), might try out the older ones. But I think the only thing that'll help here is to wait for new drivers... ^^
ctonhaeu
5 Posts
0
October 8th, 2014 03:00
OK, quick update since I had a bit of time just now to fiddle around with the system.
I got everything working the way I want it now:
- Kernel 3.14.14 fixes the wifi switch.
- Nvidia-340 driver fixes the problems with external display. However, another fix is needed to get it working properly with compiz.
I did the following:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mamarley/nvidia
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-340
--> Reboot. I now had flickering in Firefox, Menues, File manager, ...
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:townsend/compiz-nvidia-refresh-test
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
--> Reboot. Flickering is fixed.
Optimus is still disabled on my machine. Optimus+Linux+Multiple Displays just doesn't work right.