Wireless led does not work - rtl8187 & asus_laptop module

[tpprynn]

len-laptop len # dmesg | grep rtl8187
[ 18.072300] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0x04
[ 18.072347] Registered led device: rtl8187-phy0::radio
[ 18.072370] Registered led device: rtl8187-phy0::tx
[ 18.072391] Registered led device: rtl8187-phy0::rx
[ 18.073416] rtl8187: wireless switch is on

...if it's relevant. I'm using Sabayon 7 Gnome 3.2 64 bit.

My wireless itself is working but the led does not. This Toshiba laptop (Intel 965, 1.6ghz dual core, 3gb ram) has both a physical switch on the front and an Fn & F8 combination to turn wireless on and off. Fn and F8 works to turn the wireless on and off but there is no led.

In Ubuntu and Fedora between 2008 and now I had the opposite issue, that the led could not be turned off...

Someone has remarked about module parameters but I would not know where to look for that. I have seen unreadable .ko files but nothing that can be tweaked.

I know from 'experiments' (with Debian 6) that if all the rtl8187 stuff is removed from the kernel so that wireless does not work, the light still does.

I have googled this issue for about two years on and off - I would like to stick to Linux on this laptop and it feels like trying to get the light to come on when it should is slightly better than trying to get it to turn off when it should.

I thought this might be about the 3 series kernel but I just tried Sabayon 6 LXDE with the same result.

Thanks for any thoughts.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I don't have your hardware, so can only guess. However, I can tell you that the LED is definitely enabled in the stock SL kernel; notice the kernel config parameters below:

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$ cat /usr/src/linux-3.0.0-sabayon/sabayon/config/sabayon-3.0-r10-amd64.config | grep 8187
CONFIG_RTL8187=m
CONFIG_RTL8187_LEDS=y
CONFIG_R8187SE=m
$

As far as modules are concerned, the only ones I see relating to your wireless hardware is:

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$ locate 8187 | grep ko
/lib64/modules/3.0.0-sabayon/kernel/drivers/staging/rtl8187se/r8187se.ko
/usr/src/linux-3.0.0-sabayon/drivers/staging/rtl8187se/.r8187se.ko.cmd
/usr/src/linux-3.0.0-sabayon/drivers/staging/rtl8187se/r8187se.ko

and I assume you already have the r8187se module loaded to make your wireless work (check with lsmod | grep 8187)?

I can't see any RTL8187-specific packages in Portage:

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$ eix 8187
No matches found.
$

and I can't see any mention of your specific wireless hardware in the linux-firmware package either:

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$ cat /etc/portage/savedconfig/sys-kernel/linux-firmware-20110818 | grep -i rtl
LICENCE.rtlwifi_firmware.txt
RTL8192E/data.img
RTL8192E/main.img
RTL8192E/boot.img
rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw
rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw
rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw
rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw
rtl_nic/rtl8168e-3.fw
rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw
rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
rtlwifi/rtl8192sefw.bin
rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin
rtlwifi/rtl8192defw.bin
rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin


However, just to be sure, if it isn't already installed, install the linux-firmware package:

Code: Select all

equo install linux-firmware

Have you tried the commands given in the Gentoo Wiki article on the RTL8187: RTL8187B? You need to be root user to use the rmmod and modprobe commands.

[tpprynn]

This is a very promising and informative start (likewise re: battery).

Linux-firmware is installed, yes. I remember seeing rtl8187SE stuff in Ubuntu and Debian, but though there is no 'b' on the end, in Sabayon 7 there is rtl8187 (no SE) material in /lib/modules/3.0.0-Sabayon/kernel/drivers/net/wireless, the .ko file is there.

So that led line of code is inside the rtl8187 driver is it? Would anything happen differently if I re-compiled the source code you rferred to, or does the Sabayon installation automatically compile exactly that source?

Does seem mysterious then that the led does not come on? I tried Xubuntu 11.10 and Ubuntu 8.04 from a pendrive earlier to compare and with Xubuntu again the light will not turn off, and with this old Ubuntu the light doesn't come on and the wireless doesn't work. Sabayon 7 is the best result so far but it feels I'm so close to full function.

I had previously read the rtl8187 information you linked but there did not seem to be anything to solve the led issue. The wireless works great (though I seldom but do need it) but I've only just noticed that with Sabayon the Fn and F8 way of toggling wireless does not work. The front switch does, without the light working. This may be a seprate keymaps issue as I have also had to assign Windows key and arrows to turn sound up and down - Fn and arrow keys do not work with this, yet it does work with the normal Windows-oriented F6 and F7 for screen brightness...

This is, at this stage, sort of fun...

If you have any idea why the led is enabled yet not working I'd be pleased to know.

Lastly, I bought two other wireless cards on eBay this week, to see if anything worked differently. One is an Atheros. The led did not work with that either, but did with another distro, in the expected still faulty way. The led is not physically broken though - it worked with the Xubuntu pendrive.

Thanks. I'll look into the battery info you gave me now...

[tpprynn]

I wonder if any of this is of any use...

xxxx-laptop xxxx # lsmod | grep -e tosh -e 818
rtl8187 47076 0
mac80211 168122 1 rtl8187
cfg80211 128516 2 rtl8187,mac80211
eeprom_93cx6 1256 1 rtl8187

xxxx-laptop xxxx # lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 Realtek
05:07.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff40]
Kernel driver in use: 8139too

(The 8139 is the wired internet I think.)

Edit: I feel fairly sure that the issue is to do with toshiba_acpi now. I can only find that in the fs as a .ko file so it's not something I can meddle with. A way round this? Without erasing my now elaborate Sabayon installation and putting Ubuntu on, which I'm not going to do, I can't check this in a way that occurred to me. So near, so near, I'm sure...

[tpprynn]

At the end of this mystery... almost.

The relevant module is asus_laptop***. This is either blacklisted or not present or not running in Sabayon. I have just blacklisted it in Ubuntu 11.10 to find the led now does not come on, as was the case in Sabayon. So I'm thinking it's either about altering a parameter related to asus rather than Toshiba, or seeing what is handling acpi now (assuming I'm not being harebrained blacklisting the acpi that was being used?)

This may also explain the lag/ battery issue I was having with Sabayon. A couple of Gnome 3.2 things were annoying me and I've been thwarted by graphics driver glitches but I will be trying out Sabayon 8 with renewed enthusiasm. (Although the open your source, open your mind play on words doesn't really work, something lost in translation there maybe? I am a published writer, trust me.... Not as bad as From Freedom Came Elegance though... I've told them...)

The relevant files seem arranged differently in Sabayon. I can't find that config file Fitscarruldo referred to in Ubuntu yet but I think today will be the day I'm Windows free for life. Yes, it was resting on this minor-ish, OCD matter.

If anyone reading now knows what to do I'm all ears.

Thanks.


***Or asus-laptop - it seems like it doesn't matter if an underscore is used instead of a hyphen as modprobing asus-laptop currently gives a message about asus-laptop. Nice to know that the terminal is a bit flexible.