It's the wireless switch, stupid

A friend of mine asked to see why a HP Mini 5101 netbook with Ubuntu Karmic on it wouldn't connect to a WiFi AP. As far as I could see the best advice was to install bcmwl-kernel-source, which contains a non-GPLed driver and has to be compiled into a non-free kernel module. But I could not get it to see any APs.


Since the release of Ubuntu Lucid is imminent, I suggested trying Lucid Beta2 on it and then installing the official release after April 29. It would provide a netbook remix and LTS install too. (The Karmic install was a vanilla desktop install, not the best use of the small screen.) Installing off a USB memory stick was painless and fast. I connected it up to a wired network and did:

apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

That did all the setup required. But it still wouldn't connect to any APs. Wait a moment, I thought, how do I know if the RF transceiver is turned on or not? I remembered that many notebooks come with a RF kill switch. An examination of the keyboard showed no such function key. Time to do an Internet search. Sure enough, there is a RF kill switch, and it's on the front edge. See the first picture in this photo review. If the RF is on, the LED glows blue.


After flicking the switch on, all the neighbourhood APs were visible in NetworkManager. Duh, that will teach me to at least glance through the manual before installing.


And thank you HP for making a RF kill switch that looks so much like a lid latch. (Sarcasm.)