Clonezilla broke my WiFi hardware button

[nicholsonsl]

Clonezilla live version: 2.2.0-16

This has occurred on two separate laptops (model HP 6910p).

I had installed centOS on the first laptop and everything was fine, so I did a clonezilla backup. After that, the hardware button to enable wifi would not function. I troubleshot and researched that for hours, with no luck.

I reloaded windows, to make sure that it was not an operating system issue. Same thing, the button does not work anymore.

I thought that maybe it was just a hardware failure, so I started using the other laptop. It was working perfectly with XP, so I figured I would load my backup of centOS using clonezilla.

Of course, now the button is broken on the second laptop. Regardless of the operating system this button will not work anymore.

Please help me, I have two useless laptops now!

[nicholsonsl]

I managed to get rid of this issue by removing the CMOS battery for 20 minutes. No clue what caused it. I did not modify anything in bios. Oh well, it's fix.

[nicholsonsl]

I booted with my Clonezilla live USB again and saw the wifi light go off at a certain point never to come on again.

This issue is undoubtedly caused by the Clonezilla startup.

Not looking a for a resolution, just passing on what I've found.

[Kristian Troelsen]

Wow, that is concerning. Thanks for telling everyone. Would love to hear feedback from the devs.

[Steven Shiau]

Thanks for the bug report. I guess this issue is trigger by Linux kernel drivers loading when some firmware is buggy. Therefore if you can, please:

1. Upgrade the firmware of your BIOS.
2. Use different versions of Clonezilla live, which come with different versions of Linux kernel, e.g. Clonezilla live 20131112-trusty. It comes with Linux kernel 3.12.
   If you test that, please let us know the results.
   Thanks.

Steven.

[szfong]

This is not a bug, but a feature of the wireless adapter standard. It can be controlled using a modified "rfkill" in Linux. You SHOULD NOT need to remove the CMOS battery. Go into BIOS setup and reset it to default values, save then reboot.

For miniPCI wireless cards, Pin # 13 controls the "silent RF" mode

For miniPCI express wireless cards, Pin # 20 controls the "silent RF" mode

Just cover the pine with tape or WHATEVER... and the wireless switch will ALWAYS be turned on.

Couldn't you simply go to the HP website and download the "HP Wireless Assistant for windows" software to control this behavior?

Or, hold down the Fn key while hitting the wireless hardware switch works on some laptops.

Or, Fn+F2 works on others.

Hope this helps...

[nicholsonsl]

Thanks for the info. Resetting bios to default does indeed fix the issue once it has occurred.

I cannot use "HP Wireless Assistant for windows" because I am running centOS.

It would be nice to be able to make backups without have to reset the bios, so I will try your wireless card fix.

[Steven Shiau]

@szfong,
Thanks for clarifying that.

Steven.

[szfong]

@nicholsonsl

After more thought, I would NOT recommend permanently turning ON the wireless adapter. The wireless switch on/off mode is EXTREMELY important for the battery life of laptops, tablets and smartphones. By turning OFF Wi-Fi when not in use, it can extend the battery by an additional 2 or more hours.

Please look at the following link at the "rfkill" tool documentation from the Linux kernel website and also do some Googling for your particular laptops :-)

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/rfkill