why rfkill not list my wifi device

lsg

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Jan 9, 2023, 11:00:05 PM1/9/23

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according to web page by expert, rfkill without options shall list
wireless device, but it shows nothing though my wifi adapter is active
in buster

Charles Curley

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Jan 9, 2023, 11:30:06 PM1/9/23

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What hardware? A suitable lspci list might help.

Mine shows:

root@jhegaala:~# rfkill
ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD
0 bluetooth tpacpi_bluetooth_sw blocked unblocked
3 wlan phy2 unblocked unblocked
root@jhegaala:~#

Then if I use the physical switch to turn off any transmitters, I see:

root@jhegaala:~# rfkill
ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD
0 bluetooth tpacpi_bluetooth_sw blocked blocked
3 wlan phy2 blocked blocked
root@jhegaala:~#

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

lsg

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Jan 10, 2023, 12:00:05 AM1/10/23

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On 1/10/23 12:25, Charles Curley wrote:
> What hardware? A suitable lspci list might help.
> Mine shows:
>
> root@jhegaala:~# rfkill
> ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD
> 0 bluetooth tpacpi_bluetooth_sw blocked unblocked
> 3 wlan phy2 unblocked unblocked
> root@jhegaala:~#
>
> Then if I use the physical switch to turn off any transmitters, I see:
>
> root@jhegaala:~# rfkill
> ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD
> 0 bluetooth tpacpi_bluetooth_sw blocked blocked
> 3 wlan phy2 blocked blocked
> root@jhegaala:~#
>
>

Thank Charles! it's usb wifi adapter, lsusb shows

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS
802.11n Wireless Network Adapter

rfkill shows nothing

Leandro Noferini

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Jan 10, 2023, 2:10:06 AM1/10/23

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I think for this adapter you need to use the dkms kernel modules: <https://packages.debian.org/buster/dkms>

–
Ciao
leandro

Alexander V. Makartsev

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Jan 10, 2023, 2:30:05 AM1/10/23

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On 10.01.2023 09:54, lsg wrote:

Thank Charles! it's usb wifi adapter, lsusb shows

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter

rfkill shows nothing

For this adapter, according to Wireless Wiki [1], you should use universal driver "rtl8xxxu". See if it was loaded:
    $ sudo lsusb -t

Check out the logs for relevant messages:
    $ sudo grep -iE "rtl|firmware" /var/log/syslog

This should give you a hint about a firmware file needed for this adapter.
Probably it is a good idea in general to install firmware package for Realtek-based devices from "non-free" section of Debian repos:
    $ sudo apt install firmware-realtek

[1] https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/rtl819x

--
With kindest regards, Alexander. ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org ⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀

lsg

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Jan 10, 2023, 2:30:05 AM1/10/23

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On 1/10/23 14:51, Leandro Noferini wrote:
>
> I think for this adapter you need to use the dkms kernel modules: <https://packages.debian.org/buster/dkms>
>
> –
> Ciao
> leandro

Thank Leandro! dkms has been installed

root@debian:~# apt install dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
dkms is already the newest version (2.6.1-4).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 196 not upgraded.

lsg

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Jan 10, 2023, 2:40:06 AM1/10/23

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On 1/10/23 15:26, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:
> For this adapter, according to Wireless Wiki [1], you should use
> universal driver "rtl8xxxu". See if it was loaded:
>     $ sudo lsusb -t
>
> Check out the logs for relevant messages:
>     $ sudo grep -iE "rtl|firmware" /var/log/syslog
>
> This should give you a hint about a firmware file needed for this adapter.
> Probably it is a good idea in general to install firmware package for
> Realtek-based devices from "non-free" section of Debian repos:
>     $ sudo apt install firmware-realtek
>
>
> [1] https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/rtl819x
> --
> With kindest regards, Alexander.
>
>

Thank Alexander!

actually my usb wifi adapter works well in buster but rfkill doesn't

i want to get rfkill to work

Leandro Noferini

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Jan 10, 2023, 4:30:05 AM1/10/23

to

lsg <loushan...@sina.com> writes:

> On 1/10/23 14:51, Leandro Noferini wrote:
>>
>> I think for this adapter you need to use the dkms kernel modules: <https://packages.debian.org/buster/dkms>
>>
>> –
>> Ciao
>> leandro
>
> Thank Leandro! dkms has been installed

Now you need to compile the relative module for your adapter.

–
Ciao
leandro

Leandro Noferini

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Jan 10, 2023, 4:40:05 AM1/10/23

to

Leandro Noferini <lnof...@cybervalley.org> writes:

> Now you need to compile the relative module for your adapter.

Sarry, this part of my message remained in my keyboard:

I found this

<https://github.com/quickreflex/rtl8188eus>

–
Ciao
leandro

Alexander V. Makartsev

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Jan 10, 2023, 5:20:05 AM1/10/23

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On 10.01.2023 12:33, lsg wrote:

On 1/10/23 15:26, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:

For this adapter, according to Wireless Wiki [1], you should use universal driver "rtl8xxxu". See if it was loaded:
$ sudo lsusb -t

...

Thank Alexander!

actually my usb wifi adapter works well in buster but rfkill doesn't

i want to get rfkill to work

In that case check if "rfkill" kernel module is actually loaded, because it is necessary for rfkill utility to function:
$ lsmod | grep -iE "rfkill"

Use "modprobe" utulity to load it:
$ sudo modprobe rfkill

It is possible that driver module (your current version) for this adapter simply doesn't support "rfkill" subsystem.

--
With kindest regards, Alexander.

lsg

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Jan 10, 2023, 6:40:05 AM1/10/23

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On 1/10/23 18:10, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:

> In that case check if "rfkill" kernel module is actually loaded,
> because it is necessary for rfkill utility to function:
> $ lsmod | grep -iE "rfkill"
>
> Use "modprobe" utulity to load it:
> $ sudo modprobe rfkill
>
> It is possible that driver module (your current version) for this
> adapter simply doesn't support "rfkill" subsystem.
>
> --
> With kindest regards, Alexander.
>
>

Thank Alexander! i run lsmod | grep -iE "rfkill", it says

rfkill 20480 2 cfg80211

both "modprobe rfkill" and rfkill return nothing

lsg

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Jan 10, 2023, 6:50:04 AM1/10/23

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actually i want to use rfkill to block or unblock device

is it possible to do it with wireless-tools?

Charles Curley

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Jan 10, 2023, 8:20:06 AM1/10/23

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On Tue, 10 Jan 2023 19:31:40 +0800
lsg <loushan...@sina.com> wrote:

> Thank Alexander! i run lsmod | grep -iE "rfkill", it says
>
> rfkill 20480 2 cfg80211
>
> both "modprobe rfkill" and rfkill return nothing

Interesting. Running "modprobe rfkill" wouldn't return anything because
the module is already installed. However, I get a slightly different
result from the lsmod command:

root@jhegaala:~# lsmod | grep rfkill
rfkill 32768 7 bluetooth,thinkpad_acpi,cfg80211
root@jhegaala:~#

The rfkill module is used by three other modules in my case. The first
two are related to bluetooth. The third, which your listing also shows,
controls network interfaces, including wifi. So I conjecture that you
have all the right modules installed.

However, in my reading I found out that not all wifi drivers support
rfkill. That may be your problem.

lsg

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Jan 13, 2023, 4:50:06 AM1/13/23

to

On 1/10/23 21:17, Charles Curley wrote:
> Interesting. Running "modprobe rfkill" wouldn't return anything because
> the module is already installed. However, I get a slightly different
> result from the lsmod command:
>
> root@jhegaala:~# lsmod | grep rfkill
> rfkill 32768 7 bluetooth,thinkpad_acpi,cfg80211
> root@jhegaala:~#
>
> The rfkill module is used by three other modules in my case. The first
> two are related to bluetooth. The third, which your listing also shows,
> controls network interfaces, including wifi. So I conjecture that you
> have all the right modules installed.
>
> However, in my reading I found out that not all wifi drivers support
> rfkill. That may be your problem.
>
>

Thank Charles ! you are right. i have 2 usb wifi adapters now, one can
be listed by rfkill, the other can't