Thinkpads Forum

Hey guys,

I have the awesome and indestructible thinkpad x200, running Ubuntu 12.04, and was willing to upgrade its stock wifi-G card to a G/N card (and I bought the intel 4965AGN). However, you can't just plug it in the old one's slot, since there's this annoying error described here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... escription.
One of the "fixes" proposed on this page actually worked: if i plugged my unauthorized card in the spare WWAN slot, it boots fine... Since i still have the old Wifi-G card, I left it in its normal slot, providing me with 2 wifi-cards, which can be handy in some situations, here's the set-up:

SLOT 1 (Regular one) <-- Regular wifi-g Intel wifi-link 5100
SLOT 2 (extra WWAN) <-- New wifi N intel 4965AGN

The "factory" setup, with only the original card, is this one (and it's perfectly working):

SLOT 1 (Regular one) <-- Regular wifi-g Intel wifi-link 5100
SLOT 2 (extra WWAN) <-- Nothing

The problem is, when I boot, and start Ubuntu/Linux, the network-manager deamon says both cards are disabled by a hardware switch... and I checked an double checked, the hardware switch on the left side of my x200 *is* enabled.

I thus tried some different setups to try to find some clues on the problem.
If I boot with this setup:

SLOT 1 (Regular one) <-- Nothing
SLOT 2 (extra WWAN) <-- Regular wifi-g Intel wifi-link 5100

But it produces the same "error": it says my card is "disabled by a hardware switch"...
The strange thing is that in both cases, the cards are listed in the lspsi command output, and appear to be recognized flawlessly by the Linux kernel... it's just this weird error... I checked in the BIOS, and all the hardware device were set as [ENABLED], so it must be something else.

Do any of you have any clue on this? Thanks for any help provided.

Welcome to the forum!
You could use a modified BIOS to bypass the error, + more mods ... but no need to bother when you can buy precisely what you want and what will work in SLOT 1, i.e., a Lenovo-branded Intel 5300, for €10:
http://cgi.ebay.fr/Intel-5300-Wireless- ... 2a1d5c124e

Good luck!

Thanks!

The thing is: I'm a bit "scared" of the BIOS mod trick (I don't wanna brick this wonderful machine), and this problem doesn't appear to be entirely hardware-related.
I did some more research though, and ended testing some stuff with the "rfkill" tool... which was not a sucess.
It did say

2: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

So it appears it's blocked by the BIOS, even though it booted without complaining.
The weird thing is that the card isn't completely "blocked", since Linux recognizes it and loaded the proper driver.

I hesitated before bying the 5300, but it was more expensive than the other one I got... I guess I should have thought this through.

hadware wrote:... I hesitated before bying the 5300, but it was more expensive than the other one I got...

Okay, I understand ... but that was then, an now is now. Put this matter in the proper perspective -- a Lenovo-branded Intel 5300 costs €10 in Paris ... in any café in Paris, that's two cups of coffee! How much less expensive do you want this card to be?!

I agree with you that it is foolish to use a modified BIOS, etc., when one has superior options. In this case, nothing will be as convenient and trouble-free for you as installing the card the machine already understands, into the slot in which the machine wants that card to be. Whatever you spent already on the other card is immaterial now. What matters now is that you can solve your problem perfectly for the incremental cost of two cups of coffee ...

I'm using modified bios on all my machines with no problems.
Currently running 6300 Advanced on my X200 which is the best on the market now i think.