The Disconnected Button

Posted by bradaric on October 29, 2008
Software & Hardware

I love Linux :) My main dev machine runs Ubuntu 8.04 and I had PCLinuxOS 2007 on my laptop (Fujtsu-Siemens Amilo A1655G) until yesterday evening, when I decided to replace it with openSUSE 11.0. Why? Well, I haven’t had a chance to check it out recently and I just wanted to see how the new version works and feels :)

The installation went smoothly and it detected all the hardware. However, when I tried to turn the wireless card on (there’s a button right beside the power button), the HDD light flickered a bit and nothing happened. I checked again and after some consultations on the openSUSE Forum, we concluded that the card was successfully detected and installed, but was “simply” turned off…

Checking the log file (/var/log/messages) revealed that the OS did not know what to do when the wireless button was pressed. My first idea was to try to find the correct key code and just link the button to it, but after some unsuccessful attempts I found something better – a kernel module (fsaa1655g) which allows turning the wireless card on and off from the command line :)

The installation of the module failed the first time i attempted it, but installing kernel sources and updating the kernel to match the source version did the trick and I managed to install the module. That’s when the wireless LED finally agreed to light up for me :)

So, why do I love Linux after all the trouble? It’s an excellent OS, that’s why :)

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5 Comments to The Disconnected Button

repadeh huchych
2010-Feb-21

RT I love OpenSUSE. Es la distro de Linux que mejor ha funcionado en mi laptop. Trabajo to…

gwingsmitr
2010-Feb-21

Oustanding–thankyou for posting these amazing lectures!

josterre cust
2010-Feb-22

I recently installed Open Suse 11.1, but I’m having problems get the nic-card to talk, I.e. I’m having issues connecting to the internet. Anyone outher having similar problems. What do I need to do to get it to work? Thanks

bouresgrai arulew
2010-Feb-23

Ah a young man with taste, we run Suse Linux Entreprise Desktop in our company which is the commercial version of Opensuse. As for the Gnome or KDE interface they are quite different so which one is better is a question of personal tastes I have provided a link to the interface but basically just download both and try them and see which ones u like. THEN u download the DVD that supports both interface. We love the Gnome interface in Suse truly nice, but otherwise we prefer KDE so it's up to you.

Also note that Opensuse is a beautiful full fledged Linux but due restrictive american laws will not play mp3s or read dvds you need to go online and downloads the codecs the win32 packs and the lame encoder to fully support mp3 and dvds. Suse Linux Entreprise which is a paid Linux supports all those with limitations.

If u want a full fledge beautiful Linux that works right of the box and supports mp3s encoding in mp3s full dvd support real player avi files fancy burning capabilities we recommend Mandriva Power Pack cost a reasonable amount of money and works right of the box.

Good luck and enjoy your Linux

RICK

admin
2010-Mar-08

@bouresgrai arulew: Thank you, I certainly am enjoying it :)

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