[Discuss] How to turn off wireless on eeePC with Kubuntu

[John Blomfield]

I downloaded the Aircraft-Manager from this site as a deb package for 
Ubuntu 
http://www.ubuntumini.com/2008/12/aircraft-manager-save-battery-by.html
and installed it on my Debian KDE3.5.10 Dell Mini 10v and it seemed to 
work perfectly.  You may be right that it is Dell specific if it doesn't 
work on Kubuntu.  Are you running Kubuntu 8.04 or some KDE4 version, 
since KDE4 may be the problem?  On the other hand, since it depends on 
accessing not only the wireless card hardware but also the charger 
switching power supply hardware, it may not work on non-Dell hardware.

John


Murray Strome wrote:
> Murray Strome wrote:
>> John Blomfield wrote:
>>> I googled this issue myself and the consensus is that disabling the 
>>> Network Manager or ifconfig down etc. does not turn off the wireless 
>>> transmitter.  My Dell mini 10v has Aircraft Manager under Dell's 
>>> Ubuntu 8.04 to do the job.  I don't think Aircraft Manager is in the 
>>> regular Ubuntu repository, only on the Dell Ubuntu repository.  It 
>>> can be downloaded from the Aircraft Manager web site and installed.  
>>> I am using Debian KDE on my Mini 10 so I plan to try compiling and 
>>> installing Aircraft Manager.  Be warned however that disabling 
>>> wireless transmitter also disables the battery charger on my Dell.  
>>> Brent thinks this is because the charger is a switching power supply 
>>> that also creates high frequency interference.  So disabling the 
>>> charger is also necessary.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>> Drew wrote:
>>>> Murray,
>>>>
>>>> Assuming the wireless drivers are a kernel module, have you tried
>>>> unloading the kernel module?
>>>>
>>>> Also, if you have the iwconfig package, assuming your wifi is eth1,
>>>> try "iwconfig eth1 txpower off". If the wifi kernel module can shut it
>>>> off, that command should do it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --Drew
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 9:17 PM, Murray Strome<wmstrome at shaw.ca> 
>>>> wrote:
>>>>  
>>>>> The WLAN is "unavailable" because I disabled it, but I believe the
>>>>> transmitter is probably still on because the LED for the wireless 
>>>>> is still
>>>>> on. On my other laptop, if I turn off the wireless, the light goes 
>>>>> off.
>>>>> Also, on my other laptop, there is a physical switch to turn off the
>>>>> transmitter. According to the manual, if the light is on, the 
>>>>> wireless
>>>>> hardware is enabled (and I assume it could be transmitting), but 
>>>>> it does not
>>>>> say how to disable it!
>>>>>     
>> Thanks for the suggestions -- none worked! I think the 
>> aircraft-manager must only work with Gnome, and possibly only with 
>> the Dell computers.
>>
>> Anyway, I was able to disable the wireless in the BIOS, so at least I 
>> have a workable solution.
>> Murray
>> _______________________________________________
> Well, I spoke too soon -- when I disabled the WLAN in the BIOS, the 
> light went out, but shortly after I booted Kubuntu 9.04, it came on 
> again!
>
> Murray
>
>
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