Cannot activate WiFi on Thinkpad X201

[Martin Cracauer]

The wifi chip in this x201 always says the switch is off, but the
hardwae switch and the BIOS setting are .



iwn0: <Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200> mem 0xf2400000-0xf2401fff irq
16 at device 0.0 on pci2
iwn0: radio is disabled by hardware switch

[...]
iwn0 at pci0:2:0:0:        class=0x028000 card=0x13118086 chip=0x42398086
rev=0x35 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Centrino Advanced-N 6200'
    class      = network
[...]

sysctl:
dev.acpi_ibm.0.wlan: 1 [readonly]
[...]
if_iwn_load="YES"
acpi_video_load="YES"
legal.intel_iwn.license_ack=1
if_wpi_load="YES"
if_iwn_load="YES"
if_iwnfw_load="YES"
wlan_wep_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"
iwn4965fw_load=YES
iwn1000fw_load=YES
iwn5000fw_load=YES
iwn5150fw_load=YES
iwn6000fw_load=YES
iwn6000g2afw_load=YES
iwn6000g2bfw_load=YES
iwn6050fw_load=YES


The hardware lights up the WiFi LED during post but then turns the LED
off when entering BIOS or bootloader. The hardware switch is on and it
makes no difference if I work it. The BIOS setting for WiFi is
on. Using Fn-F5 has no effect either way, however I noticed that the
Fn switch alone will make the console login cycle, as if return had
been pressed.

The thing also refuses to boot from USB on first try after OS reboot
or poweron and will do so after a control-alt-del on the boot error
message.

This is 10-RELEASE 64 bits.

Am I screwed? Is there hope that I can simulate the Fn-F5 sequence
from inside via ACPI? Are these Thinkpads still locking in their wifi
card so that you need a BIOS patch to enable something else?

I also failed to get an Atheros USB stick when I tried, does anybody
have a recommendation for a known-Atheros USB stick?

Martin
-- 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Martin Cracauer <cracauer at cons.org>   http://www.cons.org/cracauer/