[Announce] Laptop wireless control

[Michael E Brown]

    I have just released libsmbios 0.13.4. This new version contains a new utility called "dellWirelessCtl". This utility can be used on recent Dell laptops to enable/disable Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and Cellular WAN at runtime, as well as set the boot-time settings for same. Some laptops have a physical switch that can control the wireless radios. On these laptops, dellWirelessCtl can be used to configure the switch to control wlan/bluetooth/wwan individually.

    David Zeuthen from Red Hat in the process of integrating support within HAL to call this utility so that NetworkManager et al can automatically turn the wireless lan on/off.

    Libsmbios can be installed from the unofficial Dell yum repo: http://linux.dell.com/repo/software
    Libsmbios is currently available in Fedora Development and will be native in Fedora 7.
    Libsmbios sources can be downloaded from http://linux.dell.com/libsmbios/download/libsmbios/

    Please direct questions regarding this utility to the libsmbios mailing list at libsmbios-devel at lists.us.dell.com.

Thanks,
Michael

Sample output:
========================INFO=================================
[root at duo ~]# dellWirelessCtl -i
Libsmbios version      : 0.13.4
dellWirelessCtl version: 0.3.0
Wireless Info:
        Hardware switch supported
        Hardware switch is On
        WiFi Locator supported
        Wireless Keyboard not supported
        NVRAM Size: 256 bytes
        NVRAM format version: 1

Radio Status for WLAN:
        WLAN supported
        WLAN installed
        WLAN enabled
        Status Code: 0

Radio Status for Bluetooth:
        Bluetooth supported
        Bluetooth installed
        Bluetooth enabled
        Status Code: 0

Radio Status for WWAN:
        WWAN supported
        WWAN not installed
        WWAN enabled
        Status Code: 2

Wireless Switch Configuration
        WLAN switch control on
        Bluetooth switch control on
        WWAN switch control on
        switch config not locked
        WiFi locator enabled
        WiFi Locator config not locked

BIOS Boot-time settings (new interface):
        Wireless_Switch_Cellular_Control_Enable: 1
        Wireless_Switch_Cellular_Control_Disable: 0
        Wireless_Switch_Bluetooth_Control_Enable: 1
        Wireless_Switch_Bluetooth_Control_Disable: 0
        Wireless_Switch_Wireless_LAN_Control_Enable: 1
        Wireless_Switch_Wireless_LAN_Control_Disable: 0
        WiFi_Locator_Enable: 1
        WiFi_Locator_Disable: 0
        Cellular_Radio_Enable: 1
        Cellular_Radio_Disable: 0
        Bluetooth_Devices_Enable: 1
        Bluetooth_Devices_Disable: 0
        Wireless_LAN_Enable: 1
        Wireless_LAN_Disable: 0

BIOS Boot-time settings (old interface):
        Radio_Transmission_Enable: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Radio_Transmission_Disable: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Wireless_Device_Disable: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Wireless_Device_App_Control: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Wireless_Device_App_Or_Hotkey_Control: (NOT SUPPORTED)

===================Turn wireless LAN off=====================
[root at duo ~]# dellWirelessCtl --wlan 0
Wireless Info:
        Hardware switch supported
        Hardware switch is On
        WiFi Locator supported
        Wireless Keyboard not supported
        NVRAM Size: 256 bytes
        NVRAM format version: 1

Radio Status for WLAN:
        WLAN supported
        WLAN installed
        WLAN disabled
        Status Code: 1

Radio Status for Bluetooth:
        Bluetooth supported
        Bluetooth installed
        Bluetooth enabled
        Status Code: 0

Radio Status for WWAN:
        WWAN supported
        WWAN not installed
        WWAN enabled
        Status Code: 2

===================Disable Wireless LAN on BOOT==============
[root at duo ~]# dellWirelessCtl --boot --wlan 0
Wireless Info:
        Hardware switch supported
        Hardware switch is On
        WiFi Locator supported
        Wireless Keyboard not supported
        NVRAM Size: 256 bytes
        NVRAM format version: 1

Radio Status for WLAN:
        WLAN supported
        WLAN installed
        WLAN disabled
        Status Code: 1

Radio Status for Bluetooth:
        Bluetooth supported
        Bluetooth installed
        Bluetooth enabled
        Status Code: 0

Radio Status for WWAN:
        WWAN supported
        WWAN not installed
        WWAN enabled
        Status Code: 2

BIOS Boot-time settings (new interface):
        Wireless_Switch_Cellular_Control_Enable: 1
        Wireless_Switch_Cellular_Control_Disable: 0
        Wireless_Switch_Bluetooth_Control_Enable: 1
        Wireless_Switch_Bluetooth_Control_Disable: 0
        Wireless_Switch_Wireless_LAN_Control_Enable: 1
        Wireless_Switch_Wireless_LAN_Control_Disable: 0
        WiFi_Locator_Enable: 1
        WiFi_Locator_Disable: 0
        Cellular_Radio_Enable: 1
        Cellular_Radio_Disable: 0
        Bluetooth_Devices_Enable: 1
        Bluetooth_Devices_Disable: 0
        Wireless_LAN_Enable: 0
        Wireless_LAN_Disable: 1

BIOS Boot-time settings (old interface):
        Radio_Transmission_Enable: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Radio_Transmission_Disable: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Wireless_Device_Disable: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Wireless_Device_App_Control: (NOT SUPPORTED)
        Wireless_Device_App_Or_Hotkey_Control: (NOT SUPPORTED)