[Q] Nook Wifi Grayed Out

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mikegonz

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2011
66
48
San Antonio, TX
I am fixing up a Nook Color for a good friend who is having some problems with his Wifi. He currently has CM 11 installed, and has a proper 6.0.4.8 CMW installed (for the most recent version). Wifi is grayed out, and the switch constantly sits in the "off state" and can't be changed, while the main screen reads "Turning Wifi on". He also has a bootable CMW 3.2.1.0 SD, which I have used to install the partition 2 fix, which ran without any errors. Also ran the partition repair and formats for the other partitions to be safe, but no dice.

Within terminal emulator, I can read the MAC address as root under /rom/dev/MACAddress, but not as a standard user. Other than that, it is inaccessible. A mac address is there for sure, but it seems that I cannot gain permissions over the directory. Does anyone know what they should read? the /rom directory is 770 with system system permissions.

I've tried multiple CM roms, including CM 7, 9, 10, and 11, and none seem to fix.
 
Last edited:

hwong96

Senior Member
Oct 3, 2011
759
251
Chicago
I am fixing up a Nook Color for a good friend who is having some problems with his Wifi. He currently has CM 11 installed, and has a proper 6.0.4.8 CMW installed (for the most recent version). Wifi is grayed out. He also has a bootable CMW 3.2.1.0 SD, which I have used to install the partition 2 fix, which ran without any errors. Also ran the partition repair and formats for the other partitions to be safe, but no dice.

Within terminal emulator, I can read the MAC address as root under /rom/dev/MACAddress, but not as a standard user. Other than that, it is inaccessible. A mac address is there for sure, but it seems that I cannot gain permissions over the directory. Does anyone know what they should read? the /rom directory is 770 with system system permissions.

I've tried multiple CM roms, including CM 7, 9, 10, and 11, and none seem to fix.

Look in dmesg for tags WL12xx and WLAN0. Is firmware booted? Greyed out wifi means no authentication/association between WLAN0 and router/AP.
 

mikegonz

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2011
66
48
San Antonio, TX
Sorry, by "grayed out" I mean that the switch in Settings is grayed out and is immovable. The main screen sits stuck in "Turning on Wifi" at all times, even on a fresh new install of a new ROM.
 
Last edited:

hwong96

Senior Member
Oct 3, 2011
759
251
Chicago
Sorry, by "grayed out" I mean that the switch in Settings is grayed out and is immovable. The main screen sits stuck in "Turning on Wifi" at all times, even on a fresh new install of a new ROM.

Go into terminal as root and type dmesg. Look for tags WL12XX and WLAN0. See if wifi firmware loaded/booted. Also look to see if WLAN0 authenticated/associated.
 

mikegonz

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2011
66
48
San Antonio, TX
Go into terminal as root and type dmesg. Look for tags WL12XX and WLAN0. See if wifi firmware loaded/booted. Also look to see if WLAN0 authenticated/associated.

There is one case that simply says wl127x_vio_leakage_fix and thats it. Bluetooth shows as starting, and I can actually toggle. But it looks like theres no instance of WLAN0 or WL12XX starting. Is there a way to fix?
 

hwong96

Senior Member
Oct 3, 2011
759
251
Chicago
There is one case that simply says wl127x_vio_leakage_fix and thats it. Bluetooth shows as starting, and I can actually toggle. But it looks like theres no instance of WLAN0 or WL12XX starting. Is there a way to fix?

As you can see from the screen pic of TI's Wl1271 spec, wifi is connected via SDIO. Bluetooth is connected via UART. If the SDIO connection is borked you will not get wifi connectivity. Do you have a nandroid backup from when wifi was working? If so, try installing the nandroid backup to verify wifi connectivity.

Also attached are screen pics of the permissions for /devconf and MACAddress.
 

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mikegonz

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2011
66
48
San Antonio, TX
As you can see from the screen pic of TI's Wl1271 spec, wifi is connected via SDIO. Bluetooth is connected via UART. If the SDIO connection is borked you will not get wifi connectivity. Do you have a nandroid backup from when wifi was working? If so, try installing the nandroid backup to verify wifi connectivity.

Also attached are screen pics of the permissions for /devconf and MACAddress.

Thanks. I'll check with my friend to check if he has a nandroid of when wifi was working. I know for sure he mentioned it was at one point. Will report back soon.
 

mikegonz

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2011
66
48
San Antonio, TX
Yeah it doesn't look like he has the nandroid backup of a working copy. Is it possible to restore the rom fully to its original state? should I just extract the factry.zip and try to install that via cwm? I can see in system/lib/modules that the wl12xx and wlan0 modules are there on the current rom.
 

hwong96

Senior Member
Oct 3, 2011
759
251
Chicago
Yeah it doesn't look like he has the nandroid backup of a working copy. Is it possible to restore the rom fully to its original state? should I just extract the factry.zip and try to install that via cwm? I can see in system/lib/modules that the wl12xx and wlan0 modules are there on the current rom.
If you want to use CWM to flash the stock B&N ROM go to LeapinLar's tips item A15. Good luck.