Disable wireless on startup

Question

I use Ubuntu 10.04 and I see, that every time when I start it enables Wireless Connectivity.
I know, that there is a topic about it on Ubuntu forums, but I think I will get old before I get an answer there (if there is one).

I would like to disable it by default, but to have possibility to enable or disable it later.

I want to know how to disable the wireless adapter. Something like Fn + ... in Windows, but in windows it remembers the last state. In Ubuntu the wireless adapter is always enabled at startup.

When I press Fn+F2 it disables those diodes and Wireless + Bluetooth.

Solution 1

There are so many ways to disable the card. The simplest I would say would be to put:

sudo ifdown wlan0 

in your /etc/rc.local above the line exit 0. This should disable the wireless card (replace wlan0 with your wireless interface card)

If you want to enable/disable on a keyboard press, this thread on Ubuntu Forums explains how to link a keyboard event to a script. If you want it to toggle when you push keys you will have to add some logic to the script. Though the simplest way might be to have one key to enable and another to disable.

down script

    #!/bin/bash
    IFACE=wlan0
    ifconfig ${IFACE} down

and up script

    #!/bin/bash
    IFACE=wlan0
    ifconfig ${IFACE} up

Solution 2

Create session on startup application such as:

Settings >> Preference >> Startup Application

Add then fill command :

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set string:org.freedesktop.NetworkManager string:WirelessEnabled variant:boolean:false

false means off but it can be to enable by fn+F2 or something else.

Solution 3

You can stop it connecting to specific connections automatically quite easily.

1. Right click the Network Manager notification applet
2. Click Edit Connections...
3. Under the Wireless tab, click edit on the connection(s) you want to disable by default and click edit.
4. Uncheck Connect automatically
5. Click apply, close the window, rinse and repeat.

When you want to connect, just left click the applet and select an access point.

Note: This doesn't power off the wifi card and it'll still be searching for wireless access points. This might not be what you're looking for. But if it is, great!

Note 2: If your connection drops, it won't automatically reconnect.

Solution 4

Wireless can be enabled or disabled using rfkill tool. Here is solution based on it, that will allow to save state and restore it at system startup.

Step 00: creation of file to store wifi state

cd /usr/local/etc
sudo touch .wifistate
sudo chmod 666 .wifistate

Step 01: script

    #!/bin/bash
    IFACE="wlan1"
    STATE_FILE="/usr/local/etc/.wifistate"

    STATE="$(iwconfig $IFACE | grep Tx | cut -d '=' -f2 | grep off)"
    if [ "$STATE" ]
    then
       rfkill unblock wifi &&
       echo 1 > "$STATE_FILE" &&
       echo "Wireless enabled"
    else
       rfkill block wifi &&
       echo 0 > "$STATE_FILE" &&
       echo "Wireless disabled"
    fi
    exit 0;

Step 10: making script executable

chmod +x <script name>

Step 11: modifying Ubuntu startup script

open /etc/rc.local in any text editor (must be edited as root) and add following code
before exit 0; line:

    FILE="/usr/local/etc/.wifistate"
    if [ -r "$FILE" ]
    then
       if [ $(cat $FILE) -eq 0 ]
       then
          rfkill block wifi
       fi
    else
       rfkill block wifi
    fi

Done, now script from step 01 may be linked to keyboard event. After first use it will write 0 or 1 in .wifistate file, and on system startup rc.local script will take attempt to read this value and, if it is 0, disable wifi.
If .wifistate file does not exist, by default wifi will be disabled at startup.

Solution 5

If your FN+F2 do not work in Ubuntu (it should, mine does in an Asus EeePC netbook), then i really reccomend you using Jupiter. Its a sweet, well polished notification area applet.

With it, you can enable and disable Bluetooth and WiFi separately, as well as other nice controls for notebooks and netbooks. It remembers the state after reboot and even remember the state per power source (meaning it can always turn WiFi ON when you plug in power, and automatically turn it OFF when you are on battery). And you can bind all actions to keystrokes.

A nice review, and some screenshots: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/06/jupiter-take-advantage-of-asus-super.html

Official project page: http://www.jupiterapplet.org/

PPA (for automatic updates in APT/Synaptic/Software Center: https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/jupiter

Wiki (great thecnical documentation): http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/jupiter/index.php?title=Main_Page

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Comments

[Cedric]

People searching an alternative answer could try askubuntu.com/questions/1039506/… (place sudo rfkill block wifi in your /etc/rc.local)

[Cedric]

Also, if there is no file /etc/rc.local , create it, add #!/bin/bash as a first line, then rkfill block wifi , make it executable (sudo chmod 755 /etc/rc.local)

[Eugene]

Nope. That's not it. I'm looking how to disable Wireless adapter. Something like Fn + ... in Windows, but in windows it remembers the last state. In Ubuntu wireless adapter is always enabled at startup.

[Jorge Castro]

@Eugene: Add that information to your original question please!

[Eugene]

Strange. If it will disable my wifi antenna, then logicaly it will not find any wireless networks and it will not try connect. At least this is how I see it logicaly, but I could be wrong.

[Eugene]

Also, now when I tried it I can say, that this was not the correct solution and I'm adding a picture to question. Maybe, that will help.

[Eugene]

Do I understand correctly, that placing this sudo ifdown wlan0 in rc.local will not affect the system anyhow even after reboot? Do I need to call this script somehow?

[Eugene]

Would you care to elaborate on what will those operations do?

[Eugene]

By the way it didn't disable those diodes, so I guess it didn't help.

[Eugene]

How does it remember wireless network state? I can't even disable it from there. Do you need a screenshot of what I see from there? Maybe some specific tab?

[uuu777]

@Eugene, what is your wifi driver and exact laptop model? I suspect that you need a driver specific solution, if you want that the led on your laptop is turned off.

[Eugene]

@ithkuil You know what. I don't know what is my wifi driver actually, but I have Asus F3T laptop.

[keyboardsurfer]

This adds the wpa-ifupdown script to the corresponding runlevels. Maybe you have to add even more runlevels. S012345 should add it to all runlevels except the reboot level (6)

[uuu777]

@Eugene, please attach the output of the lspci command ? Probably it's an Atheros 5006EG WLAN card. This guy here personal.inet.fi/koti/vjankala/sf/asus.html says that Fn-F2 works on your laptop with festy. Does it work for you? if yes, please invoke "iwconfig" while the wifi is active, deactivate the wifi with Fn-F2, and then execute iwconfig again (pasting the output here).

[Eugene]

@ithkuil Here is output of lspci command eugenes.pastebin.com/YCydCyhM. Here is output of ifconfig command after I disabled the Wireless network with Fn+F2 eugenes.pastebin.com/7PxF1ked and here is before I disabled eugenes.pastebin.com/acKP2rTf.

[uuu777]

@Eugene, not ifconfig but iwconfig, just to see which parameters are changed by the Fn-F2, so that we can find a command to reproduce it programmatically at startup.

[Eugene]

@ithkuil Sorry for such long delay. I was ill, but now I'm back in action. So here is output of iwconfig command before Fn+F2 eugenes.pastebin.com/4YBJsfAh. And here is output after Fn+F2 eugenes.pastebin.com/6JrytwEY.

[uuu777]

Great, it seems that the switch does indeed turn off the antenna power as controlled by the driver and the iwconfig command.

[uuu777]

So @Eugene (I'm glad you are well), next question: if you execute <code>sudo iwconfig wlan0 txpower off</code> when your wifi 'led' is on, does it turn it off ?

[Eugene]

No. I tried already your main suggestion and it didn't help. Yes Tx-Power was set to off as if I pressed Fn+F2, but 'led' was still on. Actually both. WiFi and Bluetooth as you can see on the picture in main post.

[uuu777]

Ah, and what happens if you press Fn+F2 after turning the tx-power off by command? Does it turn tx-power on again (and perhaps switches the led off?)

[Thomas Ward]

That script is called immediately at the end of the boot script. It will effectively turn off the wifi card once the system has finished booting. The only thing that will happen is that the wifi card gets turned off.