Wireless is disabled by hardware switch

Question

Network manager shows the message "wireless is disabled by hardware switch" while three is no switch on the laptop to disable wireless.

below is the lshw output which might help to get to the solution

  $ sudo lshw -C network
  ...
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Centrino Advanced-N 6200
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0a:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 35
       serial: 58:94:6b:14:25:c8
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlagn driverversion=2.6.38-8-generic firmware=9.221.4.1 build 25532 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
       resources: irq:41 memory:ead00000-ead01fff

Solution 1

That model does have a wireless on/off switch just under the PC card slot, but I'm sure you know that already.

Solution 2

On my Lenovo V570, I had to first run sudo rfkill unblock all and then blacklist a buggy module.

After the sudo rfkill unblock all, run sudo rfkill list to see what is still blocking wireless.

For example,

3: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

Find that corresponding module and remove it and blacklist it,

Example:

sudo rmmod acer_wmi

and add to a blacklist under /etc/modprobe.d/[filename].conf.

(Relevant bug report)

Solution 3

May be there is a Fn + something that works as a hardware switch.

Solution 4

Try shutting down(if not already off), disconnecting the power, remove battery(if it is a laptop), press power a few times to release stored energy, reinsert battery(if it is a laptop), reconnect AC power. Turn on computer. Worked for me. After trying multiple fixes I found on the internet I remembered reading this somewhere. My hardware was blocked via a hardware switch(fn+f8) which doesn't work in ubuntu(works with windows, but uninstalled windows). rfkill showed 0: phy0: Wireless Lan as Hard Blocked.

Solution 5

Got the same problem spent lot of time trying different solutions (hard/soft) then just reset bios to factory default and it worked!!

as always if a solution exists has to be simple.....

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Comments

[Tzury Bar Yochay]

it is panasonic toughbook cf-19 I did all fn+X combinations. nothing worked. also tried rfkiil unblock but with no results

[Tzury Bar Yochay]

I know now, I had to unlock the cover to find this. Thanks!

[zidarsk8]

Find that corresponding module and remove it and blacklist it. How do I do that?

[nicorellius]

Seriously great answer. I tried everything else to no avail. Surprised this had no upvotes.