Reposting as the previous question got super long with the end result being told to update the question.
Bought a new laptop. Had Windows on it. Deleted windows, now Ubuntu is the only OS. During install, detected my wi-fi just fine, updates were installed, etc.
Rebooted, "network disabled by hardware switch". Googled the problem, found a whole bunch of potential fixes, none of which has helped. I'll list them at the bottom, along with outputs from various solutions.
Once the laptop is connected to Ethernet or USB tethered to my phone for 20-30 minutes, wi-fi magically starts working again.... until it suspends or reboots, then its "disabled by hardware switch" again.
There is not an actual hardware button, but a Fn+F3 function that SHOULD enable/disable it. This appears to do nothing at all, however. All other Fn keys work fine (The trackpad also appears to not function, but I figure that is unrelated and I'll tackle fixing it at a later date).
I've checked the BIOS, and there are no options at all related to networking. I reset all BIOS settings to default anyway, with no change.
Output results:
angus@angus-Aspire-ES1-521:~$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: Yes
1: acer-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
angus@angus-Aspire-ES1-521:~$ lspci -knn | grep Net -A2
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc Device [11ad:0642]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
angus@angus-Aspire-ES1-521:~$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill