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I have a problem where Ubuntu (12.04) says there is a wireless network card, but it is disabled by a hardware switch. How do I turn it on?

I checked the BIOS, and the wireless card is enabled there.

Fn + F2 was also no success.

The results of rfkill list:

0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: yes

sudo rfkill unblock wifi did nothing to the Wireless Status.

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    Fn + F2 didn't work, and my computer doesn't have a physical switch on the outside, which is why I asked here.
    – lowerkey
    Apr 29, 2012 at 18:45
  • sometimes this can be solved by booting into windows, enabling your wireless (Fn+F2) before booting into ubuntu. Can you try that?
    – fossfreedom ♦
    Apr 29, 2012 at 19:25
  • Do you by any chance have Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 as your wireless adapter?
    – new_bie
    Apr 29, 2012 at 19:30
  • @saurabhshankar: how do I find that out?
    – lowerkey
    Apr 29, 2012 at 19:40
  • unfortunately, booting into windows isn't an option :(
    – lowerkey
    Apr 29, 2012 at 19:40

11 Answers 11

Reset to default
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I found out by trial and error that the wifi hardware switch on my Dell XPS 17 L702X is not Fn-F2, as implied by the keyboard icon (and works in Windows), but actually Fn-Alt-F2 in Ubuntu. It might work for your Dell too.

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  • great, this answer helped me! It does go for the Dell Vostro 3460 as well... Not only for the antenna switch, but also for the touchpad :)
    – Koen
    Sep 18, 2012 at 20:26
  • Glad I could help! It's strange though, because on my XPS 17, the touchpad switch works as normal (Fn-F3), and as implied by the keyboard icon. I've no idea why the inconsistencies...
    – Sparhawk
    Sep 19, 2012 at 0:37
  • Fn-Alt-F2 ... genius. Thank you.
    – Bill Mote
    Aug 28, 2013 at 22:06
  • Thanks man!!! It saved my day.
    – Kapil Khandelwal
    May 9, 2020 at 10:41
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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).

rfkill showed 0: phy0: Wireless Lan as Hard Blocked.

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    Someone tried to edit my post adding the following info: Yes, this worked! Dell laptop 14z, Ubuntu 11.10. Some background: no h/w wireless switch, no BIOS wireless control. None of the handful of recommended commands worked. Booting into Windows is no longer an option. Only pulling the power worked for me. should have been a comment as the edit was rejected
    – Askme Later
    Jun 5, 2012 at 22:30
  • Following @jJorgeCastro's Solutions worked for me too. Second time.. weird!!
    – Bijay Rungta
    Jul 18, 2012 at 14:06
  • Removing battery + disconnecting and pressing power worked for me too! Now the battery is back and Inspiron 1710 reacts correctly to switching the switch. Ubuntu 12.04.
    – savick01
    Jan 13, 2013 at 0:24
6

Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

sudo rfkill unblock all

It works for me. I have a Sony Vaio VPCEG.

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1
  • If it worked, you didn't have hard blocked. Rfkill cannot unblock hard blocked.
    – Quidam
    Apr 20, 2020 at 6:27
3

This solution worked for me:

sudo modprobe -r dell_laptop

Once I entered that, my physical switch could turn on/off the wireless.

(reference)

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3

dell inspirion...remove and replace battery...then default the bios..but then dont touch the wireless tab or youll have to do it all over again. this worked for me

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  • I'll try this at home... Do I do this in the BIOS settings?
    – lowerkey
    Jul 12, 2012 at 8:30
3

Do a

sudo rmmod dell_laptop

(or your computer company name followed by _ nb)

If this does not throw an error (ERROR: Module dell_wifi does not exist in /proc/modules) press fn+f2 and then do a

sudo modprobe dell_laptop

(or your computer company name followed by _ nb)

And then check if wireless is working.

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2

I had a problem with the Wifi/Bluetooth switch - It didn't recognized it as turned on any more. What I did was went in BIOS and set it to always on (disabled the switch). Maybe you have that option too, even if you said you don't have a switch. (Inspiron 1525)

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2

Run these commands:

sudo rmmod -f dell-laptop
sudo rfkill unblock all
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1
  • rfkill doesn't unblock hard blocked, maybe only the first command worked. Didn't work for me sadly.
    – Quidam
    Apr 20, 2020 at 6:29
1

I had a similar problem some months ago with my Dell 1545.

At Boot press F2 to get into set up and check the Wireless settings.

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0

I use Xubuntu 12.04 on a Dell Inspiron Mini.

I could solve the problem of my wireless being disabled by hardware switch by re-setting the boot options in the boot menu to default settings. After that the hardware switch for the WiFi was turned on again.

(Unfortunately, the proposals with rfkill and rmmod did not work for me. Neither did it help me to remove the battery.)

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0

Maybe you have activated airplane mode. Goto system settings -> network -> disable airplane mode on top right corner.

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