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I've got a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 laptop (model 1143-3BU). Whether running Ubuntu 14.04 or Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon, its wireless hot key Fn-F9 correctly generates the XF86WLAN keysym and reliably toggles the rfkill wlan soft block state. The problem is that the Network Settings GUI shows that Fn-F9 is toggling "Airplane Mode" rather than "Wireless" state. This means that if the GUI has been used to disable "Wireless", the user cannot enable wireless using what she rightly imagines to be the wireless hot key (Fn-F9).

As far as I can tell, Network Manager's idea of wireless state is recorded in /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state as the "WirelessEnabled" parameter. However, nm-applet will display wireless state as "On" only if that parameter is true and "Airplane Mode" is off (which is not always the case). But what is the exact definition of airplane mode and where is that state recorded?

My current hypothesis is that airplane mode is nothing but a trivial state reflecting whether all RF devices are hard or soft blocked. The problem is that this laptop only has one RF device (ie. Wi-Fi). There is no Bluetooth. If I'm correct, then having only one device managed by rfkill means XF86WLAN effectively becomes an airplane mode control instead of the WLAN control it should be.

Under no circumstances does toggling Fn-F9 ever change the "WirelessEnabled" parameter in /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state.

This laptop has no hardware switch for wireless and there is never a hard block reported by rfkill.

Whether or not an Ethernet cable is connected makes no difference to this problem.

How do I fix this so that Fn-F9 (XF86WLAN) actually toggles WLAN state instead of airplane state?

Some additional information:

##### kernel ############################
Linux 3.13.0-24-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:11:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

##### lspci #############################
08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10ec:8176] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:8195]
    Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce

##### lsmod #############################
rtl8192ce              53550  0 
rtl_pci                26690  1 rtl8192ce
rtlwifi                63475  2 rtl_pci,rtl8192ce
rtl8192c_common        53172  1 rtl8192ce
mac80211              626489  3 rtl_pci,rtlwifi,rtl8192ce
cfg80211              484040  2 mac80211,rtlwifi

##### NetworkManager.state ##############
[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=false
WWANEnabled=true
WimaxEnabled=true

##### NetworkManager.conf ###############
[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile,ofono
dns=dnsmasq

[ifupdown]
managed=false
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  • I've discovered that Fn-F9 is toggling airplane mode instead of WLAN state even though it is generating the XF86WLAN keysym, so I changed the title question and simplified/clarified the problem description. I've also verified that it is the same problem for Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
    – froage
    Oct 4, 2014 at 5:44

1 Answer 1

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what I understand that you have to change Fn-F9 from toggling airplane mode to toggling wireless ,, I suggest that

1) Disable Fn-F9 from toggling airplane:

open dconf-editor (install it if not) and search for WLAN (press ctrl + f and type WLAN) then it's up to you to change the binding if you find it

2) Bind Fn-F9 to toggling wireless as in my other answer

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  • Searching in dconf-editor produces no results for "WLAN". Given Fn-F9 already produces the expected/desired XF86WLAN keysym, is it not better to solve the problem or find the bug that causes XF86WLAN to do the wrong thing?
    – froage
    Dec 15, 2014 at 21:22
  • Hmm , If we can't find the bug , what about making Fn-F9 produce keysym other than XF86WLAN !?
    – Ahed Eid
    Dec 16, 2014 at 17:33

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