37

I think I may have found the cause of my problems with connecting to wifi in Ubuntu 11.10.

I type this in Terminal:

$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no
$ rfkill unblock all
$ 

If I am correct I must unblock all of those "yes", right? But nothing happens when I try to unblock. Am I typing the wrong command?


Typing sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi seem to have added another problem, now I can't even try to click on the "Enable wireless"-button as it has been grayed out and 1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN does not show anymore in the rfkill list. Does anyone have any idea how to fix that?

EDIT: I rebooted and now it is not grayed out anymore and the rfkill list all shows as:

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no

The 0 is not Hard blocked anymore, but I guess 1: acer-wireless needs to be put off soft blocked somehow.

1

11 Answers 11

33

"Hard blocked" cannot be changed by software, look for a wifi toggle on your keyboard or edges of the laptop; the device can also be hard blocked if disabled in the bios.

"Soft blocked" means "blocked by software". A faulty driver or other kernel module can lead to connectivity loss.

Some methods to get WiFi working are described on help.ubuntu.com/

There is also a Launchpad question on this issue: answers.launchpad.net

5
  • Thanks for the answer but none of that helped me. And typing "sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi" seem to have added another problem, now I can't even try to click on the "Enable wireless"-button as it has been grayed out and "1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN" does not show anymore in the rfkill list. Does anyone have any idea how to fix that? EDIT: I rebooted and now it is not grayed out anymore and the rfkill list all shows as: 0: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no The 0 is not Hard blocked anymore, but I guess 1 needs
    – user43703
    Jan 26, 2012 at 18:54
  • sudo modprobe acer_wmi is the opposite of sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi
    – Lekensteyn
    Jan 26, 2012 at 18:57
  • THANK YOU! IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THAT ANSWER FOR HOURS! YOU'VE JUST SOLVED MY PROBLEM! THANKS!
    – jaorizabal
    Mar 14, 2012 at 22:37
  • 1
    FYI hard block also happens when the wifi is disabled in the bios. May 17, 2014 at 18:55
  • Thanks for the answers after trying any things available on internet, i found this reply and noticed tiny button side of my laptop, i opened it and my WiFi start working, Thanks again! Jul 10, 2020 at 17:49
23

You can try a specify device like

 rfkill unblock bluetooth
10

You have to blacklist the acer-wmi kernel module:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

add blacklist acer_wmi as a new line at the bottom of this file.

then reboot.

Or if you like one-line:

echo blacklist acer-wmi | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-acer-wmi.conf
3
  • This worked for me. I am using an HP pavilion x360 Convertible 13.3. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
    – Dzhao
    Sep 8, 2016 at 2:44
  • Worked with HP Notebook 17-x013na running Ubuntu 16.10. Many thanks.
    – Tim Rogers
    Mar 12, 2017 at 17:41
  • After trying everthing this one worked for me on my Linux mint on my old Acer Aspire laptop. Jan 10, 2020 at 20:43
4

I used the solution described in this Ubuntu Forums thread.

My wifi card is Atheros and is working again.

sudo rmmod athk5
sudo rfkill unblock all
sudo modprobe ath5k

Ubuntu 14.10

2
  • I had to do first: rfkill list get the number from there and then do: sudo rfkill unblock 0 Aug 17, 2018 at 19:40
  • I had to rmmod Intel Wireless 8265/8275 driver e1000e, but it also worked.
    – qba-dev
    Jan 21, 2023 at 22:31
3

In my case it was disabled because of a switch which got triggered without me knowing.

On my Dell Laptop, I had to press Fn+F2 to get it started. It might even work with just F2 if the previous doesn't work. If it still doesn't work check for other possible triggers.

2

I had similar issue with Lenovo e330. Out of nowhere wifi was hardware blocked and this model doesn't have any hardware switch. I've tried following things (none of them helped):

  • Fn + F9 combination (Lenovo key to switch wifi on/off)
  • rfkill unblock all
  • Windows 10 installation + upgrading to latest Lenovo drivers
  • Windows 10 + Lenovo Support diagnostics (on lenovo.com)
  • BIOS reset to default settings
  • Enabling/disabling different BIOS settings (including wifi) back and forth

Then I removed the battery, and wifi started to work again!

0
0

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 on HP ProBook 4520s with Broadcom 4313 wireless. I have a "toggle wifi" button that is not recognized by Linux and does not work. However if I plug a network cable and turn the PC off then Ubuntu somehow forgets about the wifi and next time I boot the wireless is hard-blocked. The wifi button does not work so there's no way to unblock it :(

I found the following solution:

  • dual-boot to windows where the button works
  • enable wifi
  • reboot to linux

Hope this helps someone looking to fix a similar issue

0

I had similar problems with HARD BLOCKED yes.

I found that I had to re-enable the wireless in the BIOS. I powered off the laptop. Powered it on.

Press F2 for setup Go to Advanced, Onboard Devices and saw wireless was disabled. Changed the setting.

F10

And wahoo... yes... the blue light I was looking for returned... :)

0

In some devices pressing the Fn button with PrtScr toggles Airplane mode.

0
0

I have found command:

connmanctl enable wifi

see https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/wifi-is-soft-blocked-after-each-reboot/

-2

This answer is for hp-probook with toggle wifi button and only ubuntu installed :

  1. Restart your computer and,
  2. just after restart press F2 to enter boot menu
  3. press F10 BIOS Setup
  4. Reset BIOS default
  5. Save changes and exit

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