Ubuntu 16.04 - Wi-Fi will not turn on

Question

I'm having problems with my Wi-Fi. I can't turn it on. I looked at the network settings and airplane mode is on. I tried to turn it off, but every time that I close the window, the airplane mode is turned on again, and my Wi-Fi button will not turn on no matter what.

Here is the list of things that I have tried:

1. restart the system.
2. sudo rfkill unblock all.
3. sudo service network-manager restart.
4. I tried to look for Wi-Fi options in my BIOS, but there was no such thing.

And this is a report from my system. BTW I am new to Ubuntu.

```

########## wireless info START ##########

Report from: 11 Jul 2017 12:52 IRDT +0430

Booted last: 11 Jul 2017 00:00 IRDT +0430

Script from: 25 Mar 2017 07:04 UTC +0000

##### release ###########################

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
Release:    16.04
Codename:   xenial

##### kernel ############################

Linux 4.8.0-58-generic #63~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jun 26 18:08:51 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Parameters: ro, quiet, splash, vt.handoff=7

##### desktop ###########################

Ubuntu

##### lspci #############################

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. T77H126.00 802.11bgn Wireless Half-size Mini PCIe Card [105b:e017]
    Kernel driver in use: ath9k

09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1083] (rev c0)
    Subsystem: Sony Corporation AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet [104d:908a]
    Kernel driver in use: atl1c

##### lsusb #############################

 - Bus 002 Device 004: ID 046d:c52f Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver Bus
  - 002 Device 003: ID 0900:1001 Pinnacle Systems, Inc.  Bus 002 Device
  - 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 002
  - Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 001 Device
  - 003: ID 064e:a21b Suyin Corp.  Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel
  - Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
  - Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

##### PCMCIA card info ##################

##### rfkill ############################

0: sony-wifi: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

##### lsmod #############################

 - acer_wmi               20480  0 sparse_keymap          16384  1
 -  acer_wmi ath9k                 147456  0 ath9k_common           36864
 -  1 ath9k ath9k_hw              475136  2 ath9k,ath9k_common ath       
 -  32768  3 ath9k_hw,ath9k,ath9k_common mac80211              761856  1
 -  ath9k cfg80211              581632  4 mac80211,ath9k,ath,ath9k_common
 -  mxm_wmi                16384  1 nouveau video                  40960 
 -  3 sony_laptop,acer_wmi,nouveau wmi                    16384  3
 -  acer_wmi,mxm_wmi,nouveau

##### interfaces ########################

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

##### ifconfig ##########################

enp9s0    

 - Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <MAC 'enp9s0' [IF1]>  
 -            inet addr:192.168.1.10  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
 -            inet6 addr: fe80::5be9:42aa:e206:1e3e/64 Scope:Link
 -            UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
 -            RX packets:27646 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 -            TX packets:17012 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:5
 -            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
 -            RX bytes:38851631 (38.8 MB)  TX bytes:1442279 (1.4 MB)

lo        

 - Link encap:Local Loopback  
 -            inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
 -            inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
 -            UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
 -            RX packets:1379 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 -            TX packets:1379 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 -            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1 
 -            RX bytes:110965 (110.9 KB)  TX bytes:110965 (110.9 KB)

wlp2s0    

 - Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <MAC 'wlp2s0' [IF2]>  
 -            BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
 -            RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 -            TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 -            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
 -            RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

>##### iwconfig ##########################

 - lo        no wireless extensions.

 -  enp9s0    no wireless extensions.

 -  wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any  
             Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off   
             Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
             Power Management:off

```

Answer 1

We see this in your loaded modules:

    acer_wmi               20480  0 sparse_keymap          16384  1
 -  acer_wmi ath9k                 147456  0 ath9k_common           36864
 -  1 ath9k ath9k_hw              475136  2 ath9k,ath9k_common ath       
 -  32768  3 ath9k_hw,ath9k,ath9k_common mac80211              761856  1
 -  ath9k cfg80211              581632  4 mac80211,ath9k,ath,ath9k_common
 -  mxm_wmi                16384  1 nouveau video                  40960 
 -  3 sony_laptop,acer_wmi,nouveau wmi                    16384  3
 -  acer_wmi,mxm_wmi,nouveau

I don't believe that your laptop is both an Acer and a Sony. Let's blacklist sony-laptop and see if you can now turn on the wireless:

sudo -i
echo "blacklist sony_laptop"  >>  /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
exit

Reboot and let us hear the result.

EDIT: Since you've found that the blacklist is not helpful, let's reverse it:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blaclist.conf

Use nano or kate or leafpad if you don't have the text editor gedit. Change the last line from:

blacklist sony_laptop

To instead read:

blacklist acer_wmi

Proofread carefully, save and close the text editor.

Reboot. Is there any improvement?