In practice that means you can press your laptop's WiFi button as often as you want, it doesn't change anything. Your wireless adapter will always appear as disabled. If you try to start the wireless interface manually you get the following error message:
sk@ubuntu:~# sudo ifconfig wlan0 upIf you do a rfkill list all you should get an output similar to this:
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
sk@ubuntu:~$ sudo rfkill list allDepending on the state of your WiFi button the Hard blocked will either be yes or no. Press the WiFi button and run rfkill list all again to make sure the value for Hard blocked changes.
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
The actual problem is, that the Soft blocked value is always set to yes, because for some reason the syncing between the hardware block and the software block doesn't work as supposed. To override this behavior, you can just run rfkill unblock wifi and it should work again. Double check by entering rfkill list all again and make sure it looks like this, with all values set to no:
sk@ubuntu:~$ sudo rfkill list allIf you then run ifconfig wlan0 up (or enable the wireless via your desktop's network manager) you should be able to connect to a wireless network again without any further issues.
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
The configuration, which I've been using:
- Compaq Presario CQ60
- Atheros AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter
- Ubuntu 10.10
I've just launched a new side project of mine:
Bugfender - A modern remote logger tailor-made for mobile development
It's currently free and you can sign up here: https://app.bugfender.com/signup
Any kind of feedback is more than appreciated :-)
I have the problem where the soft block doesn't sync with the hard block. If the hard button is off, and I boot to the desktop, if I turn on the switch, the WiFi manager still won't start the wireless.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be nice if there was a script to bump the soft option on when the hard switch is detected to have been switched to on. Like through acpid events, or laptop-mode-tools.
Thanks. Thank you so much!!!!! Save my live.
ReplyDeleteCannot change Hard blocked after 10.10 install
ReplyDeleteJust installed 10.10 on Toshiba Satellite L305
I have tried all of the above, and while I can turn soft blocked on and off with block and unblock commands, hard blocked is always YES
Tried:
rfkill unblock all
rfkill unblock wifi
rfkill unblock 1
even tried all of the above after trying alt-F8
and tried to set both to blocked (I can set soft blocked to yes or no)and then reboot with alt-F* pressed
any help??
I have same problem, gentoo
ReplyDeleteThis helped me for ubuntu 10.10 on an HP dv2202ca (dv2000). THANKS!
ReplyDeleteFixed mine perfectly! Thank You! Kudos!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, i've been at it for 5 hours... and all of a sudden it was fixed
ReplyDeleteHi man, you are the one!
ReplyDeleteI'passed thought the web (I can't count the hours... or better days or months). I think that are many people stucked on this.
Thank's a lot
Bruce Magnani from Brazil
I had similar problems too! I've posted on [URL="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10748476#post10748476"]11.04 "Natty wireless issue - Acer - Device not ready, rfkill soft auto blocked"[/URL], and eventually Chili555 found me solution. Very grateful :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch. I started out with bug 732677 and rfkill lead me to the final (I hope :) ) solution.
ReplyDeleteHey, I also have a CQ60 laptop and I've got the wireless working with the steps you outlined, but then when I reboot, it doesn't automatically work. When I do the same steps all over again, it sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't, switching between "yes" and "no" for the soft and hard blocks. Right now, it's been stuck on wifi as hard and soft blocked, but rfkill ublock wifi and rfkill unblock all doesn't change anything. Any idea what to do about this?
ReplyDeleteI had a worse problem. Whenever I did "rfkill unblock all", my wireless would go from
ReplyDeleteSoft blocked: Yes
Hard blocked: No
to
Soft blocked: No
Hard blocked: Yes
Tantalizing, isn't it? In the end, I created the following script as a (barely acceptable) solution:
sudo rmmod -f ath5k
sudo rfkill unblock all
sudo odprobe ath5k
I hope this script helps someone. In the time being, if anybody has any sort of solution, that will be much appreciated.
I am using a Natty Narwhal, (Ubuntu 11.04) running on Fujitsu Siemens Amilo PA3515 with an Atheros AR5001 wireless module.
Hope this helps,
Shoka
Thank you, very helpful!
ReplyDeleteThis helped me out incredibly. I spent a good chunk of the last two days trying to resolve this!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. A great help!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!, I tried it in Natty 64bit and it worked like a charm.
ReplyDeletethanks. this post is very helpful for me.
ReplyDeleteParce que bien!!!
ReplyDeleteMe salvaste de estallar mi PC contra la pared.
Gracias
Shoka comment is the one that really helped. Just the command is modprobe not odprobe. It worked for my friends Compaq CQ60 with ubuntu 11.x. I ran the following commands in terminal:
ReplyDeletesudo rmmod -f ath5k
sudo rfkill unblock all
sudo modprobe ath5k
sudo rmmod -f ath5k
ReplyDeletesudo rfkill unblock all
sudo modprobe ath5k
this is realy the solution thx for it :)
I have an HP 630. I upgraded from 10.10 --> 11.04 --> 11.10 --> 12.04.
ReplyDeleteMy wireless was working well till the 11.10 upgrade.
After I upgraded to 12.04, my wireless adapter could not be enabled. The system was not allowing me to enable the card using Fn+F10. Tried the rfkill stuff but that wud not help.
As a last step, I set my BIOS to factory defaults and reconfigured it....and it started working well!
On my Toshiba satellite 670 the solution from Pawan Patki (resetting the bios) worked for me, too
ReplyDeleteNICE!!!
ReplyDeletesame issue on Sony Vaio VPCEB190L running linux Mint 13, suddendly wifi got dead, now is back...
Thank you so much! You're a genius.
ReplyDelete