Linux Mint Forums

Ok, I'm running Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon on my HP Pavillion dv6000, the wireless card is a Broadcom BCM4311. I'm having an issue where (even though the computer's physical wireless switch is on) I'm unable to connect to wifi in Linux. When I first start up the computer I get "Network Disconnected", I've ruled out any problems with my router because the wifi works perfectly fine on my other computers & mobile devices.

I have looked for a solution to the problem myself and had no luck. I tried following some advice from this thread:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=107619

and when I ran the "rfkill list" command, I got:
0: brcmw1-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

I'm not even sure what the "Hard block" and "Soft block" is, but it possible that this is my problem? If so, how do I fix it?

I also tried something I found on this thread:
http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=103143

I got to the "/etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d" folder and when i tried to edit the "head" file with "nameserver 8.8.8.8" and "nameserver 8.8.4.4" I wasn't able to save it.

I ALSO tried running "sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolvconf" and then rebooting the system. STILL no luck.

Next, I tried something simpler: I went into the Network Manager from the panel and clicked the wireless switch over to the green. It won't stay there, it just clicks right back over to red. I opened up the actual Network Manager window and under the wireless tab, I noticed it had "Airplane Mode" in the OFF postion. I clicked this over to ON and tried to click the Wireless switch under that to ON. It still just goes immediately back to OFF. I rebooted the computer and when I went back into the Network Manager window, the "Airplane Mode" switch was back to OFF.

I'm getting pretty frustrated, but I've tried to include as much detail as I can. Please help, thank you. It's extra frustrating considering my wireless was working perfectly fine 3 days ago and after I shut down the computer and turned it back on, it suddenly won't connect. I also can't install any updates, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much,
Hamm

77 views, 0 replies. BUMP -__-

Reboot

Is the actual switch physical or a Fn combo?

If a physical switch, try turning OFF, shutdown, remove battery. Wait a min. Switch on wireless, power up and try.

If you have windows, is it working there.

I had the same issue as the OP, but your advice of worked immediately. I did not even have to restart the computer. Thanks!
Now the only question is, why would we figure out how to turn something off via the GUI and not be able to turn it back on via the GUI? This definitely needs to be fixed in the next release of Cinnamon, even if it has to default to running the above command.

By the way my computer is a Sony Vaio VGN-FW180E and it has a physical Wifi switch, yet Cinnamon still managed to turn it off, just not back on again.

Helpful tags for others. Cinnamon Wireless Stuck in Off. Linux Mint 13.

Hardblocked mean blocked by a switch and softblocked mean blocked by software. So crasyhamm's device seems to be hardblocked, that mean there should be a switch for the wlan. Some fn combos also count as hardblocked.

This was the very first thing I did when loading Linux for the first time and similar to the previous posters the wireless GUI button got stuck in the off position after I turned it off, but running the following code in the terminal fixed the problem, no reboot required.

caf4926 wrote:

Code: Select all

    sudo rfkill unblock all

I have this same problem however when I typed in
sudo rfkill unblock all
nothing happened, I also have an HP pavilion however mine is dv4.
I would appreciate any solution, I also got Soft block: no Hard block: yes when I entered in rfkill list...

i have pretty much the same problem except when i do "sudo rfkill unblock all" i get this:

0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

i don't think there is a physical switch anywhere because i was running windows vista on this computer about a month ago and the wireless worked fine. i think there might be some sort of problem where the wifi card only is accessible by vista, because i had A LOT of problems with removing the drive partition and formatting the drive.

I am getting hard blocked: yes, even though there is no physical switch. Can anyone help me? I am using Linux Mint 14 cinnamon on an HP Mini 210, if that helps.

EDIT: nvm, found the fn+f12 key, turns wi-fi on/off

NB_FF
Try going into the bios and turning the wireless off.
Then boot into Linux.
Reboot, go back into the bios and enable the wireless. It acted as a kind of reset and worked for me.

a search led me here and i wanted to chime in to see if i could help.
i'm using an hp 6930p with an intel 5300 card and all was fine after an install until i upgraded to kernel 3.12 rc6...an then my wifi would be shut off when i hit the login page.
after i logged in, i could connect after enabling wifi at the icon (ck box), or i could open a terminal and type rfkill unblock all (no sudo), but after each restart i had to do the same thing....this only happened after the kernel upgrade. i went back to the stock kernel and everything seemed fine. same thing happened when i installed 3.11.6. hmmmm...
i tried a bunch of things and i got tired of messing with it, but i want to run a spiffy new kernel, so i did the lazy thing to get me by till i can sort this thing out (i'm guessing that 2 modules are going against each other?).
here's my lazy fix to get around hitting yonder check box at every boot:
start up applications> add a new one>call it whatever you want> command: "rfkill unblock all"
that's it! save and re-start and it should automatically connect.

btw it's seems to be a soft block that i have. i tried everything in bios, played with this funky wifi switch, tried wicd, but something is switching my wifi off right at the login page. weird.