Mint 21 Wifi softblock

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jugular
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:58 am

Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by jugular »

Hiya,

My brother borrowed my laptop and inexplicably put a softblock on the wifi that I can't seem to undo. He would have only used the graphical interface and I think he said he did something like click 'disable wifi' which then caused the entire wifi icon to disappear.

I discovered the softblock like so:

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jugular@MintBook:~$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
And then attempted to fix it by searching these forums and doing the following:

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jugular@MintBook:~$ sudo rfkill unblock all
And the wifi icon didn't come back but when I checked it appeared to work:

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jugular@MintBook:~$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
I then restarted to see if that would bring back the wifi icon for me, it didn't, and when I did

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rfkill list all
again I was back where I started.

Please assume I know nothing, I'm a casual Linux user and not a habitual user of terminal.

Thank you!

Here's the inxi:

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jugular@MintBook:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
    Desktop: MATE 1.26.0 Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookPro8,1 v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-94245B3640C91C81 v: MacBookPro8,1
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Apple v: MBP81.88Z.0050.B00.1804101331
    date: 04/10/18
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 48.9 Wh (91.6%) condition: 53.4/62.9 Wh (85.0%)
    volts: 11.9 min: 10.9 model: DP bq20z451 status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-2435M bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 896 high: 1121 min/max: 800/3000 cores: 1: 798 2: 1121
    3: 870 4: 798 bogomips: 19156
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Apple driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: Apple FaceTime HD Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-2:3
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1280x800~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2)
    v: 3.3 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-46-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3
    v: kernel port: N/A bus-ID: 02:00.0
  IF: enp2s0f0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n driver: bcma-pci-bridge v: N/A
    bus-ID: 03:00.0
  IF-ID-1: wlp3s0b1 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth Host Controller type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-1.1.3:8
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 1.2 lmp-v: 2.1
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 41.88 GiB (9.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MK5065GSXF size: 465.76 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.89 GiB used: 20.94 GiB (4.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 5.2 MiB (1.0%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: 0.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 228 Uptime: 4m Memory: 3.75 GiB used: 891.2 MiB (23.2%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.2.0 Packages: 2758 Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Jul 26, 2023 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
vimes666
Level 6
Level 6
Posts: 1191
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2016 6:08 pm

Re: Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by vimes666 »

Does the icon re-appear when you type

Code: Select all

nm-applet
in a terminal and hit enter?
If you think the issue is solved, edit your original post and add the word solved to the title.
sleeper12
Level 21
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Posts: 14395
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 3:22 pm

Re: Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by sleeper12 »

Did the wifi ever work before? If not, you might have the wrong driver.
jugular
Level 1
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Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:58 am

Re: Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by jugular »

Hiya,

Yes the wifi worked before for sure.

Sorry I was inaccurate about the icon in the original post, I was exhausted and going from memory when I wrote it.

There is an icon showing no network connection and saying that the wifi is disabled.

I've taken a screenshot from after "undoing" the softblock via rfkill showing the icon menu alongside it.
(reminder about "undoing" the soft-block: not only does it not seem to work, when I restart and check rfkill list all again the softblock has returned.)

Image

Thanks for your help!
sleeper12
Level 21
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Posts: 14395
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 3:22 pm

Re: Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by sleeper12 »

What if you right click on the icon, then click 'Enable Wi-Fi'.
jugular
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:58 am

Re: Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by jugular »

You know what my first reaction to this was "come on dude I'm not an idiot you think I haven't tried right-clicking before?"

But then I realised, this was originally a macbook, and I'm not used to macbooks, so because you have to do some stupid two finger thing to right-click it's completely possible that I haven't actually tried right-clicking the bloomin icon.
I'm gonna try it now...





blow me down.*


Yep.


It worked. I've been sitting on this problem for months now.


Thank you sleeper12!!!

:roll: :oops: :lol:





*That is me trying not to swear
sleeper12
Level 21
Level 21
Posts: 14395
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 3:22 pm

Re: Mint 21 Wifi softblock

Post by sleeper12 »

Sometimes the simple solution avoids us. Been there, done that. :lol:

Edit your first post & add [SOLVED] to the Subject line.
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