Problem turning on wireless.<SOLVED>

[Bat Boy 42]

Hi, total newbie here. I installed Mint in and old HP Pavilion g6 to get my feet wet in my incursion to LInux, and I think I already messed up!

Not sure if relevant but before installing Mint, last time I accessed Windows I turn off a WIFI button in my keyboard (it shows blue if it were turned on and red if not) because since it was an old model I didn't want the computer prompting me for updates.

Anyways, no I installed Mint and can get an internet connection directly with a wire but the WIFI button remains in red if I try to turn it on, but I do notice that if I press it the Bluetooth icon goes "gray" and if I press it again it "turns on".

When I use the Driver Manager it said to install

I'm using Mint x64/ Cinnamon.

inxi tells me:

[sleeper12]

What does this show:

Code: Select all

 rfkill list && iwconfig && mokutil --sb-state 

[hglee]

... last time I accessed Windows I turn off a WIFI button in my keyboard ...

So you're dual-booting? Disable Fast StartUp in Windows power management, otherwise Windows may put your wifi into a frozen state. And enable your wifi before you shut down Windows.


Confirm that Secure Boot is disabled in your laptop BIOS, as it's known to interfere with device drivers.

[kc1di]

you have a Broadcom wireless card and will need to install drivers for it. You will need a temp. Ethernet connection the go to Menu>Administration>Driver Manager and install the suggested driver for you card. Reboot and it should work. Good Luck.

[Bat Boy 42]

What does this show:

Code: Select all

 rfkill list && iwconfig && mokutil --sb-state 

It shows:

[Bat Boy 42]

... last time I accessed Windows I turn off a WIFI button in my keyboard ...

So you're dual-booting? Disable Fast StartUp in Windows power management, otherwise Windows may put your wifi into a frozen state. And enable your wifi before you shut down Windows.


Confirm that Secure Boot is disabled in your laptop BIOS, as it's known to interfere with device drivers.

I'm not dual booting, just Mint.

[Bat Boy 42]

you have a Broadcom wireless card and will need to install drivers for it. You will need a temp. Ethernet connection the go to Menu>Administration>Driver Manager and install the suggested driver for you card. Reboot and it should work. Good Luck.

Indeed, the driver manager prompted me to install the Broadcom driver and after installing and restarting it still didn't work.

[sleeper12]

The wifi is hard blocked. Look for a switch or Fn & F key to turn it on.

[kc1di]

It is indeed hard blocked you will have to find the fn key/keys that unlock it give us the make and model # if the machine and we may be able to help.
Some laptops have an actual switch to turn Wifi on and off.

[Bat Boy 42]

It is a HP Pavilion g6-1b70us Notebook PC

The switch/WIFI button is the one I said is now in red (it should be blue) but when I press it all it does is turn on/off Bluetooth. That WIFI button is both the WIFI button and the F12 key.

[sleeper12]

You need to press it with Fn. If that doesn't work, maybe you can enable wifi in Bios or reset Bios to defaults.

[Bat Boy 42]

Already tried pressing Fn + 12 and nothing happens. Gonna have to try the BIOS route, but I'm not sure how.

[sleeper12]

Not sure, but on HP it might be F10 at boot to get into Bios.

[Bat Boy 42]

Yeah, I entered the BIOS but didn't see anything related to the WIFI. I did hit something that said it would restore all the defaults in the BIOS but that didn't fix it.

I think I'm going to re-install Windows to see if I can get the WIFI on and then re-install Mint.

[sleeper12]

Can you remove & reinsert the wifi card? That will sometimes remove a hard block, but not always easy to reach I know.

[Bat Boy 42]

I remove and reinserted the wifi card. It didn't work. I reinstalled Windows (the wifi turned on and worked) and reinstalled Mint at which time the wifi problem reappeared. Thanks to everyone in this thread who tried to help.

[sleeper12]

Did you try F12 without Fn?

If not that, try:

Code: Select all

 sudo modprobe -r hp_wmi 

Code: Select all

 sudo rfkill unblock all 

Code: Select all

 rfkill list 

Is the hard block gone now?

[Bat Boy 42]

When I press F12 without Fn the only discernible change is for the Bluetooth:

[sleeper12]

Try this:

Shutdown, unplug ac, remove battery. Hold power key down for 20 seconds. Reinstall battery, power up and immediately go into BIOS. Reset BIOS to defaults. This may or may not clear the wifi hardware switch.

[Bat Boy 42]

It didn't clear the wifi hardware switch.