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One Fine Day..I don't want to shut down my computer, So, “Suspended” it, When turned on next time ,
the problem starts, WiFi – Not Turning ON, Its not a detection problem, or Driver not found or any thing, the whole WiFi option not turning ON, ..???

Into Debug Mode,

  1. Usual Restart, no result

  2. Battery Removed Power off - ON, No result

  3. As the "Suspend" Started the problem, trying a chance with several repeated suspends with, plug in and out the USB adaptor(Which is Tp link TL-WN725N), No result,

  4. Reset The BIOS to default, On my HP laptop, at booting, it is ESC -> F10 -> F9 -> set to default -> OK, No result,

    Also, BIOS not have any other options for WiFi.

  5. Now back to Ubuntu, open the terminal, from internet, understood Ubuntu got a "handy" soft suspending features to turn off connections like the WiFi and Bluetooth, so does a rfkill list all, that shows

    0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
1: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no

    WiFi got hard blocked, but how??, I’m using an HP-15 series laptop with a not working normal keyboard(it is unplugged too), using with an external keyboard.. The WiFi turn on/off keyboard keycode HP gives is Fn key + F12, but as I’m using external keyboard, Fn key not in the picture anymore.. Tried combinations of all f1 to f12 possible...no result..

    There are no other external keys for WiFi.

    Now It started to get seriously annoying, decided to go check in the dual-booted windows, whether it is affected or not, The WiFi works there as usual, with adaptor detecting from the first sight of the windows logo, but in Ubuntu, it behaves like, it never heard about WiFi.

  6. Tried sudo rfkill unblock all, sudo rfkill unblock 0 (which is the rfkill assigned code for w LAN) with no results (even-though I know it is “Hard” blocked).

  7. Then I get know from the internet some settings or conflicting drivers can be blacklisted in Ubuntu, so do this

    lsmod | grep hp

    The results
    

    hp_wmi
hp_wireless

    Blacklisting hp_wmi and a reboot solved this issue for some people, they've listed in web, I tried the same, but with no luck.. by going to /etc/modprobe.d/ select blacklist-hp.conf, blacklist.conf added blacklist hp_wmi -> reboot..., but no result same "Hard blocked: yes" also with the blacklist hp_wirelss, no improvements

    same

    0: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

    After this attempts, the only thing achieved was the numbers changed,now it is 1 for WiFi

  8. Where is this Soft blocked, hard blocked get stored, next that will be the concern, if I can find that file and alter the value It will be all good again,

    And Thankfully I founded this, based on the same problem described there, did the

    cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill1/hard

    gives me a "1"
    

    To make it 0, with all permissions
    

    sudo -i
echo 0  >  /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill1/hard
    

    gives me
    

    echo: write error: Input/output error
    

    its fixed by hardware..no way to change

    Uninstall and installs the rfkill...(don't know what I'm doing..)

  9. Now its getting lost, trying to figure out an Ubuntu reinstall or a backed up timeshift can solve the problem, decided to check that, plugged in a bootable USB Ubuntu -> Try before install -> check if the Wifi loads or not., No its also shown as hard blocked :- YES

  10. Finally changed the laptop-keyboard only for the sake of getting WiFi back, pressed the key f12 with full confidence which is the hardware key for airplane mode (not only for WiFi)...still no use, that same hard blocked is killing me..

This is where I am now, I badly need this WIFI gets working on ubuntu, can anybody help..

Akshay Chandran
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5 Answers5

2

masking pin 20 of the pcie card Not an Ubuntu/software related solution..it is hardware related.. For the hp 15 series of laptops(old ones), if any one facing similar issue and tried all the above steps, then it is cz of the wifi card malfunction..it sends an off signal..to the input slot.. Os interprets it as a hardware switch.. In my case the card is already dead... both the wifi and Bluetooth, and I'm using an external adapter.. So I simply remove it (not simply, cz hp 15 series are quite hardly assembled, reaching inside takes some effort, but can.. if you got a nice set of screw drivers). get [your model no] manual pdf.. follow it to reach out to wifi card.. [If you didnt want to unplug the card, mask the pin 20 (as in picture - of total 52 pin connector, odd-even pins on both sides) use an insulation tape then cut it with blade to achieve good masking of the pin, refer the comment for details, and also visit this page to get more details on mini pci3 connector] and finally thanks @chili555 for the driving comment..

Akshay Chandran
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2

In Ubuntu 21.04, I executed

sudo rfkill unblock all

Then I updated the initramfs

sudo update-initramfs -u

...and this actually worked.

I don't know why it worked, but I wanted to share this as something you could try.

(Note: With Ubuntu 21.04, I've also had to add GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi=force" in /etc/default/grub for a shutdown issue unrelated to this problem. Remember to execute sudo update-grup if you make this same change.)

Background

I have a 2017 HP Spectre x360 Convertible 15-bl1XX, and this computer does not have a physical Wi-Fi switch nor a setting in the BIOS to enable/disable Wi-Fi. In Ubuntu 19.04, the ✈ F12 key worked flawlessly. (It did not work in 18.04).

In Ubuntu 21.04 I have an issue: If I enable Airplane mode using the ✈ F12, I am unable to turn on WiFi again by pressing this same key.

So I tried the "fix" in this answer.

All of a sudden, my Wi-Fi was hard-blocked:

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

The Wi-Fi on this laptop has never been hard-blocked since I have owned it, so this was quite surprising.

No matter what I tried, the (new) hard-block persisted.

Finally, on a hunch, I executed sudo update-initramfs -u, and this resolved the problem.

Enterprise
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hard blocked it is a physical problem... usually. Possibly you have switch button on the laptop case

enter image description here

graham
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Stan
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I got rid of this glitch by accessing the BIOS and setting 'Load startup defaults', and saving the change. I was finding some Linux distros did this. My PC is a HP Pavilion DV7. It still happens sometimes.

Carlton_Corsair
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My Ubuntu 20.04 running on an old HP Elitebook 6930p similarly had no WiFi. lshw -class network showed the built-in WiFi Intel PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] as "unclaimed." Tried many things from several AskUbuntu answers, including resetting BIOS to defaults, with no success. On the HP Elitebook 6930p the "WiFi hardware button" is a touch sensitive area just above the F5 key on the keyboard; the "button" is the antenna icon/light, if it's steady orange then WiFi is disabled.

After booting Ubuntu 20.04.5 from a live flash, I saw it was in Airplane mode, and I could touch/press that spot/button and it would change to blue (on) and I had WiFi. So I think somehow on my Ubuntu installation it was in Airplane mode and stuck there because that "button" was disabled. This would also explain why inserting a TP-link USB WiFi adapter didn't work.

Built-in WiFi is working now after I re-installed Ubuntu 20.04.5 from flash using the "something else" installation (disk partitioning) option, which did not disrupt my files in /home since I always mount that on a separate disk partition.

PeterJ
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