Wirless network disabled by hardware switch

Question

I have tried turning on both the physical hardware switch and the fn, f2 and the same problem persists. I am dual booting with windows 7. it works fine with 7. I consider myself able to navigate most computer problems but not able to write code or completely understand how and where it works. This is my first day with ubuntu.

Answer 1

I ran into an issue that reminds me of what you're experiencing. In my case, switching off the wireless with the hardware switch switched off a software switch. Try to type the following command in a terminal: $ sudo rfkill unblock all

That solved the issue for me (with Ubuntu 11.04).

Answer 2

There is a bit of a learning curve with a new OS and it is frustrating when your hardware does not work.

Do you know what wireless card you have ? Brand / model ? Once we identify the card we can determine if it is going to be easy or difficult to fix.