Ubuntu – Wireless is disabled by hardware switch on Dell Inspiron 1750

networkingwireless

I have a problem where Ubuntu (12.04) says there is a wireless network card, but it is disabled by a hardware switch. How do I turn it on?

I checked the BIOS, and the wireless card is enabled there.

Fn + F2 was also no success.

The results of rfkill list:

0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: yes

sudo rfkill unblock wifi did nothing to the Wireless Status.

Best Answer

I found out by trial and error that the wifi hardware switch on my Dell XPS 17 L702X is not Fn-F2, as implied by the keyboard icon (and works in Windows), but actually Fn-Alt-F2 in Ubuntu. It might work for your Dell too.

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