WiFi hardware blocked. RFkill not working.

[idetuxs]

Hello everyone!

I have an Atheros AR9285 chip in my laptop. My problem is that I can't turn it ON. I would appreciate if anyone know where should I look for, or what to do. So here is my troubleshooting and information:

Just installed Kali Linux 1.0.2 amd64 with Gnome, so I see that my wifi is not on.

System Settings --> Network
- Airplane is On, turned it off.
- Ethernet is On.
- Wifi is Off, can't turn it On.

root@kali:~# lspci
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

* I intentionally shortened the output of lspci.

root@kali:~# iwconfig
wlan1     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
          
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

So I try ifconfig and see it's down,

root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan1 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

Now with these error, after a quick search, the obvious solution everywhere is to use rfkill.

root@kali:~# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes
root@kali:~# rfkill unblock all
root@kali:~# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes

I tried with "rfkill unblock wifi" and even in some forums someone said that unplugging the laptop and taking off the battery worked. (?).

So these are the modules,

root@kali:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
hid_generic            12386  0 
usbhid                 40793  0 
hid                    81617  2 hid_generic,usbhid
binfmt_misc            12958  1 
loop                   22955  0 
arc4                   12544  2 
uvcvideo               66708  0 
ath9k                  83773  0 
videobuf2_vmalloc      12665  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       12563  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         26705  1 uvcvideo
videodev               92071  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
media                  18185  2 uvcvideo,videodev
ath9k_common           12729  1 ath9k
joydev                 17318  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     31480  1 
i915                  448745  3 
ath9k_hw              328776  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
snd_hda_codec_idt      53756  1 
iTCO_wdt               12832  0 
drm_kms_helper         27236  1 i915
drm                   202248  4 i915,drm_kms_helper
snd_hda_intel          30803  3 
snd_hda_codec          88216  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
ath                    21418  3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
mac80211              348666  1 ath9k
cfg80211              144106  3 ath,ath9k,mac80211
hp_wmi                 13330  0 
i2c_i801               17046  0 
sparse_keymap          12761  1 hp_wmi
snd_hwdep              13190  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                68524  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc         13019  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              22813  1 snd_pcm
snd                    53078  13 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
soundcore              13027  1 snd
iTCO_vendor_support    12705  1 iTCO_wdt
hp_accel               25201  0 
rfkill                 19167  3 cfg80211,hp_wmi
lis3lv02d              17927  1 hp_accel
acpi_cpufreq           13355  1 
evdev                  17651  10 
mei                    31840  0 
i2c_algo_bit           12842  1 i915
coretemp               12855  0 
input_polldev          12907  1 lis3lv02d
lpc_ich                16758  0 
i2c_core               24042  6 drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,videodev
mfd_core               12602  1 lpc_ich
psmouse                69191  0 
serio_raw              12941  0 
mperf                  12454  1 acpi_cpufreq
wmi                    13244  1 hp_wmi
kvm                   309830  0 
crc32c_intel           12748  0 
ghash_clmulni_intel    13063  0 
cryptd                 14561  1 ghash_clmulni_intel
processor              28456  1 acpi_cpufreq
button                 12945  1 i915
battery                13147  0 
video                  17687  1 i915
ac                     12625  0 
ext4                  371544  1 
crc16                  12344  1 ext4
jbd2                   71913  1 ext4
mbcache                13115  1 ext4
sg                     26096  0 
sr_mod                 21946  0 
sd_mod                 40550  3 
cdrom                  35213  1 sr_mod
crc_t10dif             12349  1 sd_mod
xhci_hcd               78154  0 
ahci                   25061  2 
libahci                22919  1 ahci
thermal                17426  0 
thermal_sys            22342  3 video,thermal,processor
libata                141636  2 ahci,libahci
r8169                  52700  0 
scsi_mod              162399  4 sg,libata,sd_mod,sr_mod
ehci_hcd               40532  0 
microcode              30457  0 
mii                    12676  1 r8169
usbcore               134001  4 uvcvideo,ehci_hcd,usbhid,xhci_hcd
usb_common             12355  1 usbcore

Tried removing hp_wmi and wmi, they are related to sitching the state of the wifi with a key (link), but didn't worked.

The output of dmesg is quite long so here is some selected output,

root@kali:~# dmesg | egrep 'wmi|ath|hp'
[    0.000000] hpet clockevent registered
[    0.404244] hpet0: at MMIO 0xfed00000, IRQs 2, 8, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
[    0.404249] hpet0: 8 comparators, 64-bit 14.318180 MHz counter
[    0.406258] Switching to clocksource hpet
[    0.727804] pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.4
[    0.727806] acpiphp: ACPI Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.5
[    0.736978] rtc0: alarms up to one month, 242 bytes nvram, hpet irqs
[    1.169524] ata5.00: ATAPI: hp      DVD-RAM UJ8D1, H.01, max UDMA/100
[    1.210044] scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM            hp       DVD-RAM UJ8D1    H.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    3.686617] wmi: Mapper loaded
[    4.046717] hp_accel: laptop model unknown, using default axes configuration
[    4.092761] Registered led device: hp::hddprotect
[    4.782046] psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 7.5, id: 0x1e0b1, caps: 0xf00173/0x240000/0xa2400, board id: 2067, fw id: 1032759
[    4.805918] ath: phy0: ASPM enabled: 0x43
[    4.805927] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x6a
[    4.805931] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[    4.805937] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[    4.805940] ath: Regpair used: 0x6a
[    4.880838] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
[    4.881344] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0

If want the complete output of dmesg, just ask and I'll post it. Any Ideas??

Thanks

[charonsecurity]

Hard blocked, means you need to find a (physical) switch to turn on the hardware. On my note book it would be the Fn Key + F12.

[Cod]

This was how i fixed it on my laptop:

Applications Menu > System Tools > Preferences > System Settings

ok Now from here I opened "Network" and while the window is open I could see that my "Airplane Mode" switch was toggled on AND PERSISTENTLY ON.

Toggle Airplane OFF and while the window is still open and in place, PRESS YOUR PHYSICAL STANDBY/POWER BUTTON

The system will go to standby. Now resume the system and toggle your wifi button. It seems there is a glitch in the system. who would have thought >.

[idetuxs]

Sorry for late answer, I thought my question didn't make it through moderation.

I still struggle with this problem so it's kind of killing my productivity. It was as Cod says, the "airplane mode" was persistently ON..(sigh..) And toogling the Wifi button didn't work.

Last week I moved on and change my Mini-PCI wifi card for the one that came originally with the laptop. A Broadcom 4313. Which does function well automatically on Kali Linux. (not on Debian though).

I really can't bealive how I'm struggling with this for WEEKS, so frustrating. The driver brcmacsm works fairly well on kali but not on Debian (useless). Really astonishing. And a well supported chip card Atheros can even turn wifi ON??

Objectively it's a bug that came with the hardware I think. But it was out of my hands.

Thanks.

[amSet]

hi all,

i am having issues enabling wireless in Kali/Debian.

I tried the following;
1) reset to BIOS default
2) rfkill unblock all
3) pressed Fn + F2 (Gateway Notebook, T-Series)
4) same behaviour with other wirless USB devices.

not sure what else to do, still searching! any help would be appreciated.

thanks
amSet

[Cod]

First, makesure you do sudo rfkill disable all and then sudo ifconfig wlan0 up first justo be sure that's not going to be the issue.

Ok now go to the Applications drop down menu, then to system tools, then preferences, then System Settings. In here towards the bottom there is a Network icon. Click it to open your network settings and go to your wireless connections tab where you see that "Airplane Mode" is stuck on. Ok now toggle it off AND THEN STOP EVERYTHIG YOU ARE DOING--- and leave the network settings window open. With everything as-is, go up to the power menu and put the system on standby. Wait a few seconds for your computer to sleep. Now just move the mouse to wake it up and then hit the "enable wifi" switch/ button in the wifi control panel and hit your hardware wifi toggle key combo and it should all stick. I have done this with three different wifi cards, 2 atheros and one Broadcom. I also saw this problem with a standard Ubuntu installation on another computer. You may need to repeat this process again in the future.

[monoc4d]

Hi everybody, first of all i want to say sorry if i not make myself clear **** muy english is really bad.
I just install Kali and I`m struggling with the same issue that idetuxs, my Laptop it`s a Toshiba LS515 and i turn off the wirelles by th combination of fn+F8, But did it wen i was running windows 7. So I reboot, load Windows 7 turn on the wifi, reboot again and now works perfectly, I don`t now why. If somone knows why please let me know.
Just wanna add that the laptop dosen`t have a physical switch.
Thanks!!!

[Aeon]

I ran into this problem earlier today and was able to solve it by booting into Windows and enabling Wifi via a keyboard shortcut as my laptop doesn't have a physical switch to enable and disable the wireless adapter. When I enabled the adapter within Windows, the Wifi light came on and booting into Kali, everything worked fine.

[mmusket33]

This problem has been raised by us before you will have to search old blogs. We like Aeon in the above thread have found that some laptops must have their wifi devices enabled by windows. Even external usb wifi devices will not function unless the internal wifi is first switched on and left on. If you turn the manual switch off everything stops functioning and you have to go to windows, turn the system back on then reboot to kali-linux. Note we use xp/linux dual boot. We have four lap tops and each reacts differently but the general theme remains the same. So if you have a manual switch do not switch it off. But there is more.

Next is Network Manager(two small computers) - Upper righthand corner of screen

Make sure Enable Wireless is checked and Enable Networking is checked

Be careful with Network Manager. If you are having problems enabling your wifi devices NEVER remove the check next to Enable Wireless. This will kill your wifi devices. Clicking on Enable Wireless may NOT reenable the devices. You may have to go thru the windows routine again.

You can remove the check next to Enable networking though.

You will find Net Work Manager now constantly intruding. So if you do not need Networking remove the check next to Enable Networking and your screen will thank you.

MTA

[SherlocKHolmeS]

I solved the problem. And turned to open the BIOS default settings. After improving.

[Vlado]

Here is a Solution Guys!!

I have Still the Same Problem that when i Boot Kali 2.0, my WIFI is Hardware blocked. (NO its not the **** switch on my laptop)
>> What you need to do is Turn your Laptop or Computer in Hibernate modus or sleep modus. Wake him UP an your WIFI should work. <<

Would really love to see a FIX for this because i have this issue since Kali 1.0.x.

~vl~

[mmusket33]

Since you are experiencing this since kali1.0 we suggest you try the following as MTeams have two laptops just like this. You need to turn your wifi ON thru windows. Once windows turns on the wifi software the rf-kill will disappear. Your wifi firmware may require windows to activate it. Turning the on/off switch will not correct this. If you dig thru these forums you will find one of our postings on this. If you have an internal wifi receiver get that functioning thru windows first then shutdown and boot into kali and do not ever turn the wifi power switch off again.

MTeams

[Vlado]

Since you are experiencing this since kali1.0 we suggest you try the following as MTeams have two laptops just like this. You need to turn your wifi ON thru windows. Once windows turns on the wifi software the rf-kill will disappear. Your wifi firmware may require windows to activate it. Turning the on/off switch will not correct this. If you dig thru these forums you will find one of our postings on this. If you have an internal wifi receiver get that functioning thru windows first then shutdown and boot into kali and do not ever turn the wifi power switch off again.

MTeams

THX for the help, i deleted Windows. But your post should help many other peopl whit that Problem. (should pin this post somewhere where its easier to find.)

[RainKing]

Since you are experiencing this since kali1.0 we suggest you try the following as MTeams have two laptops just like this. You need to turn your wifi ON thru windows. Once windows turns on the wifi software the rf-kill will disappear. Your wifi firmware may require windows to activate it. Turning the on/off switch will not correct this. If you dig thru these forums you will find one of our postings on this. If you have an internal wifi receiver get that functioning thru windows first then shutdown and boot into kali and do not ever turn the wifi power switch off again.

MTeams

Requiring Linux users to use Windows is not an acceptable solution. Windows is only software, anything it can do can be done through Linux, we just need to find out how. Of course, if hw manufacturers would cooperate by providing full specs, it would be much simpler.

[999mcnally]

I found a solution to make the computer not recognize the the hardware block thus making it never be hardware blocked.

I was having and am still working with a wireless problem. My network card would become hard blocked after I attempted to use macchanger.

ifconfig wlan0 down && macchanger -A wlan0 && ifconfig wlan0 up

When the interface was put back up, my computer would think I was in airplane mode because it was hardblocked. rfkill unblock all was not doing anything for me. I found a post that helped me to prevent the hard block. I still can not however connect to a network using network manager. It just keeps searching and never finds a network. I also attempted to connect through the command line with no success whatsoever. PLEASE HELP ME!

See if this helps you buddy.

Check the value of a parameter -

cat /sys/module/ath9k/parameters/no_hw_rfkill_switch

If it is set to "N", try this -

echo "options ath9k no_hw_rfkill_switch=Y" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf

This will create a conf file for ath9k driver, which apparently tells the driver to "Ignore" the hardware switch's rfkill state. Enable the wifi with rfkill command and reboot to see if it remains on. If it (the conf file) causes the opposite effect, simply delete the file -

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

..and reboot to return to current state.

[Pankajs24]

restart your OS and when it prompt to add password check upper right corner if wifi is still hardware disabled or not.

if it show hardware disabled just click your hardware button to ON ...and it will work
then type PASSWORD and check..


how i followed this process-
1. ON Airplane mode
2. restart OS
3. when password is prompted click hardware wifi switch on keyboard to ON wifi.
4. login to system it will work

Hello everyone!

I have an Atheros AR9285 chip in my laptop. My problem is that I can't turn it ON. I would appreciate if anyone know where should I look for, or what to do. So here is my troubleshooting and information:

Just installed Kali Linux 1.0.2 amd64 with Gnome, so I see that my wifi is not on.

System Settings --> Network
- Airplane is On, turned it off.
- Ethernet is On.
- Wifi is Off, can't turn it On.

root@kali:~# lspci
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

* I intentionally shortened the output of lspci.

root@kali:~# iwconfig
wlan1     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
          
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

So I try ifconfig and see it's down,

root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan1 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

Now with these error, after a quick search, the obvious solution everywhere is to use rfkill.

root@kali:~# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes
root@kali:~# rfkill unblock all
root@kali:~# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes

I tried with "rfkill unblock wifi" and even in some forums someone said that unplugging the laptop and taking off the battery worked. (?).

So these are the modules,

root@kali:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
hid_generic            12386  0 
usbhid                 40793  0 
hid                    81617  2 hid_generic,usbhid
binfmt_misc            12958  1 
loop                   22955  0 
arc4                   12544  2 
uvcvideo               66708  0 
ath9k                  83773  0 
videobuf2_vmalloc      12665  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       12563  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         26705  1 uvcvideo
videodev               92071  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
media                  18185  2 uvcvideo,videodev
ath9k_common           12729  1 ath9k
joydev                 17318  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     31480  1 
i915                  448745  3 
ath9k_hw              328776  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
snd_hda_codec_idt      53756  1 
iTCO_wdt               12832  0 
drm_kms_helper         27236  1 i915
drm                   202248  4 i915,drm_kms_helper
snd_hda_intel          30803  3 
snd_hda_codec          88216  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
ath                    21418  3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
mac80211              348666  1 ath9k
cfg80211              144106  3 ath,ath9k,mac80211
hp_wmi                 13330  0 
i2c_i801               17046  0 
sparse_keymap          12761  1 hp_wmi
snd_hwdep              13190  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                68524  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc         13019  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              22813  1 snd_pcm
snd                    53078  13 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
soundcore              13027  1 snd
iTCO_vendor_support    12705  1 iTCO_wdt
hp_accel               25201  0 
rfkill                 19167  3 cfg80211,hp_wmi
lis3lv02d              17927  1 hp_accel
acpi_cpufreq           13355  1 
evdev                  17651  10 
mei                    31840  0 
i2c_algo_bit           12842  1 i915
coretemp               12855  0 
input_polldev          12907  1 lis3lv02d
lpc_ich                16758  0 
i2c_core               24042  6 drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,videodev
mfd_core               12602  1 lpc_ich
psmouse                69191  0 
serio_raw              12941  0 
mperf                  12454  1 acpi_cpufreq
wmi                    13244  1 hp_wmi
kvm                   309830  0 
crc32c_intel           12748  0 
ghash_clmulni_intel    13063  0 
cryptd                 14561  1 ghash_clmulni_intel
processor              28456  1 acpi_cpufreq
button                 12945  1 i915
battery                13147  0 
video                  17687  1 i915
ac                     12625  0 
ext4                  371544  1 
crc16                  12344  1 ext4
jbd2                   71913  1 ext4
mbcache                13115  1 ext4
sg                     26096  0 
sr_mod                 21946  0 
sd_mod                 40550  3 
cdrom                  35213  1 sr_mod
crc_t10dif             12349  1 sd_mod
xhci_hcd               78154  0 
ahci                   25061  2 
libahci                22919  1 ahci
thermal                17426  0 
thermal_sys            22342  3 video,thermal,processor
libata                141636  2 ahci,libahci
r8169                  52700  0 
scsi_mod              162399  4 sg,libata,sd_mod,sr_mod
ehci_hcd               40532  0 
microcode              30457  0 
mii                    12676  1 r8169
usbcore               134001  4 uvcvideo,ehci_hcd,usbhid,xhci_hcd
usb_common             12355  1 usbcore

Tried removing hp_wmi and wmi, they are related to sitching the state of the wifi with a key (link), but didn't worked.

The output of dmesg is quite long so here is some selected output,

root@kali:~# dmesg | egrep 'wmi|ath|hp'
[    0.000000] hpet clockevent registered
[    0.404244] hpet0: at MMIO 0xfed00000, IRQs 2, 8, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
[    0.404249] hpet0: 8 comparators, 64-bit 14.318180 MHz counter
[    0.406258] Switching to clocksource hpet
[    0.727804] pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.4
[    0.727806] acpiphp: ACPI Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.5
[    0.736978] rtc0: alarms up to one month, 242 bytes nvram, hpet irqs
[    1.169524] ata5.00: ATAPI: hp      DVD-RAM UJ8D1, H.01, max UDMA/100
[    1.210044] scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM            hp       DVD-RAM UJ8D1    H.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    3.686617] wmi: Mapper loaded
[    4.046717] hp_accel: laptop model unknown, using default axes configuration
[    4.092761] Registered led device: hp::hddprotect
[    4.782046] psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 7.5, id: 0x1e0b1, caps: 0xf00173/0x240000/0xa2400, board id: 2067, fw id: 1032759
[    4.805918] ath: phy0: ASPM enabled: 0x43
[    4.805927] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x6a
[    4.805931] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[    4.805937] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[    4.805940] ath: Regpair used: 0x6a
[    4.880838] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
[    4.881344] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0

If want the complete output of dmesg, just ask and I'll post it. Any Ideas??

Thanks