"Wi-Fi is disabled by hardware switch" on an ASUS laptop with the latest kernel

[Jake Jast]

I' ve recently bought an ASUS notebook (X551CA-SX024D) and I've installed on it Fedora 19 x86_64. It works fine, but, since I've installed the latest kernel (3.11.11-200), I cannot connect to the internet trought Wi-Fi! When I click on the Network Manager panel icon (I use XFCE) it says "Wi-Fi is disabled by hardware switch". Somewhere, I've found that this issue is mostly related to a physical switch turned off on the laptop: mine has a key combination (fn+f2) but, by pressing it, nothing happens. The problem is surely connected to the new kernel, because if I boot with the older one (3.9.5-301) everything works fine.
What can I do?

[William Haller]

Can you use rfkill to get it to work - use the unblock option. Perhaps something just got toggled wrong between the hardware keys and what the software thinks their state is.

FWIW, I still keep a 3.8.8 kernel around for my old HP laptop since that's the last one that I can enable wireless on. Sigh.

[Maryyy]

I had the same problem in F20 with Asus X550C, which uses the asus_nb_wmi module. The hardware switch is a bit flaky, as the led isn't lit up even if wifi is active. Anyway, solution for me is as follows:

- As root, create a file named e.g. asus-wifi.conf and put it in in /etc/modprobe.d/
- Insert this line in it: options asus_nb_wmi wapf=1
- Reboot and see if wifi works.

Works for me just fine, although it doesn't fix the wifi switching with Fn+F2, but that's not a problem for me.
More info and where I got the fix from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2181558

Possibly just blacklisting the module can work too, as some people reported, but I haven't tried.

[Jake Jast]

Thanks all for answering quickly.

@William Haller: I've already tried with rfkill but it didn't work.

@Maryy: Your solution works! Thanks!

[Maryyy]

Glad it helped.

[Avillacampa]

Sorry to bring up such an old issue but I just wanted to let you guys know that I just bought my wife this laptop and had the same issue. Fedora 20 installed perfect only thing missing was wifi. fn+F2 does nothing and the wifi led is off, however after following Maryyy's instructions and rebooting, now it works!!

I appreciate the fix very much however this thread was started nearly 6 months ago, why has there been a bug report or related fix in Fedora by now? Or will it be fixed in 21?

[Bucaneer]

I had the same problem in F20 with Asus X550C, which uses the asus_nb_wmi module. The hardware switch is a bit flaky, as the led isn't lit up even if wifi is active. Anyway, solution for me is as follows:

- As root, create a file named e.g. asus-wifi.conf and put it in in /etc/modprobe.d/
- Insert this line in it: options asus_nb_wmi wapf=1
- Reboot and see if wifi works.

Works for me just fine, although it doesn't fix the wifi switching with Fn+F2, but that's not a problem for me.
More info and where I got the fix from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2181558

Possibly just blacklisting the module can work too, as some people reported, but I haven't tried.

Great Job, finally a solution that works. Over at Bugzilla they still don´t have a solution.
ASUS X551CA, Fedora 21 x64

[ariveamar]

I also do that, but my wifi still turn off.
Would you like to give me another solutions.

[smr54]

Is it an Asus? Look through the manual (find it online if you didn't get it with the machine) and see if there's a hardware switch on the machine. For example, either an old Asus or Acer of mine, I've forgotten which) had a hardware wifi switch--it wasn't locked in place, you just pushed it, and it went back into place. So, though there may have a light with the default Windows install (which I wiped upon purchase, so I couldn't tell with that) to indicate whether it was on or off, at that time, there was no such indicator with Linux. At any rate, I could check with rfkill if it was hardware blocked--if it was, I would have to push that switch again.

[ariveamar]

Yes, my laptop is asus. My laptop dont have the buttor or something to switch wifi turn on. There is only button Fn+F2 But it is not work. My problem is when I turn on the wifi, the wifi always drop and won't turn on. Could you give me a solution for this case.

[smr54]

I would open a new thread. First of all, the original poster marked this thread solved, so lots of people won't bother looking at it. As for troubleshooting your issue, people would need more information. I have a page that deals with trying to figure out if it is the driver, as opposed to NetworkManager, at http://srobb.net/wireless.html. I would recommend opening a new thread with a descriptive subject line.

[ariveamar]

Thanks for your advice.
May be I will open ne thread.