Wireless is disabled by hardware switch

[Jaime Fernando Ortega Culaciati]

I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 (Amd64) in my computer. I updated my system today to ensure that i have the latest software. The problem is that I get an error in nm-applet that says "Wireless is disabled by hardware switch", this happened after I used the hardware switch to turn my wi-fi off because i was going to share my smartphone's 3g connection using the usb cable. After this, i turned my computer off, and now that i want to use my wireless i can't, it doesn't matter how many times i restart my computer, it doesn't work.

In the terminal, when I try to do an "sudo ifconfig wlan0 up", it shows me an error that says:

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

This must be some bug of my wireless card driver, but i don't know which package contains it.

[Jaime Fernando Ortega Culaciati (jotafoc)]

An screenshot that shows the error

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/997900/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

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[William Ranvaud (wiranvaud)]

There are plenty of askubuntu similar issues. (e.g. http://askubuntu.com/questions/139036/ubuntu-12-04-says-wireless-is-disabled-by-hardware-switch) and launchpad answers too.

The wireless shuts down and won't turn on again after the switch in turned on. Proposed solution is to run "rfkill unblock all" from terminal.

[Jaime Fernando Ortega Culaciati (jotafoc)]

Thanks!!! that's a good workaround for the moment =), i hope that this could be fixed soon!!

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Stupid question, but you did turn off the hardware switch again? A workaround is of course to turn off the network in the network menu instead.

[Daniel Ejsing-Duun (zilvador)]

I just had the same problem, but I found out that it was because I disactivated the wireless by the option in the indicator menu without remembering to turn it on again. Still the text read "wireless is disabled by hardware switch", which was not true. I think the text could be more detailed and describing and help users find the cause of the problem more easily on their own.