wifi softblocked by asus_nb_wmi on asus vivobook s14 oled

[ian su]

After installing backport-iwlwifi-dkms on ubuntu 25.04 on kernel 12.1 based on Bug #2085547, the wifi is working.

However, rfkill still shows wifi as soft blocked and the gui says wifi is disabled. This might be a driver issue specifically for my asus laptop. Attached is the screenshot of gui glitch.

My laptop model is asus vivo book s14 q423 (https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/for-home/vivobook/asus-vivobook-s-14-q423/).

# uname -a

Linux lunar-vivo 6.12.1-061201-generic #202411221622 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Nov 27 04:16:22 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# lspci -nnk | grep -A3 Network

00:14.3 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a840] (rev 10)
 DeviceName: Onboard - Ethernet
 Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:00e4]
 Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

# sudo grep dmesg | grep iwl
[ 2.311800] iwlwifi_compat: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 2.311805] iwlwifi_compat: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ 2.319192] Loading modules backported from iwlwifi
[ 2.319198] iwlwifi-stack-public:release/core91:12629:813fd3c6
[ 2.403518] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 2.410971] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected crf-id 0x2001910, cnv-id 0x1080900 wfpm id 0x80005b20
[ 2.410981] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: PCI dev a840/00e4, rev=0x461, rfid=0x20112200
[ 2.410983] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 7 BE201 320MHz
[ 2.421528] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: TLV_FW_FSEQ_VERSION: FSEQ Version: 0.0.4.191
[ 2.421962] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 94.62990553.0 bz-b0-fm-c0-94.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[ 2.917501] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded PNVM version 35c04ca8
[ 2.936576] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected RF FM, rfid=0x20112200
[ 3.025587] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: base HW address: a8:59:5f:f7:95:18
[ 3.096933] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3 wlo1: renamed from wlan0
[ 17.336806] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Registered PHC clock: iwlwifi-PTP, with index: 0

# iw dev

phy#0
 Unnamed/non-netdev interface
  wdev 0x2
  addr a8:59:5f:f7:95:19
  type P2P-device
 Interface wlo1
  ifindex 2
  wdev 0x1
  addr a8:59:5f:f7:95:18
  ssid Verizon_HLR7GP
  type managed
  channel 104 (5520 MHz), width: 80 MHz, center1: 5530 MHz
  txpower 22.00 dBm
  multicast TXQ:
   qsz-byt qsz-pkt flows drops marks overlmt hashcol tx-bytes tx-packets
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

# rfkill list all

0: hci0: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no
2: asus-bluetooth: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

# sudo lshw -C network

  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Intel Corporation
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 14.3
       bus info: pci@0000:00:14.3
       logical name: wlo1
       version: 10
       serial: a8:59:5f:f7:95:18
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=6.12.1-061201-generic firmware=94.62990553.0 bz-b0-fm-c0-94.uc ip=192.168.1.251 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes
       resources: iomemory:300-2ff irq:18 memory:301432c000-301432ffff

# cat /etc/os-release

PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu Plucky Puffin (development branch)"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="25.04"
VERSION="25.04 (Plucky Puffin)"
VERSION_CODENAME=plucky
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=plucky
LOGO=ubuntu-logo

[ian su (iannnn)]

journalctl -u NetworkManager

[ian su (iannnn)]

screen shot of gui

[ian su (iannnn)]

After unloading the asus_nb_wmi module using

sudo modprobe -r asus_nb_wmi

everything works now! So this is indeed a bug of asus driver

[Juerg Haefliger (juergh)]

You're running a mainline kernel which is unsupported. If you want us to look at it, you need to reproduce the problem with a supported kernel from the Ubuntu archive.