Wireless Disabled by Hardware Switch issue on the Thinkpad Z570 in Ubuntu | Solution

By webmaster on June 15, 2011 - 14:59
GNU Linux

Wireless connectivity is one reason why laptops have become so popular in today’s world. But then there are a wide variety of laptops having a wide combination of parts from different manufacturers. This makes support for wireless vary across laptops with respect to Ubuntu/Linux. Not every laptop’s wireless network connectivity works directly from the installation of Ubuntu/Linux which is apparent from the numerous posts on the issue on the web. One needs to configure and tweak the settings to make it work. One such issue is found in the ThinkpadZ570 as described below.

Issue Faced
Wireless is disabled in Thinkpad Z570 when Ubuntu 11 is installed. The status message in the Network Manager says that the Wireless is disabled by the hardware switch. Wired Ethernet works fine with the Ubuntu 11 on Thinkpad Z570.

Details of the issue
david@david-Ideapad-Z570:~$ uname –a Linux david-Ideapad-Z570 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 11 03:31:50 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux david@david-Ideapad-Z570:~$ lspci |grep Atheros 02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01) david@david-Ideapad-Z570:~$ rfkill list 0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no 1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 2: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: yes 3: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no 4: hci0: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no
Solution for the Issue

The following commands will enables wireless till next boot
sudo service network-manager stop sudo rmmod acer_wmi sudo modprobe acer_wmi sudo rfkill unblock all sudo service network-manager start
After this step the status message in the Network Manager will be “Wireless is disabled”
Now Enable wireless from the Network Manager using the following commands
sudo rmmod -f acer_wmi
Wireless networks will be detected and connected.
To make this change permanent use
sudo su echo "blacklist acer_wmi" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf exit
Now if everything goes well you will have Wireless enabled on your Thinkpad. Thanks to David John for sending us the solution

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Comments

Thanks, Broadcom b4313 now works on Levono Z570 in Linux Mint 12

YoH (not verified) wrote on March 23, 2012 - 08:41

Thank You so Much for providing the solution to my Broadcom driver problem.
Despite trying several solutions on several different distos and installing various drivers on my laptop, I was unable to get the b43 working in Levono Z570 until I came across your posting at this page after three weeks of searching user groups, search engines and wikis.
Who would ever have thought that it was the acer wireless module that was causing the problem all along?
Thank you, your the best.

Ubuntu though on one hand is

Brain (not verified) wrote on March 7, 2012 - 19:03

Ubuntu though on one hand is free operating system provided by Linux but still there has to go many development process to fix the bugs, Once after working with window, we find it hard to switch to ubuntu.

Thanks Buddy... this was a

Amju (not verified) wrote on February 11, 2012 - 00:50

Thanks Buddy... this was a really helpful,,....

Thanks a lot

Thank you!! It already works

sbpipb (not verified) wrote on February 3, 2012 - 19:30

Thank you!! It already works for me!!! woohoo thanks a million times for this post!!!

WIRELESS LAN NOT WORKING Ubuntu Lenovo B460

sbpipb (not verified) wrote on February 3, 2012 - 19:24

otoy@otoy:~$ uname -a
Linux otoy 3.0.0-15-generic #26-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 20 15:59:53 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
otoy@otoy:~$ lspci | grep Atheros
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
04:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
otoy@otoy:~$ rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
3: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo service network-manager stop
[sudo] password for otoy:
network-manager stop/waiting
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo rmmod -f acer_wmi
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo rfkill unblock all
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo service network-manager start
network-manager start/running, process 1886
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo rmmod -f acer_wmi
ERROR: Removing 'acer_wmi': No such file or directory
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo rmmod -f acer_wmi
ERROR: Removing 'acer_wmi': No such file or directory
otoy@otoy:~$ sudo su
root@otoy:/home/otoy# vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
root@otoy:/home/otoy#

MY WI-LAN IS STILL NOT WORKING :(( NEED HELP!!!

lenovo b560 WORKS!!!!

irena (not verified) wrote on January 7, 2012 - 23:04

Thank you so much :-)) It works for me

lenovo b560 WORKS!!!!

irena (not verified) wrote on January 7, 2012 - 23:02

Thank you so much :-)

Thanks a lot. This worked for

Dev (not verified) wrote on December 26, 2011 - 22:43

Thanks a lot. This worked for my HP DV2214TU.

THANK YOU xD For you help. :)

Anonymously named (not verified) wrote on December 24, 2011 - 12:17

THANK YOU
xD

For you help. :)

same problem

Anonymous (not verified) wrote on December 15, 2011 - 07:40

i have an Acer 5620Z and i've the same problem but this poste wasn't helpful for me
when i was with zorin 2.23 it was fine but now wireless doesnt work even the installation of the hardware from
the addition drivers, any ideas please

WOW

anonymous (not verified) wrote on December 6, 2011 - 08:08

dude i have been searching for months for a fix on this. tried a MILLION things and this is the only one that actually worked THANKS A MILLION.
my lappy is a lenovo b570 wireless adapter is the atheros ar2985
and im currently running fedora 15 and linux mint 11

linux mint 11 is wireless able now
bout to go check if this fix works on fedora

AGAIN THANK YOU SO MUCH

work with toshiba NB250

mimmo (not verified) wrote on October 28, 2011 - 14:25

i work with toshiba NB 250

Many Thanks

rfwebster (not verified) wrote on October 8, 2011 - 02:48

Have followed many things and have been unsucessful, however this worked perfectly!

Cheers Mate

(Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 - Fedora 15)

Perfect

Pavan Kumar Kaushik (not verified) wrote on October 2, 2011 - 15:07

Simply Perfect. Thanks a ton. But any idea how to default it up in the next release ?

Thanks

Paul (not verified) wrote on September 28, 2011 - 07:35

Thanks! It worked for me on my Ideapad z570.
To the post above me, booting in windows and enabling wireless card didn't work for me.

Glad to be of service.

webmaster wrote on September 28, 2011 - 12:52

Glad to be of service.

work on HP 6730s

Amir Beshkar (not verified) wrote on September 22, 2011 - 11:37

its work on HP 6730s on Ubuntu 11.04
changing "acer_wmi" in above steps to "hp_wmi"
so thank you !!!!!

Many thanks

amrita k (not verified) wrote on August 20, 2011 - 01:35

Worked on a lenovo Z570 using a Broadcomm 4313 on Fedora 15, after configuring RPM repos, installing akmod-wl, and changing "network-manager" in above steps to "NetworkManager". Thanks for the good work :)

Fedora 15: "lspci | grep

Anonymous (not verified) wrote on October 16, 2011 - 16:40

Fedora 15:

"lspci | grep Wireless" showed Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter.

I think there are some typos (-f and -r), this worked for me:

sudo service NetworkManager stop
sudo rmmod -f acer_wmi
sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi
sudo rfkill unblock all
sudo service NetworkManager start

worked!

Jens (not verified) wrote on August 18, 2011 - 14:08

Thanks a lot, worked like a charm on my Ideapad U330.

worked for me, thanks a lot!

Paul Wenzel (not verified) wrote on August 11, 2011 - 21:41

worked for me, thanks a lot! was losing all hope and getting quite frustrated, so thank you!!

Derp

Anonymous Coward (not verified) wrote on July 21, 2011 - 14:52

Yeah, that's all fine and good if you have Windows.

Wireless disabled in Lenovo Ideapad Z570 after loading Ubuntu11

Rajagopal (not verified) wrote on August 11, 2011 - 10:19

I loaded Ubuntu 11.04 through windows 7 & after that wireless stopped working in both Ubuntu & windows7. I overcame this issue by following (line-by-line) what George had suggested. Subsequently now the wireless is working in both Ubuntu & windows. Thanks a lot, George.