Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

obankobi · 2010-09-17 00:05:25

I have Arch Linux and Windows XP installed on my Toshiba NB205 netbook. Yesterday, I was using XP and switched the Wifi off by using FN + F8. It doesn't have a physical switch, just the FN + F8 combo. I booted into Arch, tried to connect to Wifi, only to be told that RF-kill was preventing it. Obviously, booting into XP was the natural solution. I received a "WINDOWS/system32/hal.dll not found" error, which I also have yet to solve. Apparently the hard switch is enabled, preventing Arch from starting it. I've tried rfkill unblock 1, resetting the Bios, and it off with the battery removed for a while as suggested in other similar threads. I cannot for the life of me get the card to turn on. Is there any way other than those to fix this? The wifi card is an Atheros and I'm using the ath9k driver.

Thanks

ewaller · 2010-09-18 23:01:45

could you post the output of rfkill list ???

obankobi · 2010-09-19 18:34:11

wlan0
softblock =0
hardblock =1

Sooo, in case anyone else encounters this problem in the future, there seems to be a way to fix it. I reformatted my drive, and managed to get a Windows XP disc to boot, it really didn't like that there was no unpartitioned space. I'm downloading the wireless drivers for XP on another computer now, I'll edit this if I succeed in turning it back on.

hokasch · 2010-09-19 19:17:01

"harblocked" means wireless is turned of by some kind of hardware-switch. In your case, this should be toggled by Fn+F8. Have you tried that?

obankobi · 2010-09-20 22:08:30

Yeah, but Linux doesn't recognize it. Of course it recognized every other FN combo I managed to reset it with XP, I'm setting up Arch at the moment. It created an interface properly, but it wouldn't dhcpcd, so I'm updating it now, with painfully slow internet. Hopefully it will work. Thanks for your help

ewaller · 2010-09-20 22:50:40

obankobi wrote:

Yeah, but Linux doesn't recognize it. Of course it recognized every other FN combo

In the words of Tom Lehrer, "It makes you feel like a Christian Scientist with Appendicitis"

In my spare time, I'd work on a way to unblock it from with Linux.

obankobi · 2010-09-21 19:16:53

Well I seem to have unblocked it with Windows. But now I have a new problem...

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-17 00:05:25

Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

#2 2010-09-18 23:01:45

Re: Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

#3 2010-09-19 18:34:11

Re: Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

#4 2010-09-19 19:17:01

Re: Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

#5 2010-09-20 22:08:30

Re: Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

#6 2010-09-20 22:50:40

Re: Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

#7 2010-09-21 19:16:53

Re: Wlan0 RF-kill Hard Block: 1

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