Arch Linux

smax

Member

Registered: 2012-03-14

Posts: 9

Wlan locked by hardware switch

Hey,
Yesterday I installed arch on my old desktop pc. Now I have some problems to run my Wlan.

Networkmanager always tells me that the Wireless was locked by a hardware switch, even if there is none.
First I thought I have to load some kernel modules. According to lsusb I have a Ralink RT2570 Wireless Adapter.

# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 0db0:4023 Micro Star International Lexar Mobile Card Reader
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0bc7:0006 X10 Wireless Technology, Inc. Wireless Transceiver (ACPI-compliant)
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0db0:6855 Micro Star International Bluetooth Device
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 148f:2570 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2570 Wireless Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 05e3:0605 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB 2.0 Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Therefor I tried to load the suitable module as it is described in the wiki
So I wrote the 'rt2500usb' module in a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ .
lsmod shows that the modules where loaded:

# lsmod 
Module                  Size  Used by
...
rt2500usb              32768  0 
rt2x00usb              20480  1 rt2500usb
rt2x00lib              45056  2 rt2x00usb,rt2500usb
...

However the wlan is still locked and rfkill returns:

# rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes

I tried to unlock it with 'rfkill unblock all' with no effect.

May someone can give me a hint what's wrong?

Thanks in advance

Wilco

Member

Registered: 2008-11-09

Posts: 440

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

You probably need to unlock it with a keyboard shortcut, i.e. physically pressing a key, often Fn +  a function key to remove the hardblock

dice

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-02-10

Posts: 413

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

@wilco: he said this is a desktop pc not a laptop so I doubt there is a FN+ something combination.

Does a reboot help?
Is your wifi module actually a real USB device or is it wired to your mainboard? If you are able to unplug it that might help.
I have only seen issues like this on laptops so far.

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Mercader1902

Member

Registered: 2014-09-01

Posts: 55

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Try to delete the module (modprobe -r XXX) or shutdown the driver if you can (ifconfig X down) and after, run rfkill to unblock your wireless card.

smax

Member

Registered: 2012-03-14

Posts: 9

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Thanks for your aid

@dice unfortunately it is a fix wired device

@Mercader1902 When I unloaded the module rfkill didn't show me the device. I also tried ifconfig X down but the wireless is still disabled

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,307

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Maybe try to load the windows driver with ndiswrapper, unload it and then load the linux driver.
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15679#c13

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Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,999

Website

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=181194

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

smax

Member

Registered: 2012-03-14

Posts: 9

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

@progandy thanks for the tipp. I am going to try ndiswrapper the next days. However the version from the AUR seems to be outdated.

@Head_on_a_Stick I tried to blacklist wmi but with no effect.

Because I was uncertain whether my Hardware works. I tried to boot an old live-System (I think it was Ubuntu 7.10) and the Wireless worked out of the box.  With a current live system I experienced the same issue. As it is described in @progandys link it seems to be related to some changes in the kernel ...

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,999

Website

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Because I was uncertain whether my Hardware works. I tried to boot an old live-System (I think it was Ubuntu 7.10) and the Wireless worked out of the box.  With a current live system I experienced the same issue. As it is described in @progandys link it seems to be related to some changes in the kernel ...

Have you tried the LTS kernel?
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?q=linux-lts

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,612

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Let's try a long shot.   What does the output of iwpriv have to say?

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The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

smax

Member

Registered: 2012-03-14

Posts: 9

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

@Head_on_a_Stick I just tried the lts and the 3.10 kernel without effect.

@ewaller iwprif returns:

 $ iwpriv
wlp0s29f7u6u1  no private ioctls.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,612

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

No joy there

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

smax

Member

Registered: 2012-03-14

Posts: 9

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Anyway, thank you all for the support. However I think I am going to get a new device. That might be an easier solution.

seeas81

Member

Registered: 2026-04-11

Posts: 1

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

I found a workaround. https://github.com/huppiflupp/rt2570-rf … /README.md

Inside the RT2570 chip there is a register called MAC_CSR19. It controls eight GPIO (general-purpose input/output) pins on the chip itself.

GPIO7 (bit 7 of MAC_CSR19) is used as the hardware radio kill signal. When this bit is 0, the Linux driver believes a hardware kill switch is asserting "radio OFF". When it is 1, the radio is allowed to run.

The Linux rt2500usb driver initialises GPIO7 as an output but never sets it high. So bit 7 stays at 0 forever, and rfkill permanently reports Hard blocked: yes.

The Windows driver sets bit 7 high at startup, which is why WiFi works in Windows.

This is a bug in the Linux driver. The fix is to write the correct value to MAC_CSR19 so that bit 7 is 1.

The register address in the chip is 0x0426. The value we need to write is 0xFE80:

Bits    Value    Meaning
15–9    1111111    GPIO 1–7 configured as outputs (unchanged)
8    0    GPIO 0 configured as input (unchanged)
7    1    GPIO7 output HIGH — releases the kill block
6–0    0000000    Other GPIO values (unchanged)

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,425

Website

Re: Wlan locked by hardware switch

Please file a bug report upstream and don't necrobump 10+ year old topics.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … mpty_posts

Closing.

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