Wireless device hard blocked

fluffhoofd · 2017-03-11 21:53:13

Hello,

I've seen multiple threads about this problem but none of the proposed solutions helped me. I have been troubleshooting for two days now.

The problem is my internal wireless interface in my laptop (Asus N56JN) seems to be hard blocked.

I tried to simply unblock using fn+f2. Unfortunately without result. Not even getting a keypress response with xev.

# ifconfig wlan0 up

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

# rfkill list all

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

Unblocking/blocking with rfkill only affects soft block state.

Things I've tried thus far:

Reloading asus_bn_wmi module with wapf parameter. (tried all values 0-9)

# modprobe -r asus_bn_wmi
# modprobe -v asus_bn_wmi wapf=4

or:

# echo "options asus_nb_wmi wapf=4" > /etc/modprobe.d/asus_nb_wmi.conf

I tried blacklisting both the modules asus_bn_wmi and/or asus_wmi.

I have another usb wifi card (Alfa AWUS036NH) which I can now use if set up manually. Strangely, nm-applet says both my wireless interfaces are disabled by hardware switch (which is not true in one case...)

Here is some additional info:

#### release ###########################

Distributor ID:	BunsenLabs
Description:	BunsenLabs GNU/Linux 8.7 (Hydrogen)
Release:	8.7
Codename:	bunsen-hydrogen

##### kernel ############################

Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.39-1+deb8u2 (2017-03-07) x86_64 unknown unknown GNU/Linux

Parameters: ro, initrd=/install/gtk/initrd.gz, quiet

##### lspci #############################

05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Ralink corp. RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe [1814:3290]
	Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device [105b:e055]
	Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci

06:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:200f]
	Kernel driver in use: r8169

##### lsmod #############################

ath9k_htc              60499  0 
ath9k_common           21746  1 ath9k_htc
ath9k_hw              391172  2 ath9k_common,ath9k_htc
ath                    26067  3 ath9k_common,ath9k_htc,ath9k_hw
rt2800pci              13049  0 
rt2800mmio             13390  1 rt2800pci
rt2800lib              81131  2 rt2800pci,rt2800mmio
rt2x00pci              12520  1 rt2800pci
rt2x00mmio             12601  2 rt2800pci,rt2800mmio
rt2x00lib              42331  5 rt2x00pci,rt2800lib,rt2800pci,rt2800mmio,rt2x00mmio
eeprom_93cx6           12625  1 rt2800pci
mac80211              482315  4 rt2x00lib,rt2x00pci,rt2800lib,ath9k_htc
asus_nb_wmi            20664  0 
asus_wmi               22781  1 asus_nb_wmi
sparse_keymap          12818  1 asus_wmi
mxm_wmi                12515  1 nouveau
cfg80211              413730  5 ath,ath9k_common,mac80211,rt2x00lib,ath9k_htc
crc_ccitt              12347  1 rt2800lib
rfkill                 18867  2 cfg80211,asus_wmi
wmi                    17339  3 mxm_wmi,nouveau,asus_wmi
video                  18096  3 i915,nouveau,asus_wmi
usbcore               195468  6 uvcvideo,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid,ath9k_htc,xhci_hcd

##### interfaces ########################

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

##### ifconfig ##########################

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <MAC 'eth0' [IF1]>  
          inet addr:192.168.2.6  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::<IP6 'eth0' [IF1]>/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:155554 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:81828 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:208644034 (198.9 MiB)  TX bytes:7913121 (7.5 MiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <MAC 'wlan0' [IF2]>  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

##### iwconfig ##########################

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

Is there someone who can help me out?

damo · 2017-03-11 22:49:02

Recent hardware? You may need a newer kernel from backports.

fluffhoofd · 2017-03-11 23:36:25

Updating to a newer kernel from backports would be my last resort.
The thing is.... wifi used to work just fine on my machine. I'm trying to figure out why it got blocked.

damo · 2017-03-11 23:49:46

fluffhoofd wrote:

Updating to a newer kernel from backports would be my last resort.
The thing is.... wifi used to work just fine on my machine. I'm trying to figure out why it got blocked.

So what did you do? Upgrade, dist-upgrade, install something?

fluffhoofd · 2017-03-12 00:21:06

damo wrote:

fluffhoofd wrote:
Updating to a newer kernel from backports would be my last resort.
The thing is.... wifi used to work just fine on my machine. I'm trying to figure out why it got blocked.
So what did you do? Upgrade, dist-upgrade, install something?

I have certainly upgraded and installed stuff a few times.

I think it would be hard to determine which update/install caused problems because I don't know the exact moment wifi stopped working. I am usually plugged in to the ethernet port and it has been a while since I have used wifi.

March 9th was the day I noticed my wifi didn't work. Here is the apt history log for the days before that.

Start-Date: 2017-02-25  12:31:50
Commandline: apt upgrade
Upgrade: libreoffice-base-core:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), libreoffice-style-crystal:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64:amd64 (3.16.39-1, 3.16.39-1+deb8u1), ure:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), libreoffice-writer:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), uno-libs3:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), fonts-opensymbol:amd64 (102.6+LibO4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 102.6+LibO4.3.3-2+deb8u6), firefox:amd64 (51.0.1-1~bpo80+1, 51.0.1-3~bpo80+1), libreoffice-core:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), libreoffice-style-hicontrast:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), linux-headers-3.16.0-4-amd64:amd64 (3.16.39-1, 3.16.39-1+deb8u1), libreoffice-common:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), linux-compiler-gcc-4.8-x86:amd64 (3.16.39-1, 3.16.39-1+deb8u1), libreoffice-gtk:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), passwd:amd64 (4.2-3+deb8u1, 4.2-3+deb8u3), libreoffice-style-tango:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), login:amd64 (4.2-3+deb8u1, 4.2-3+deb8u3), libreoffice-style-galaxy:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), libreoffice-style-oxygen:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6), linux-libc-dev:amd64 (3.16.39-1, 3.16.39-1+deb8u1), linux-headers-3.16.0-4-common:amd64 (3.16.39-1, 3.16.39-1+deb8u1), libreoffice-style-sifr:amd64 (4.3.3-2+deb8u5, 4.3.3-2+deb8u6)
End-Date: 2017-02-25  12:32:23

Start-Date: 2017-02-28  14:11:04
Commandline: apt upgrade
Upgrade: bind9-host:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), liblwres90:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libdns100:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libisc-export95:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libisccfg90:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libbind9-90:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libisccfg-export90:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libdns-export100:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libirs-export91:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libisccc90:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10), libisc95:amd64 (9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u9, 9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10)
End-Date: 2017-02-28  14:11:06

Start-Date: 2017-03-05  16:25:37
Commandline: apt install ncdu
Install: ncdu:amd64 (1.10-1)
End-Date: 2017-03-05  16:25:38

Start-Date: 2017-03-06  15:13:49
Commandline: apt install hydrogen
Install: libqt4-xml:amd64 (4.8.6+git64-g5dc8b2b+dfsg-3+deb8u1, automatic), libqt4-network:amd64 (4.8.6+git64-g5dc8b2b+dfsg-3+deb8u1, automatic), libqt4-xmlpatterns:amd64 (4.8.6+git64-g5dc8b2b+dfsg-3+deb8u1, automatic), hydrogen-drumkits:amd64 (0.9.3.20070703-3, automatic), libqtdbus4:amd64 (4.8.6+git64-g5dc8b2b+dfsg-3+deb8u1, automatic), rubberband-cli:amd64 (1.8.1-6, automatic), librubberband2:amd64 (1.8.1-6, automatic), libportmidi0:amd64 (184-2.2, automatic), hydrogen:amd64 (0.9.6.1-1)
End-Date: 2017-03-06  15:13:51

Start-Date: 2017-03-06  16:17:26
Commandline: apt upgrade
Upgrade: yad:amd64 (0.37.0-1.1, 0.38.2-1.1)
End-Date: 2017-03-06  16:17:26

Start-Date: 2017-03-07  13:51:58
Commandline: apt remove surf
Remove: surf:amd64 (0.6-1)
End-Date: 2017-03-07  13:51:59

Last edited by fluffhoofd (2017-03-12 00:21:46)

damo · 2017-03-12 00:30:46

Does this post help - https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2181558?
(First hit with "asus hard-blocked")

ohnonot · 2017-03-12 06:33:33

i'd say the unblocking has to happen during bootup.
if rfkill cannot do it, maybe there's some acpi switch that has to be added to the kernel command line.
the "wapf=4", what does it do, where'd you get it from?
the UF thread is long. maybe other solutions in it? didn't read it all. same for the bug report.

but hmmm, yes, everything seems to be leading back to wapf=4.

you could still try to search bbs.archlinux.org.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-03-12 12:22:16

Check the firmware ("BIOS") settings for any wireless options.

If all else fails, reset the firmware completely.

fluffhoofd · 2017-03-12 12:44:58

damo wrote:

Does this post help - https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2181558?
(First hit with "asus hard-blocked")

ohnonot wrote:

the "wapf=4", what does it do, where'd you get it from?

I got it from the same thread you mentioned on ubuntuforums. The wapf value is from the documentation from the driver source.

/*
   * WAPF defines the behavior of the Fn+Fx wlan key
   * The significance of values is yet to be found, but
   * most of the time:
   * Bit | Bluetooth | WLAN
   *  0  | Hardware  | Hardware
   *  1  | Hardware  | Software
   *  4  | Software  | Software
   */

fluffhoofd · 2017-03-12 12:47:47

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Check the firmware ("BIOS") settings for any wireless options.
If all else fails, reset the firmware completely.

Already been there. No success...

o9000 · 2017-03-12 15:22:41

Workaround. Boot from a windows live CD, turn wifi on, reboot. The latest Ubuntu/debian live cd might work too.

unklar · 2017-03-12 21:30:07

The rfkill output shows that the two modules are interfering.

first:

lsmod | grep -i asus

when the output is e.g. Is:

asus_nb_wmi
asus_wmi

then:

modprobe -r asus_nb_wmi

and now test whether wireless can be switched.
On success, the module blacklisten.

fluffhoofd · 2017-03-13 11:46:11

o9000 wrote:

Workaround. Boot from a windows live CD, turn wifi on, reboot. The latest Ubuntu/debian live cd might work too.

I replaced the ssd in my laptop with the previous hdd with windows 10 on it; No wifi problems...

Then from windows 10 I created three live usb's: Bunsen, Antergos and Lubuntu. All three had the wifi hardblocked.

I think I have to go back to BIOS to figure things out.

@unklar, I have already tried it. Still, phy0 is hard blocked.

Julian dFx · 2017-03-17 13:22:09

fluffhoofd wrote:

o9000 wrote:
Workaround. Boot from a windows live CD, turn wifi on, reboot. The latest Ubuntu/debian live cd might work too.
I replaced the ssd in my laptop with the previous hdd with windows 10 on it; No wifi problems...
Then from windows 10 I created three live usb's: Bunsen, Antergos and Lubuntu. All three had the wifi hardblocked.
I think I have to go back to BIOS to figure things out.
@unklar, I have already tried it. Still, phy0 is hard blocked.

I got the problem too when I bought Asus N551ZU,
I create ugly script like this,, but its work for me...

#!/bin/bash
padid=$(xinput list | grep Touchpad | cut -d"=" -f 2 | grep '^[0-9]\{,4\}')
xinput set-prop $padid "Device Enabled" 0
rfkill block all
rmmod asus_nb_wmi
for j in $(find /sys/devices | grep soft$);do
	echo 0 > $j;
done;
for j in $(iwconfig 2>/dev/null | grep -v '^\s' | cut -d" " -f 1);do
	iwlist $j scan;
done;

#1 2017-03-11 21:53:13

Wireless device hard blocked

#2 2017-03-11 22:49:02

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#3 2017-03-11 23:36:25

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#4 2017-03-11 23:49:46

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#5 2017-03-12 00:21:06

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#6 2017-03-12 00:30:46

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#7 2017-03-12 06:33:33

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#8 2017-03-12 12:22:16

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#9 2017-03-12 12:44:58

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#10 2017-03-12 12:47:47

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#11 2017-03-12 15:22:41

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#12 2017-03-12 21:30:07

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#13 2017-03-13 11:46:11

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

#14 2017-03-17 13:22:09

Re: Wireless device hard blocked

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