Wifi Hardware Switch Not Working on HP Pavilion 15-n201nr Notebook PC - Hardware Blocked

I have an HP Pavilion 15-n201nr Notebook PC which appears to be stuck in airplane mode under any version of Linux I install. (I have tried Ubuntu 19.04, 18.04, and Fedora Workstation 30.) This is definitely not a hardware issue as Windows 10 is also (necessarily) on the machine in a dual boot configuration. Under Windows 10, the Wifi is fully functional and can be switched on and off, at will, via the F12 key on the keyboard. This is highly perplexing to me because, a couple of years ago, I had a version of Linux Mint installed that was able to utilize the Wifi without any problem.

I have tried several techniques to fix this problem but nothing seems to be working. I am running out of ideas and really need some help.

Based on advice from other posts, here are the approaches I have tried thus far:

Approach 1: Use rfkill to unblock wifi

I tried the following steps.

sudo rfkill list all

I see something like

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

sudo rfkill unblock wifi or, optionally... sudo rfkill unblock all

Press wireless button. (On the HP Pavilion, this is F12.)

Whenever I press a function key on the HP Pavilion, it always displays a little black panel with some text annotation referencing the key being pressed. When I press F12, whcih controls Wifi, it does pop up the little panel with the message "Harwdware Airplane...", which indicates it is receiving the keypress, but nothing changes.

Then check the status again with...

sudo rfkill list all

... and, I still have

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes

The result is always the same. It still shows as being hardware blocked.

Approach 2: Blacklist hp_wmi

I attempt to see if the hp_wmi module is loaded and then remove (blacklist) the same.

sudo lsmod | grep wmi

On Fedora I got ...

hp_wmi                 16384  0
sparse_keymap          16384  1 hp_wmi
rfkill                 28672  5 hp_wmi,cfg80211
wmi_bmof               16384  0
wmi                    36864  2 hp_wmi,wmi_bmof

On Ubuntu 19.04, I get

snd_rawmidi            36864  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi
snd                    81920  19 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi
hp_wmi                 16384  0
sparse_keymap          16384  1 hp_wmi
wmi_bmof               16384  0
wmi                    28672  2 hp_wmi,wmi_bmof

So, I try to kill the hp_wmi

sudo modprobe -r hp_wmi

Afterwards, I have ...

snd_rawmidi            36864  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi
snd                    81920  19 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi
wmi_bmof               16384  0
wmi                    28672  1 wmi_bmof

I also added hp_wmi to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file. (I am recalling the filename from memory, but I did add it to whatever blacklist.conf file existed.) Blacklisting did not work either.

After rebooting to restart the services, I find the issue is still there, and there is no Wifi.

More Specifics on the Machine

• HP Pavilion 15-n201nr Notebook PC
• Product Number: F5Y75UAR#ABA
• System Board: 216F
• BIOS: F.20 A
• Wifi: Internal Realtek RT3270

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04030181

What can I possibly do to get Wifi working on this laptop? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Solution 1:

Same issue for me on HP G6 laptop. 2 separate M.2 drives (psuedo-dual boot system), one with Windows 10, and one with Fedora 34. Powered on, and booted into Windows. Wifi hardware switch started orange (off) then went out and windows had wifi. Rebooted, now into Fedora... hardware switch orange, and stayed orange (off). Linux had no wifi --but all the standard debugging commands (rfkill, lspci, modinfo, dmesg | grep iwlwifi) showed the system loaded the driver fine, and detected the card --it just couldn't seem to turn it on? Toggling the hardware switch turned on/off Airplane mode in linux, but the orange light never went out on the wifi key.

Finally, I tried a hardware reset (https://support.hp.com/emea_africa-en/document/c01684768), which appeared to do absolutely nothing (no lights flicker or feedback of any kind...) then booted into Linux first and it worked. I wonder if windows "locks" the wifi after it shuts down, such that Linux see's it --but can't turn it ON by the procedures it uses?