Created attachment 504554 [details]
Airplane activation screenshot

To be more precise it seems to be a bug from the control center, not the network manager

What do you get of
$ rfkill list

Try
# rfkill unblock all

Maybe, platform driver (hp-wmi) could block wireless.

Check if it is loaded:
$ lsmod | grep hp

And try removing the driver:
# rmmod -f hp-wmi
# rfkill unblock all
$ rfkill list

I had this problem on a Toshiba Satellite pro 64bit FC15. 

Wireless reported in airplane mode and the control was greyed out.

I could turn the wireless off with a switch on the front of the laptop.
I turned off wireless using this switch, rebooted, turned switch on.

All now OK.

Hi,


"rfkill unblock all" successfully re-activate my wireless card !

Anyway the bug remains in the control center gui.
Here is the output of rfkill list after activating airplane in control center gui.
The output remains the always the same even if I try to deactivate airplane within control center gui...


[root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill list
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: yes
2: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no


Thanks a lot for your help !
Now i won't have to re-setup M$ windows to reactivate my card :-)

That's not a control center bug, rather a kernel one.

Please, make sure you have enabled WiFi by a hardware switch. And, try to activate a WiFi with a key combination for your laptop. If that doesn't help, hp-wmi platform driver is misbehaving for your laptop and you should file a bug against kernel.

If removing hp-wmi driver (described in comment #2) helps, you can blacklist the driver permanently:
# echo "blacklist hp-wmi" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Do you have hp-wmi loaded?  Or not?  If so, does blacklisting resolve the problem?

Hi guys,


by default hp-wmi is loaded on my system.


I tried unloading it and then activate / deactivate airplane mode.
My wireless network connection got well deactivated / activated so there is nothing annoying here, but... in that case, airplane seems to be "just" a software play with the status of the card.

Indeed, there is a blue led showing the status of the wireless card (on/off).
When hp-wmi is not loaded, activating/deactivating airplane mode has no effect on it (the led remains on)

Therefore I think that without hp-wmi, airplane mode doesn't really switch off my wireless card. (with hp-wmi, activating airplane switch off the led, but -- here is the bug -- it never switches it on when leaving airplane mode)



Anyway, while "rfkill unblock all" sucessfully re-activate my card, i'm not sure it is a kernel bug... 
If it was, "rfkill unblock all" wouldn't work, would it ??

Let me know if you want more testing...

If rfkill unblock all works, this sounds like a userspace issue.

I think I might found the problem,

From latest git pull, On line 3305-3307 in src/nm-manager.c :

	old_enabled = radio_enabled_for_rstate (rstate, TRUE);
	rstate->user_enabled = enabled;
	new_enabled = radio_enabled_for_rstate (rstate, FALSE);

When disabling a wifi, old_enabled != new_enabled and new_enabled == 0;

Which in turn will run the following lines:

	if (new_enabled != old_enabled) {
		manager_update_radio_enabled (self, rstate, new_enabled);

		/* For WiFi only (for now) set the actual kernel rfkill state */
		if (rstate->rtype == RFKILL_TYPE_WLAN)
			rfkill_change_wifi (rstate->desc, new_enabled);
	}

But when re-enabling wifi, the case will be: old_enabled == new_enabled and new_enabled == 0; which in that case the enabling code will never get ran.

Hope it helps.

I am not technically capable of fixing this issue following Arief's comment. Fedora 15 didn't have this issue for me, until a recent update to network manager - et al. I'm not 100% sure it was that particular update that did it, but it seems likely.

The symptoms I have is this: Airplane mode is on in the Network Settings screen. When I turn it off, I am unable to turn the WiFi on. I close the screen, and immediately return to the Network Settings and to my great surprise, Airplane Mode is back on.

rfkill unblock all does not change anything. Something is overriding any changes to the Airplane mode.

Here's what rfkill does for me:

$rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
$ su -
#rfkill unblock all   <-- no error message, or any other message appears; just prompt.
#rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

(In reply to comment #4)
> 
> "rfkill unblock all" successfully re-activate my wireless card !
> 
> [root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill list
> 0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
>  Soft blocked: yes
>  Hard blocked: no
> 1: phy0: Wireless LAN
>  Soft blocked: yes
>  Hard blocked: yes
Do you want to say that 'rfkill unblock all' enables even 'Hard blocked' WiFi? It should not, because it indicates that WiFi is switched off via hardware switch.

(In reply to comment #11)
> 1: phy0: Wireless LAN
> Soft blocked: no
> Hard blocked: yes
Ben, did you enable WiFi via a hardware switch?

Could anyone seeing the issue attach /var/log/messages? Are there any errors regarding killswitch handling?

The hp-wmi soft block will, if unblocked, remove the phy0 hard block. That's expected behaviour.

(In reply to comment #12)
> (In reply to comment #11)
> > 1: phy0: Wireless LAN
> > Soft blocked: no
> > Hard blocked: yes
> Ben, did you enable WiFi via a hardware switch?
Yes, several times - and nothing happen(s/ed).
 
> Could anyone seeing the issue attach /var/log/messages? Are there any errors
> regarding killswitch handling?
I would, had I kept them. However, I need my machine for work, and it works fine WITHOUT updating!
I reinstalled, and am not planning to run any updates till F16 comes along. I hope you understand. If I get the same issue with F16, I will give you all you ask for.

Hi,

i made some extra tests :


A. After boot, radio hardware switch off
[root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill list
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes
2: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes


B. After boot, radio hardware switch on
[root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill list
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
4: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no


C. After activating airplane mode
[root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill list
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
2: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: yes
4: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no


D. Trying to deactivate airplane mode doesn't change the output (same output as when airplane mode is activated)


E.
[root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill unblock all
[root@localhost liveuser]# rfkill list
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
4: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no


No specific error in /var/log/message :
--> At step C. :
Sep 14 23:09:51 localhost NetworkManager[841]: <info> WiFi hardware radio set disabled
Sep 14 23:09:51 localhost NetworkManager[841]: <info> WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch


--> No further output during step D.


--> rfkill unblock all
Sep 14 23:10:22 localhost NetworkManager[841]: <info> WiFi now enabled by radio killswitch
Sep 14 23:10:22 localhost NetworkManager[841]: <info> (eth1): bringing up device.

having the same issue here. solved following this 

http://karim-ouda.blogspot.com/2011/11/wifi-now-disabled-by-radio-killswitch.html

hope this helps.

Thanks, Leonardo, it didn't help me. In my bios, my Wifi is enabled.

I'm commenting here, but I'm suffering from this bug too in Fedora 16 - if I need to file a new bug-report, please let me know. I will.

Symptom: New install works fine, until in the standard installed network gui the wifi-switch is turned off. Airplane mode comes on, and refuses to go off. I am ready to do a lot of research on this machine, but need step by step guidance; I don't have the skill. Come January 4th I will have to go for a re-install as I need this machine for work. Till then, feel free to ask.

Test results so far:

$ rfkill list

0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: yes

# rfkill unblock all

No comment; but rfkill list gives the same output.

$ lsmod | grep wifi

rtlwifi                78539  1 rtl8192ce
mac80211              215764  3 rtl8192ce,rtl8192c_common,rtlwifi
cfg80211              129063  2 rtlwifi,mac80211

Note: lshw lists this Wireless interface; in the guo it gives these details (pay special attention to the last line of this):

Wireless interface
/0/100/1c.1/0

product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10EC:8176]
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. [10EC]
bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 70:f1:a1:f3:5b:c4
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities:
	Power Management,
	Message Signalled Interrupts,
	PCI Express,
	bus mastering,
	PCI capabilities listing,
	ethernet,
	Physical interface,
	Wireless-LAN
configuration:
	broadcast: yes
	driver: rtl8192ce
	driverversion: 3.1.4-1.fc16.i686
	firmware: N/A
	latency: 0
	link: no
	multicast: yes
	wireless: IEEE 802.11bgn
resources:
	irq: 17
	ioport: 3000(size=256)
	memory: f0100000-f0103fff
this device has been disabled

As for a "hardware killswitch", the only thing pre-programmed in my netbook is the F2 key; I can hit that till I'm blue in the face, it changes nothing.

I don't know how to attach something, and gedit won't open /var/log/messages for me... What will?

   NetworkManager-1:0.9.4.0-9.git20120521.fc17.x86_64

seems to enable/disable airplane mode ok for me.

though i noticed once recently (maybe different networkmanager version)

that wasnt able to disable airplane mode.

however for me think was related to another wifi issue:

   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=638943

do you see anytthing like:

   'ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2472MHz)'

frequency sweeps in /var/log/messages ?

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