When switching ON the Wireless on Fedora 16 (Lenova ThinkPad E420) with RealTek WiFi Adapter, it’ll automatically gone back to OFF (Inactive) state.
Exact Log message from /var/messages :
Dec 30 14:51:26 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): bringing up device.
Dec 30 14:51:26 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): bringing up device.
Dec 30 14:51:26 fedora kernel: [ 6147.716574] rtl8192c_common: Loading firmware file rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora kernel: [ 6148.061711] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: WiFi hardware radio set enabled
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: WiFi hardware radio set enabled
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now enabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now enabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available') [20 30 42]
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available') [20 30 42]
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: ready -> inactive
Dec 30 14:51:27 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): supplicant interface state: ready -> inactive
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> unavailable (reason 'none') [30 20 0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> unavailable (reason 'none') [30 20 0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: Policy set 'Wired connection 1' (p1p1) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): taking down device.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora NetworkManager[886]: NetworkManager[886]: (wlan0): taking down device.
Dec 30 14:51:28 fedora lldpad[956]: l2_packet_receive - recvfrom: Network is down.
Check the state of the rfkill switches (WiFi switch) :
[sriram@fedora ~]$ rfkill list
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
4: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
Then you need to add the acer-wmi to the blacklist to clear this problem (soft blocked state).
To check whether this solution works or not, please run this :
sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi
If you got the wireless networks back, then you can add this following line to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file :
blacklist acer_wmi
This will permanently solve the wireless problem after a reboot.
