Wireless Hard Block on Asus N61Jv (Ar9285)

I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu and noticed that my wifi is disabled.

In try menu it says that my hardware switch is disabled, but there is no physical switch on N61Jv. I tried Fn+F2 which should work as "hardware switch", but it didn't help. Then I tried to do rfkill list all:

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

The rfkill ublock all command doesn't change anything there. I know that pressing Fn+F2 changes "Soft blocked:" to "yes". I don't have any idea what to do now.

edit:

gksu jockey-gtk

didn't show any drivers, here are my outputs:

lscpi:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 18)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 18)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 06)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 06)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 325M] (rev a2)
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
3f:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 05)
3f:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)
3f:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 05)
3f:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)
3f:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)
3f:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)

sudo lshw -class NETWORK:

  *-network DISABLED      
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 48:5d:60:37:08:62
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-27-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:17 memory:e8800000-e880ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: c0
       serial: 1e:cb:7d:5c:b5:e4
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=atl1c driverversion=1.0.1.0-NAPI duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.103 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:51 memory:e3800000-e383ffff ioport:7000(size=128)
2

1 Answer

No. Fn + F2 should change hardware state. Probably you didn't install the closed source driver required for your card.

Press Alt + F2, type gksu jockey-gtk. This will search for additional drivers required for your system from internet. Activate them.

If no drivers listed there. Please edit your question with output of lspci and sudo lshw -class NETWORK

Update from: Atheros AR9485 wireless card doesn't work in an ASUS K53E

According to the answer, you need to install linux-backports-modules-cw and update network manger after wards. Give it a try.

linux-backports-modules-cw is specific to kernel.

  • First execute uname -r. Get your kernel version.
  • Open software centre and search for linux-backports-modules-cw. Now carefully choose the correct version according to kernel version. Say your kernel name is 3.2.0-27-generic. So you should download linux-backports-modules-cw-3.3-3.2.0-27-generic 3.2.0-27.xx
  • Update network-manager.
  • Now reboot

The compitable cards are listed here

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Maya Lin-Takahashi

Maya Lin-Takahashi

Consumer Tech & Gadget Reviewer

Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.

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