airplane mode can’t be switched off

[masRicardo]

After I upgraded to fedora 37 and rebooted the system, the airplane mode is on and can’t be switched off anymore. Meaning, now my Wi-fi is disconnected. I am using a Lenovo machine.
Any ideas how to fix this issue? Thanks in advance.

 

[Brickwizard]

I am using a Lenovo machine.

Welcome to the forums, what is the full model number of your lappy?

 

[masRicardo]

Welcome to the forums, what is the full model number of your lappy?

It’s a T420s

 

[Brickwizard]

Ok hard block [you call it flight mode] has caused problems quite often on this model, [even in windows]
first thing to try is reboot the bios... boot up the machine, save any work to a safe place, then PRESS AND HOLD the power button down for 60 seconds, then re-boot, [did this work]? if not, it may mean that your computer has a physical wireless switch . Press and hold the

key, and then press the key that has the

 

[masRicardo]

Ok hard block [you call it flight mode] has caused problems quite often on this model, [even in windows]
first thing to try is reboot the bios... boot up the machine, save any work to a safe place, then PRESS AND HOLD the power button down for 60 seconds, then re-boot, [did this work]? if not, it may mean that your computer has a physical wireless switch . Press and hold the

key, and then press the key that has the

Thank you very much for your help. Unfortunately none of your suggestions did work. I did press and hold the on/off button for more then 60 sec. and rebooted —> No effect! If I press Fn and F5 the machine just display ‘Hardware Airplane Mode’, nothing else happens…

 

[masRicardo]

Ok hard block [you call it flight mode] has caused problems quite often on this model, [even in windows]
first thing to try is reboot the bios... boot up the machine, save any work to a safe place, then PRESS AND HOLD the power button down for 60 seconds, then re-boot, [did this work]? if not, it may mean that your computer has a physical wireless switch . Press and hold the

key, and then press the key that has the

I also tried
rfkill unblock all
with no effect on the airplane mode…

After another ‘60sec reboot’ I switched in the boot menu back to a fedora 36 version. Also no effect on the Airplane Mode’

 

[Brickwizard]

Those instructions usually work, my last thought is check the Bios settings.
It may be a problem with Fedora, but I am not fully conversant with RHEL distributions

 

[KGIII]

Try SHIFT + FN + whatever key it was that you were pressing for airplane mode.

 

[ivordurham]

I just encountered this problem on an old Dell Studio 1749 with Fedora 38 and eventually solved it by going into the BIOS under Advanced and changed the Wireless Switch/Hotkey setting from All to None. Fn+F2 doesn't do anything anymore, but I can turn Airplane Mode on and off again at will via the GUI. I only checked whether the locked Airplane Mode problem would disappear with only one of the other Wireless Switch/Hotkey choices, but it didn't so I settled on None as the choice.

I hadn't changed any BIOS setting on this system in many years. I can only infer a software update changed the Airplane Mode behavior. Unfortunately I tried to solve the problem with a fresh Fedora 38 install only to discover the problem remained, which is what prompted me to experiment with the BIOS setting. Fortunately I only use this particular laptop for testing and convenience and didn't have to restore any data.

Hope this saves someone else some time on a very annoying problem.

 

[fosebes]

I just encountered this problem on an old Dell Studio 1749 with Fedora 38 and eventually solved it by going into the BIOS under Advanced and changed the Wireless Switch/Hotkey setting from All to None. Fn+F2 doesn't do anything anymore, but I can turn Airplane Mode on and off again at will via the GUI. I only checked whether the locked Airplane Mode problem would disappear with only one of the other Wireless Switch/Hotkey choices, but it didn't so I settled on None as the choice.

I hadn't changed any BIOS setting on this system in many years. I can only infer a software update changed the Airplane Mode behavior. Unfortunately I tried to solve the problem with a fresh Fedora 38 install only to discover the problem remained, which is what prompted me to experiment with the BIOS setting. Fortunately I only use this particular laptop for testing and convenience and didn't have to restore any data.

Hope this saves someone else some time on a very annoying problem.

Airplane mode is stuck at ON and can't use any solution that involves internet access [am doing this at library] as only have wifi which is cut off by airplane mode. Have tried other solutions like adapter power cutoff option, but doesn't work [the advice to click on the 'RUN' when it comes up is not relevant as the 'RUN' doesn't come up despite having the registry item 'merged']. Would appreciate some method [command line sequence?] to delete the 'airplane mode' option out of the OS.

 

[Brickwizard]

delete the 'airplane mode' option out of the OS.

This is normally a part of the BIOS not the OS, what make/full model number of your machine, and which distribution are you using..
Oh and welcome to the forums

edit, after doing some investigation there have been some problems [but not recently] and it may be possible to to use the rfkill command depending on your distribution

 

[KGIII]

Airplane mode is stuck at ON

That's usually an Fn key combination. If the key combination doesn't work, try holding the shift button along with the Fn combination.