Wi-Fi hard block on an fujitsu Esprimo Mobile V6505 with fedora-LXDE-spin

Question

I have installed the Fedora-LXDE-spin (Fedora 30) on an old Fujitsu Esprimo Mobile V6505 (by erasing an existing Windows XP installation). The Laptop has a Wi-Fi Switch with only one stable position and Fn+F1 switched the Wi-Fi on or off on windows. It also has a LED, which is green, if the Wi-Fi is activated. The Wi-Fi card is a Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x.

On Fedora, I ended up with a hard block on the Wi-Fi device. What I tried:

• rfkill
• the switch
• the Fn+F1 combination
• the BIOS config (it was turned on in the BIOS)
• something like the solution described in this post

All without success.

I tried to look at the logs and found this in /var/log/messages:

May 12 19:51:07 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705067.1741] dns-mgr[0x1b7e3f0]: init: dns=default,systemd-resolved rc-manager=symlink
May 12 19:51:07 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705067.1763] rfkill0: found Wi-Fi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:04:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill0) (driver ath5k)
May 12 19:51:07 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705067.1773] manager[0x1ba6010]: rfkill: Wi-Fi hardware radio set enabled
May 12 19:51:07 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705067.1777] manager[0x1ba6010]: rfkill: WWAN hardware radio set enabled
May 12 19:51:07 localhost audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
[...]
May 12 19:51:08 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705068.5658] manager: (wlp4s0): new 802.11 Wi-Fi device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/3)
May 12 19:51:08 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705068.5717] device (wlp4s0): state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed', sys-iface-state: 'external')
May 12 19:51:08 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <warn>  [1557705068.6069] device (wlp4s0): device not up after timeout!
May 12 19:51:08 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705068.6076] device (wlp4s0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to EE:F5:C6:5C:3B:25 (scanning)
May 12 19:51:08 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <warn>  [1557705068.6078] platform-linux: do-change-link[3]: failure changing link: failure 132 (Operation not possible due to RF-kill)
May 12 19:51:08 localhost NetworkManager[849]: <info>  [1557705068.6445] manager: rfkill: Wi-Fi now disabled by radio killswitch

My questions:

• did anyone succeeded modifying the blacklist-file on a Fujitsu-PC
• Can I get the intended Fn-key use back?
• Are there drivers anywhere to make the WiFi-card work correctly?
• Are they other options to lift the hard-block?

Thanks in advance

UPDATE: After some research, I found some unofficial drivers for the Wi-Fi- Card. But there are all for various Windows versions, so it did not help me.

UPDATE 2: Apparently, the problem is a missing driver for the Wi-Fi-Switch (not the Card). In the BIOS, I can activate the Wi-Fi (LED is ON) and turn it off, but when I start Fedora, its automatically turned off.

Answer 1

It is apparently not a driver problem, a lot of other people can not explain where it comes from.

But there is a simple solution: After putting a small piece of tape on the pin number 20 of the Wi-Fi-Card, the Card is activated permanently.

For everyone who has the same struggle, this is a radical but working solution.

I found it on a German forum: https://www.linuxmintusers.de/index.php?topic=45684.0