My up-to-date Debian laptop, an Evoo EG-LP7-BK running KDE Plasma, suddenly became stuck in airplane mode even though it was working normally the day before. Restarting and powering it off normally did not help. The airplane icon on the taskbar does not respond to clicking, right-clicking, or the gesture that normally toggles it, and I cannot find another airplane-mode setting in the system settings.
Bluetooth still works, and I can connect to my phone's hotspot, but as soon as I disconnect, the laptop returns to airplane mode. I tried `sudo rfkill unblock all` and `nmcli radio all on`, but `rfkill` was not installed and enabling the radios with `nmcli` made no difference. The laptop does not appear to have a physical wireless switch. The F4 key has a wireless-looking symbol, but pressing it alone or with Fn has no effect.
What else can I try to restore Wi-Fi?
2 Answers
A laptop can occasionally leave the wireless controller in a bad hardware state after suspend, shutdown, or a firmware glitch. A full cold reset is worth trying: shut the machine down completely, disconnect the charger, remove the battery if it is removable, hold the power button for several seconds, wait a few minutes, then reconnect power and boot it again.
Since Bluetooth remains available, this may not be a general airplane-mode setting in KDE. It could be the Wi-Fi adapter or firmware being stuck while NetworkManager still sees the other radio. Checking the adapter state with `rfkill`, NetworkManager’s radio status, and the kernel log would help distinguish a software block from a hardware or firmware issue.
A complete cold reset ultimately fixed it. A normal restart and shutdown had not cleared the problem, but fully removing power did.