How to remove Wifi Hard Lock for Intel PRO/Wireless Lan 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter

I have a friend's laptop (Medion MD 41100) to fix and installed Lubuntu due to its age. It runs an Intel PRO/Wireless Lan 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter wifi card. Using rfkill list it says

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft Blocked: No
Hard Blocked: Yes

Now I'm relatively new to linux, so perhaps I missed something obvious here.

What I've tried:

It has a Wifi key, but that doesn't do anything (neither the LED is shining, nor is the Hard Block disappearing).

rfkill unblock wifi doesn't help

I have looked into the BIOS, the Wifi option allows me "Last State" and "Disabled", so I set it to "Last State".

When trying ip link set wlp2s1 up it tells me "RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill"

In some answer I read to enable proprietary drivers, but that has been enabled by default as far as I know. It certainly is checked now.

Leaves me with the question: What else can I do to remove the Hard Block on the wifi?

As Requested the output for lsmod:

Module Size Used by
snd_intel8x0 40960 2
snd_ac97_codec 110592 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 16384 1 snd_ac97_codec
lpc_ich 24576 0
ipw2100 77824 0
snd_pcm 90112 2 snd_ac97_codec,snd_intel8x0
pcmcia 57344 0
libipw 32768 1 ipw2100
snd_timer 32768 1 snd_pcm
lib80211 16384 1 libipw
yenta_socket 40960 0
snd 69632 8 snd_ac97_codec,snd_timer,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
soundcore 16384 1 snd
pcmcia_rsrc 24576 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 28672 3 yenta_socket,pcmcia,pcmcia_rsrc
cfg80211 618496 2 ipw2100,libipw
joydev 24576 0
input_leds 16384 0
serio_raw 20480 0
mac_hid 16384 0
sch_fq_codel 20480 2
parport_pc 32768 1
ppdev 24576 0
lp 20480 0
parport 49152 3 lp,parport_pc,ppdev
ip_tables 24576 0
x_tables 32768 1 ip_tables
autofs4 45056 2
btrfs 1196032 0
xor 28672 1 btrfs
zstd_compress 155648 1 btrfs
raid6_pq 106496 1 btrfs
libcrc32c 16384 1 btrfs
dm_mirror 24576 0
dm_region_hash 20480 1 dm_mirror
dm_log 20480 2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
i915 1531904 5
i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 i915
drm_kms_helper 159744 1 i915
syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
fb_sys_fops 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
8139too 40960 0
firewire_ohci 36864 0
psmouse 139264 0
drm 393216 8 i915,drm_kms_helper
8139cp 32768 0
firewire_core 57344 1 firewire_ohci
mii 16384 2 8139cp,8139too
pata_acpi 16384 0
crc_itu_t 16384 1 firewire_core
video 49152 1 i915

1 Answer

I had exactly the same problem. I bought an "itsy bitsy" USB wireless adapter, installed the driver and still in the Networkmanager all Wireless interfaces were "deactivated".

So I took out my original Medion Recovery CD, installed Windows XP, installed EZ Button. Unfortunately the wireless Button still did nothing. But after starting the "Wireless.exe" program in the EZ Button program folder the LED for Wifi was finally on.

After reboot it was still on.

Then I checked in the BIOS if the Wifi option was still configured as "Last State" and installed Xubuntu again.

And then I could use both wifi adapters, the built in Intel PRO/Wireless Lan 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter and my new Wifi stick.

Please keep in mind that the built in Wifi adapter only supports WEP. So I can't use it in my environment.