Wireless Networks not showing up under Linux on a Lenovo Y700 Ideapad

Recently, I acquired a Lenovo Ideapad Y700.  After installing Linux (Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian), I found that I could not see Wireless networks.  After playing around a bit with rfkill, I noticed that my Wireless and Bluetooth always had Hard Blocked: yes listed:

$ sudo rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
2: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Since I do not have a hardware switch on my laptop’s body, I was confused by this.  So, to work around it, I decided to blacklist the ideapad_laptop module and reboot:

$ sudo echo “blacklist ideapad_laptop” >> /etc/modprobe.d/99-ideapad_laptop.conf

$ sudo reboot

Now, I am able to see Wireless Networks, and rfkill no longer lists the ideapad hardware switch devices at all:

# rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

The Keyboard ‘Airplane Mode’ still switches the Soft blocked status on and off.

Have a lot of fun…