# [Solved] SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

## solamour

I verified wlan0 (Ralink "RT73USB") was working properly before I stopped it (/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 stop). A few days later I tried to bring it up, but it wasn't cooperating.

```
# ifconfig wlan0 up

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

```

I checked the status with rfkill, and sure enough, it's blocked.

```
# rfkill list

0: phy0: Wireless LAN

        Soft blocked: yes

        Hard blocked: no

```

So I unblocked it, and now it's working again.

```
# rfkill unblock 0

# rfkill list

0: phy0: Wireless LAN

        Soft blocked: no

        Hard blocked: no

# ifconfig wlan0 up

# ifconfig wlan0

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0d:f0:5a:e2:93

          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:82 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:214 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:8794 (8.5 KiB)  TX bytes:36527 (35.6 KiB)

# iwconfig wlan0

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated

          Tx-Power=11 dBm

          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:on

```

Now the questions is, why was wlan0 "soft blocked" at the first place? Did Gentoo shut it off to conserve electricity? If so, how do I prevent it from happening again?

__

solLast edited by solamour on Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## DONAHUE

Perhaps:

 *Quote:*   

> [*] Networking support  ---> 
> 
> --- Networking support 
> 
> -*-   Wireless  --->  
> ...

 Works for my ralink 2870.

leave kernel as is and write a preup function to "rfkill unblock wlan0"

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## solamour

That did the trick. Thanks for taking time to respond.

__

sol

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