Linux Mint 16 MATE — Wi-Fi is disabled by hardware switch I was able to install Linux mint 16 successfully alongside Windows 10 (Technical Preview) on an Acer Aspire 5250-BZ479 laptop. On visiting the desktop interface, I found that I could not connect to Wireless networks. The Networks dialog was showing this message under Wi-Fi Networks: "Wi-Fi is disabled by hardware switch." How can I enable Wi-Fi?

After doing some research online, at first I tried using the "sudo rfkill unblock all" command, but realised that this only works if the Networks were "Soft blocked" not "hard blocked".

After trying that, I decided to reset my BIOS settings to default and then restarting. This fixed the issue :)