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soham_dhole
Asked: 2019-07-31 00:43:05 +0800 CST

Airplane mode key (Fn + F12) not working in HP ab027tx running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

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The 'Airplane Mode' key on my laptop is not working in ubuntu since I have dual booted my laptop on windows and Ubuntu. Wifi hardware is Realtek RTL8723BE. Please help.

dual-boot hp-pavilion airplane-mode 18.04 rtl8723be

2 Answers

  1. I also have had this problem with my HP laptop and Ubuntu 18.04. If you only need to only toggle wifi (but not bluetooth) on or off, you can use the following workaround.

    Create a bash script with the following code and save it somewhere in your computer. I save mine as ~/.local/share/scripts/wifi-toggle.sh. If you need to create a folder, you can do it using mkdir /path/to/folder or using the file manager.

    #!/bin/bash

wifi_status=`rfkill list wifi | grep "Soft" | cut -d " " -f 3`

icon_dir=/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status

if [ $wifi_status == 'no' ]; then
    nmcli radio all off
    notify-send -i $icon_dir/network-wireless-offline-symbolic.svg --hint int:transient:1 "Wi-Fi turned off"
else
    nmcli radio all on
    notify-send -i $icon_dir/network-wireless-signal-excellent-symbolic.svg --hint int:transient:1 "Wi-Fi turned on"
fi

    Give execution permissions to your script (I am assuming that the location you saved it is the same as mine; if not, use your location):

    chmod +x ~/.local/share/scripts/wifi-toggle.sh

    Then, open Gnome settings, go to Keyboard and add a new shortcut (I use Ctrl+F12) using the full path of your script as a command, i.e. /home/your_name/.local/share/scripts/wifi-toggle.sh, where your_name is your user's name.

    Edit: This script can be used to turn full airplane mode on or off.

    #!/bin/bash

wifi_status=`rfkill list wifi | grep "Soft" | cut -d " " -f 3`
bluetooth_status=`rfkill list bluetooth | grep "Soft" | cut -d " " -f 3`

icon_dir=/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status

if [ $wifi_status == 'no' ] || [ $bluetooth_status == 'no' ]; then
    rfkill block all
    notify-send -i $icon_dir/airplane-mode-symbolic.svg --hint int:transient:1 "Airplane mode turned on"
else
    rfkill unblock all
    notify-send -i $icon_dir/network-wireless-signal-excellent-symbolic.svg --hint int:transient:1 "Airplane mode turned off"
fi

    However, for me this would need to be run as sudo (I am now using Xubuntu 18.04, so I am not sure if this is the case for Ubuntu too). Save it as ~/.local/share/scripts/airplane-toggle.sh and change its permissions with chmod +x as before. Try running it from terminal with and without sudo. If it runs without sudo, then map it to a shortcut as before. If not, you can only run it with sudo through the terminal.

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  2. I had to disable the keyboard actions setting in BIOS to regain fn + F keys normal function. I'm using HP Pavillion DM4 Laptop.

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