Blocking one interface/card with rfkill, disables network completely

Support and Help
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1

Kubuntu 25.10 (KDE 6.5.5)

I’m trying to disable only built-in Wifi on my PC (to use external card):

0: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
4: phy5: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

when I try to disable only internal one: rfkill block 1 :

rfkill list all                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
0: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
4: phy5: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

(yes, I know that device order can change)
whole Network manager Wifi is disabled:

kde-network-manager-off
kde-network-manager-off304×308 42 KB

and

nmcli radio                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
WIFI-HW  WIFI      WWAN-HW  WWAN    
enabled  disabled  missing  enabled

Expected behaviour:
ONLY one card disabled (as we can see from rfkill list all) and Network Manager works with that one enabled (or more non-blocked) interface/card.

2

From past experiences I would say this isn’t possible. Unless someone has a different idea…

3

A workaround could be to simply bring the interface down on a higher layer:

sudo ip link set dev wlan1 down

(indeed replace wlan1with the correct network device name)

2 Likes
4

yes, that’s the option,
or adding

[keyfile]
unmanaged-devices=interface-name:wlp3s0

in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

thanks. I will just use ip link set wlp3s0 down in my oneshot daemon, i think it’s the easiest