Fix silly "Networking Disabled" issue (Ubuntu 10.04)

gistfile1.sh

su root
# Don't you hate when you need to root to fix dumb issues?
service network-manager stop
rm /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state
service network-manager start
reboot -h now

I cannot believe this thing still works in 2024...

It is 2026, and the broken NetworkManager.state file is still an issue! After removing that file fixed everything, I figured out that I could have solved the problem without becoming root using:

$ nmcli net on

But, there's no way for anyone to ever figure that out as NetworkManager never mentions the NET setting!

• In the Gnome Settings GUI, the Wi-Fi panel simply said, "No Wi-Fi Adapter Found"
• From the command line, nmcli dev wifi failed to scan for stations but gave no error messages.
• nmcli, nmcli dev, and nmcli general all showed that wlan0 was unmanaged which was not true and a red herring. The more important fact was that "NET" was disabled and so being managed or not didn't matter and could not be changed.
• Trying nmcli dev set wlan0 managed yes gave no error message even though it failed because NET was off.
• nmcli radio said that WIFI was disabled, which was true, but irrelevant since it cannot be changed when NET is off.
• Trying nmcli radio wifi on gave no error message even though it, too, failed to work.

Thank goodness I ran across this gist as I was tearing my hair out.