[[!meta title="Enable a wireless device"]]

When Tails starts, Wi-Fi, WWAN, and WiMAX devices are
enabled.

<div class="bug">

<p>BlueTooth is enabled by default but Tails lacks the GNOME utilities
to actually use it.</p>

</div>

But all other kinds of wireless devices such as GPS and FM devices are
disabled by default. If you want to use such a device, you need to enable
it first.

Enable a wireless device
------------------------

This technique uses the command line.

1. When starting Tails, [[set up an administration
   password|doc/first_steps/startup_options/administration_password]].

2. To find out the index of the wireless device that you want to enable,
   open a [[root
   terminal|doc/first_steps/startup_options/administration_password#open_root_terminal]],
   and execute the following command:

       rfkill list

   For example, the command could return the following:

       0: phy0: Wireless LAN
               Soft blocked: no
               Hard blocked: no
       1: hci0: Bluetooth
               Soft blocked: no
               Hard blocked: no
       2: gps0: GPS
               Soft blocked: yes
               Hard blocked: no

   The device index is the number that appears at the beginning of the
   three lines describing each device. In this example, the index of the Bluetooth
   device is 1, while the index of the GPS device is 2. Yours are
   probably different.

3. To enable the wireless device,
   execute the following command in the root terminal, replacing
   `[index]` with the index found at step 2:

       rfkill unblock [index]

   Here is an example of the command to execute. Yours is probably
   different:

       rfkill unblock 2

4. To verify that the wireless device is enabled,
   execute the following command in the root terminal again:

       rfkill list

   This output should be very similar to the one of step 2, but
   the device enabled at step 3 should not be soft
   blocked anymore.

   For example, the command could return the following:

       0: phy0: Wireless LAN
               Soft blocked: no
               Hard blocked: no
       1: hci0: Bluetooth
               Soft blocked: no
               Hard blocked: no
       2: gps0: GPS
               Soft blocked: no
               Hard blocked: no

<!--

Enable Bluetooth
----------------

Bluetooth is not enabled by default in Tails because it is insecure
when trying to protect from a local adversary.

To use Bluetooth in Tails nonetheless, you have to
[[set up an administration password at boot time|doc/first_steps/startup_options/administration_password]]
and install the `gnome-bluetooth` package.

-->
