Disabling flashing WiFi LED on Linux Mint 18.1

FlashingLED.md

Synopsis

After a fresh install of Linux Mint 18.1 on my laptop, I noticed that the WiFi LED seemed to be blinking all the time (showing data transfer rather than WiFi on/off status). The solution was as follows:

sudo -i
echo 'options iwlwifi led_mode=1' >> /etc/modprobe.d/wlan.conf
modprobe -r iwlwifi && modprobe iwlwifi

This results in a nice, steady WiFi LED :-)

As is usual in the linux world, this did not work for me. The third line errors.

Worked a treat on my dell. Thanks
Mint 19.1 cin

I also got an error on the 3rd line. I'm running a Dell USFF 760, OS Mint 19.1 Cin

this showed up after 3rd line executed
root@marcadmin-OptiPlex-760:~# modprobe -r iwlwifi && modprobe iwlwifi
rmmod: ERROR: missing module name.
modprobe: FATAL: Error running remove command for iwlwifi

how to fix? my usb wifi adapter led keeps flashing like there is constant data transfer when I am just doing nothing or even listening to music stored on the local hard drive.

thanks in advance to whoever is able to help out.

It seems it may be different depending on the WiFi chipset your PC uses. This isn't my area of expertise (for sure) so I can't say what it correct for your hardware but maybe these articles will give you some ideas to follow up on (note that I'd don't take any responsibility for any changes you make - they are for you do decide on ! )

You maybe want to identify the make / model / number of your WiFi card first. The second article mentions iwldvm and iwlmvm too but I haven't gone looking to see what cards / versions of the OS this applies to.

WiFi signal problem on Ubuntu 14.10 on USB
Cannot remove iwlwifi module, even though interface is down

Thank you worked perfectly for my Dell 6430 with Linux mint 19.2 !!

Worked like a charm on my Ubuntu 18.04 and HP 2540p

Thanks, worked for Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS

One more happy "customer" with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. :-)

I'm glad to hear that documenting a fix for a small annoyance I was experiencing has helped others :-)

On my Linux Mint 21 it works but the conf file has a different name, it's not wlan.conf. I used xed to add the options line:
sudo xed /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

Also calling this shows what parameters my wifi driver has:
modinfo iwlwifi

Luckily one of them was the mentioned one:
parm: led_mode:0=system default, 1=On(RF On)/Off(RF Off), 2=blinking, 3=Off (default: 0) (int)