Aircraft Manager: Turn WiFi & Bluetooth On/Off

Aircraft Manager is a program for turning Bluetooth & WiFi off and on. It also enables an "Airplane Mode" that shuts off radio signals allowing you to use your Mini/Vostro safely when flying. Not only is the program great for when your flying and want to use your Mini (or not send the plane towards the ground), but turning off these services while not in use will significantly increase battery life.

Dell released a version of Aircraft Manager when the Mini was first shipped but it stopped working after Ubuntu 8.10. I tried to email the maintainer for the aircraft manager package but never received a response. I thought Aircraft Manager was dead until one of the Ubuntu Mini Google group members Jitender decided to fix the problem himself and repackage Aircraft Manager to work in later versions of Ubuntu.

You can find the Aircraft Manager Packages in Jitender's Launchpad Personal Package Archives (PPA)

If you are using Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala or later you can add Jitender's PPA by
in a terminal type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:opensource-subakutty/ppa

- this will automatically add the PPA and GPG key to your sources

sudo apt-get update

- to update your sources

sudo apt-get install aircraft-manager

- to install aircraft-manager

For older versions of Ubuntu you will have to manually add the PPA
- refer to Jitender's Launchpad PPA for help

Once installed, you can find Aircraft Manager in System>Preferences, under Airplane Mode, or by running /usr/bin/aircraft-manager

- It allows you to turn off WiFi (wireless), Bluetooth, or both


- And you can also put the Mini into Airplane Mode for safe usage while flying. Turning on Airplane Mode will prevent the battery from charging. In order to charge the battery, Airplane Mode must be disabled.

Since someone asked:
The reason flights ban laptops is that they emit radio waves. All wireless devices do, and the navigation and flight control computers on airplanes are designed to sense even very weak signals coming from far away. Radio waves with just the right power and frequency can, in theory, introduce errors in computing equipment and cause every to go crashing into the ground, water, my house.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Aircraft Manager for Ubuntu 9.04

Aircraft Manager is a program for turning Bluetooth and WiFi off and on. By turning off these services when not in use, you can help extend the life of your battery charge considerably.

Dell released a version of Aircraft Manager when the Mini was first shipped that worked for Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10.Unfortunately that version does not work in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. I tried to email the maintainer for the aircraft manager package but never received a response. I thought Aircraft Manager was dead for Ubuntu 9.04 until one of the Ubuntu Mini 9 Google group members Jitender decided to fix the problem himself and repackage Aircraft Manager to work in Ubuntu 9.04. You can read the thread here.

You can find the Aircraft Manager Packages in Jitender's Launchpad Personal Package Archives (PPA)

But if you're having trouble adding the key and PPA to your source list you can download the .debs through he direct links provided. Make sure you install the correct version for your system.
- For standard 32-bit installs
aircraft-manager_12.1_i386.deb
- For Low Power Intel Architecture (if you installed the Ubuntu MID)
aircraft-manager_12.1_lpia.deb


Once installed, you can find Aircraft Manager in System>Preferences, under the title Airplane Mode


It allows you to turn off WiFi (wireless), Bluetooth, or both


And you can also put the Mini into Airplane Mode for safe usage while flying

Since someone asked:
The reason flights ban laptops is that they emit radio waves. All wireless devices do, and the navigation and flight control computers on airplanes are designed to sense even very weak signals coming from far away. Radio waves with just the right power and frequency can, in theory, introduce errors in computing equipment.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Aircraft Manager: Save Battery By Turning Off WiFi and Bluetooth

This guide in for Ubuntu 8.04 & 8.10, for Ubuntu 9.04 use this guide

One of the sacrifices I had to make when choosing to install Ubuntu 8.10 was that there would be no way to turn off WiFi and/or Bluetooth. The battery would drain faster from keeping them powered, even when not in use.

Dell released Aircraft Manager, a program for turning these devices off, in lpia form, for Ubuntu 8.04 when the Mini was first shipped. Seeing how I was not running an lpia system, I was hesitant to install the package. Recently it was brought to my attention that there is a Aircraft Manager.deb usable in both i386 and lpia systems.

Download the Aircraft Manager .deb

Once installed, you can find Aircraft Manager in System>Preferences, under the title Airplane Mode


It allows you to turn off WifFi, Bluetooth, or both


And you can also put the Mini into Airplane Mode for safe usage while flying

Since someone asked:
The reason flights ban laptops is that they emit radio waves. All wireless devices do, and the navigation and flight control computers on airplanes are designed to sense even very weak signals coming from far away. Radio waves with just the right power and frequency can, in theory, introduce errors in computing equipment.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.