Oh, true, thanks.
I just tried, and "enable wifi" was greyed out.
So in Network, I see that "airplane mode" is on.
I try disabling it and enablinthis and wireless on or off with the mouse
pointer, and
at some point one combination gave me the wifi networks displayed!
But then I tried FN+F5, and it does enable airplane mode (which seems to be
software block).
The hardware switch seemed to have no effect.
Yet now I can't get connected anymore.
I can toggle airplane mode on and off with the mouse, but not off with the FN
key combo.
Much worse, I have no way to toggle "wireless" on anymore, no matter the
combination of hardware and software switch.
But there was some life signs for a while, so that's encouraging!