Disable WiFi in Raspian

lazypc · July 2, 2023

So I want to start teaching electronics to my grandson instead of us just playing video games anytime he comes over. Going to start simple, components and circuits, then graduate into arduino sketches. Eventually I think I would like to revive one of those old pi-laptop projects that way he has a device to start creating his own sketches on.
But here is the issue, a big part of why I want to devote so much time to this is not only in hopes that he does something with it as he gets older, but that he is frustrated bored at home, and his mom has really strict approach with his online access. Now that he has been caught trying to search "adult" material twice at school so the situation is deteriorating further. Age 10 if someone is curious.

So if we make this pi-laptop I need to disable the networking on it, that way he just can't casually turn it back on and now something I'm trying to do to help turns into something only making it worse in his mom's eyes.

Ideally I would like it to be something I can turn back on to do updates, and grab libraries as projects progress. Ethernet probably needs to get disabled as well so he doesn't just go plug it into the modem when his mom isn't home. And I figure that if it had the pi version of minecraft it would probably be a plus for him as well since he doesn't have a PC and getting grounded from his xbox is normally the first level of punishment.

So I am asking for suggestions, I am comfortable with linux command line but how drivers and devices work in linux is still a little meh to me... I literally just spent 4 days trying to get a USB TV Tuner to work in Plex on a headless Ubuntu Server so I'm using that as a reminder to ask for help when I need it.