Wireless issue

[Stephen47]

I need help with my wireless connection. I recently installed Ubuntu Edgy. Everything I have read said that my Intel Pro Wireless 3945 card in my Dell Inspiron E1505 should "work out of the box". Well it doesn't. It is listed in Networking but not enabled. I click "enable" and put in the name of my network but nothing happens. I have read that ndiswrapper isn't necessary with an Intel card. Is this true?
I have WPA encryption enabled on my router. If I disable it all the other computers in my house, which are running Windows, get all screwed up. I would appreciate it if someone could give me some direction. Thanks.

[dkeav]

you probably need to find the firmware and install it manually

you might also install NetworkManager which will make dealing with wireless and roaming around other networks much easier on you

[Stephen47]

I have installed network manager and all it does is add another set of monitor icons in the panel and doesn't list my wireless network.

[Icarus]

http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/
Check their requirements there

When you bring up the card open a terminal and type in "dmesg" (without quotes) and it should list any errors if there are any from the card

There should also be advanced options where you can set the WPA settings, this is most likely where we are failing...dmesg should also show these errors

[dkeav]

yea, well network manager wont do a whole lot until the card is working properly, that is why i mentioned installing the cards firmware

these newer wireless cards require binary blob firmware which distros have a hard time legally shipping, if you dont like this i suggest you complain to intel

[Stephen47]

do I just put the firmware in the /lib/drivers/ file?

[Stephen47]

I went to the sourceforge link. I downloaded what the install instructions said I would need to my desktop. What do I do with them from there?

[dkeav]

http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/INSTALL

you read section 11 there

[Stephen47]

I ran tar xzvf and got this back:
steve@steve-laptop:~$ tar xzvf ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz
tar: ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
the file is on the desktop. where does tar look for it to untar it?

[Stephen47]

I just looked and ipw3945-ucode is in my /lib/firmware/generic/ folder

[Stephen47]

Deo we have any more thoughts on this?

[dkeav]

if the file is on the desktop, then run the tar command where the file is, the shell is not a mind reader

tar -xvzf ~/Desktop/ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz

[Stephen47]

thanks, I'll try that this evening. I'm just learning Linux so bear with me.

[Stephen47]

I just read through "dmesg and this segment seems relevant but what does it mean?:
[17179584.164000] b44: eth0: BUG! Timeout waiting for bit 00000002 of register 42c to clear.
[17179584.184000] ipw3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945 Network Connection driver for Linux, 1.1.0mp
[17179584.184000] ipw3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
[17179584.572000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:0b:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
[17179584.572000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:0b:00.0 to 64
[17179584.572000] ipw3945: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
[17179585.308000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[17179585.392000] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[17179585.412000] ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io=1)
[17179585.412000] ieee1394: sbp2: Try serialize_io=0 for better performance
[17179585.432000] Adding 1461872k swap on /dev/disk/by-uuid/fe4b135d-b197-4e8e-bd11-7a38739383d5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1461872k
[17179585.520000] EXT3 FS on sda3, internal journal
[17179585.860000] NTFS driver 2.1.27 [Flags: R/O MODULE].
[17179585.912000] NTFS volume version 3.1.
[17179586.564000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (11 802.11bg channels, 13 802.11a channels)
[17179588.168000] b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
[17179588.168000] b44: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
[17179588.732000] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[17179588.732000] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
[17179588.732000] IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
[17179599.228000] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

[Stephen47]

it still isn't working

[Stephen47]

nothing from anybody?

[dkeav]

ifconfig -a which interface is the wireless one, does it show up?

if it shows up, can it scan for aps, iwlist <interface> scanning

if it see's aps, can it connect to them, iwconfig essid "some_ap"; dhclient <interface>

telling us it doesnt work and showing non-relevant dmesg info doesn't help
try those things

[Stephen47]

here is ifconfig -a:
steve@steve-laptop:~$ sudo ifconfig -a
Password:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:D1:C2:01
inet addr:192.168.2.6 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::214:22ff:fed1:c201/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3894 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3922 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4096037 (3.9 MiB) TX bytes:669016 (653.3 KiB)
Interrupt:209

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:100 (100.0 b) TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

sit0 Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

I don't think any of these is a wireless interface but I could be wrong and probably am.

[dkeav]

nope, none of them are, you sure your card is what you say it is?

check lspci

[Stephen47]

Yes, I am sure, it is an Intel Pro Wireless 3945 ABG. I bought it and installed it myself and it works fine in Windows
steve@steve-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832
03:01.1 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02

[dkeav]

http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/

you followed all the steps in the requirements section on that page, the modules are loaded, along with the firmware microcode and the control daemon is running?

[Stephen47]

This isn't going to work. I am new to Linux and the instructions assume a level of knowledge I don't have at this point.

[blobaugh]

Read the instructions and try them. If there is something in a particular instruction you do not understand post it. We will help. Wifi with the Intel chips is actually quite easy and well supported. Make sure that you have the wireless-tools package installed or installing the driver will do nothing for you. If you think the driver is already installed then install the wireless-tools, when that is installed do 'iwlist scan' and it will tell you which interface is the wireless if you driver is running.

[Stephen47]

I get to this part:Now we install the firmware files (first finding where to install them):


tar xzvf ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz
less ipw3945-ucode-1.13/LICENSE.ipw3945-ucode

and nothing seems to happen. Either I get a license agreement at the end of which terminal just beeps no matter which key I hit or I get a blinking cursor which I can type command at but nothing happens. this is the current state of iwconfig eth1:
eth1 unassociated ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency=nan kHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
Retry limit:15 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:2644 Missed beacon:0
I am in the dark here.

[Stephen47]

what is up with the smileys? I didn't put them there

[dkeav]

its the forum code

[Stephen47]

The smiley issue wasn't my main question heere

[Davno]

I need help with my wireless connection. I recently installed Ubuntu Edgy. Everything I have read said that my Intel Pro Wireless 3945 card in my Dell Inspiron E1505 should "work out of the box". Well it doesn't. It is listed in Networking but not enabled. I click "enable" and put in the name of my network but nothing happens. I have read that ndiswrapper isn't necessary with an Intel card. Is this true?
I have WPA encryption enabled on my router. If I disable it all the other computers in my house, which are running Windows, get all screwed up. I would appreciate it if someone could give me some direction. Thanks.

Have you given Ubuntu your WPA key? I have a Inspiron 6400 with the same nic card running Mandriva, It worked basically right on install just after i entered my encryption key. I don t recall the name of the gui program (not at home now).

[Stephen47]

I was never prompted to give my WPA key.

[Davno]

I was never prompted to give my WPA key.

From what i understand your have a router and other computer connected and obviously your laptop is wireless and you did not want to remove your WPA encryption, and i see your eth0 is up and given an IP. You now have to give your OS the same WPA key so your router will allow proper connection. I dont know wich tool you can use with Ubuntu, there must be one in that recent distro. Or may be with a shell command ? Take a look at Ubuntu site.

[psych-major]

I'm running edgy with this exact same card.
First get the card working at all:
-attach an ethernet cable in order to get online
-go into 'system...administration...Synaptic' and open the settings menu, choose repositories
-Under the Ubuntu 6.10 tab, make sure all options are checked, close and then click the reload button.
-search for and install linux-restricted-modules-generic, which includes the updated 3945 driver
-Reboot and the card should now come up with open and WEP support.
-WPA is a little trickier, and frankly I haven't had time to fully research it yet, but there are plenty of WPA-specific posts over on the Ubuntu forum.

Hope this helps!

[Stephen47]

My computer is connected through a wired connection I have no eth0 here is my iwconfig:steve@steve-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[psych-major]

Not exactly true, eth0 is your wired connection, eth1 will be your wifi, once you follow my previous post. (Assuming you can get online via ethernet)

Here's my ifconfig output:eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:C5:A8:ED:12
inet addr:10.0.0.154 Bcast:10.0.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::215:c5ff:fea8:ed12/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:59513 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40318 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:32722422 (31.2 MiB) TX bytes:26307833 (25.0 MiB)
Interrupt:185

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:02:D6:01:26
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:9709 errors:0 dropped:545 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:177 Base address:0xc000 Memory:ecfff000-ecffffff

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:379 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:379 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:14630 (14.2 KiB) TX bytes:14630 (14.2 KiB) And my iwconfig output: lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 unassociated ESSID:"MySSiD"
Mode:Managed Frequency=nan kHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
Retry limit:15 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:My_Hex_Key Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:566 Missed beacon:0

[Stephen47]

I followed your suggestions in the previous post here are my ifconfig and iwconfig outputs:
steve@steve-laptop:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:D1:C2:01
inet addr:192.168.2.6 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7260 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7369 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:7498525 (7.1 MiB) TX bytes:1054280 (1.0 MiB)
Interrupt:209

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:200 (200.0 b) TX bytes:200 (200.0 b)

steve@steve-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[psych-major]

this indicates that the wireless card is still not running.

Dumb questions:
is the hardware switch turned on?
What's the output of uname -r?

[Stephen47]

steve@steve-laptop:~$ uname -r
2.6.17-10-generic
how do I turn on the hardware switch?

[psych-major]

I'm thinking that would be either really obvious, or at least in the Dell manual.

On my Latitude D820, it is on the left hand side, near the headphone port.

[Stephen47]

on my computer it is Fn-F2 which has no effect.

[Stephen47]

As I said in post #22, this is hopeless

[Icarus]

Don't know why it's been so much trouble since Edgy has support for this "out of the box" and many others haven't had problems like this.

I'll guess that its to do with the WPA since iwconfig does show that your card is working just not associated with anything (#1 cause of wireless not working ;))

What does iwlist eth1 scan show? (It's been asked twice but you've never given an answer)

[psych-major]

Don't know why it's been so much trouble since Edgy has support for this "out of the box" and many others haven't had problems like this.

I'll guess that its to do with the WPA since iwconfig does show that your card is working just not associated with anything (#1 cause of wireless not working ;))

What does iwlist eth1 scan show? (It's been asked twice but you've never given an answer)

It's not quite "out of the box" for the 3945 card, you have to hit online updates one time for it to get the driver, same for nvidia video cards and atheros wifi cards. (all are in the linux-restricted-modules-generic package)

My rule of thumb is to get the card working at all, i.e. displayed in ifconfig and iwlist scan, then connect to an open network, then a WEP-encrypted, then tackle WPA. but that's just me...

[Davno]

I think it pretty much depend on the distro for the (right out of the box) cause my laptop Dell inspiron 6400 with the same nic card worked right out of the box when i installed Mandriva 2007 powerpack. Power pack has a bunch of extra drivers (that could have made the difference).

[psych-major]

You're right, the difference being that Ubuntu doesn't install closed source or proprietary software without the user specifically OK'ing it or going out to look for it by enabling restricted repositories.

[Icarus]

ipw2100 and ipw2200BG worked right out for me with no additional installs or steps with Ubuntu Dapper and Edgy...and considering they are technically the same project with the same licenses (and they are in the main kernel tree) there shouldn't need to be anything else to be added/done. I was using the drivers provided with the kernel without anything else when I was running Gentoo on my laptop.

Even if that is not the case and you do need to manually set it up, following the README (http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/README.ipw3945) and the INSTALL (http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/INSTALL) docs are pretty straight forward. They may use some fancy terms and commands but it's all layed out there for you...go step by step, skip one step and it won't work ;)

[psych-major]

I've had really good luck with the ipw2100 and ipw2200BG cards on Thinkpads, but I did have to hit online updates for the 3945. Could it be the kernel version that ships with the Edgy CD?

[Stephen47]

Don't know why it's been so much trouble since Edgy has support for this "out of the box" and many others haven't had problems like this.

I'll guess that its to do with the WPA since iwconfig does show that your card is working just not associated with anything (#1 cause of wireless not working ;))

What does iwlist eth1 scan show? (It's been asked twice but you've never given an answer)
steve@steve-laptop:~$ iwlist eth1 scan
eth1 Interface doesn't support scanning.

[Stephen47]

I get to this part:Now we install the firmware files (first finding where to install them):


tar xzvf ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz
less ipw3945-ucode-1.13/LICENSE.ipw3945-ucode

and nothing seems to happen. Either I get a license agreement at the end of which terminal just beeps no matter which key I hit or I get a blinking cursor which I can type command at but nothing happens. this is the current state of iwconfig eth1:
eth1 unassociated ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency=nan kHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
Retry limit:15 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:2644 Missed beacon:0
I am in the dark here.
I did follow the insructions step by step until I got to this point. Then no help as to what to do from here

[Davno]

At the stage you are at, i would try another distro, may be pclinuxos or mandriva. Have you ever tried a livecd, to see if it connect then look at the driver and the config.

[Stephen47]

I tried Ubuntu dapper, that didn't work. I tried Ubuntu Edgy, that didn't work. Now I am in Mint Bea and it doesn't work here either. In all of them IPW 3945 is supposed to "work right out of the box". Why should I think I can get my wireless working in another distro?

[dkeav]

you shouldnt, because linux is linux, distro doesnt matter, especially when it comes to hardware support, thats what that fancy kernel is for ;)

[Stephen47]

so no wireless for me?

[Stephen47]

whatever, I guess

[dkeav]

really dunno what to tell you, we give you the information, you dont provide relative errors to diagnose a problem, aside from you shipping me the laptop so i can do it for you, our hands are kinda tied

review the suggestions in this thread, go over the documentation again, search the web (google.com/linux, these forums, other forums) for threads of people with similar problems as yours, see if they ran into the same hurdles, for the most part if the hardware is working properly this is a fairly straightforward to do, so i really dont know what more you want from us

[Stephen47]

what errors don't I provide? I post what happens and get no response except you tell me smileys are forum policy

[Icarus]

Let's see what you have, give the output of these commands and we can go from there...
If there is more then the forums allow use http://www.rafb.net/paste/ to put the output

lspci
cat /proc/interrupts
lsmod
ifconfig
iwconfig
iwlist eth0 scan
iwlist eth1 scan

[dkeav]

don't forget the output of

ps aux | grep -i ipw3945d
ls /lib/firmware | grep -i ipw3945.ucode

[Icarus]

A ipw3945 process? Thats new
And the firmware is probably in a sub-directory, try this instead

ls /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/ | grep -i ipw3945

[Stephen47]

A ipw3945 process? Thats new
And the firmware is probably in a sub-directory, try this instead

ls /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/ | grep -i ipw3945
steve@steve-laptop:~$ ls /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/ | grep -i ipw3945
ipw3945.ucode
steve@steve-laptop:~$

[Stephen47]

don't forget the output of

ps aux | grep -i ipw3945d
ls /lib/firmware | grep -i ipw3945.ucode
steve@steve-laptop:~$ ps aux | grep -i ipw3945d
steve 6455 0.0 0.0 2800 808 pts/0 S+ 16:25 0:00 grep -i ipw3945d
steve@steve-laptop:~$
steve@steve-laptop:~$ ls /lib/firmware | grep -i ipw3945.ucode
steve@steve-laptop:~$

[Stephen47]

Let's see what you have, give the output of these commands and we can go from there...
If there is more then the forums allow use http://www.rafb.net/paste/ to put the output

lspci
cat /proc/interrupts
lsmod
ifconfig
iwconfig
iwlist eth0 scan
iwlist eth1 scan
steve@steve-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832
03:01.1 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
steve@steve-laptop:~$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0 CPU1
0: 181812 0 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 631 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 19 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc
9: 2 0 IO-APIC-level acpi
12: 133635 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 31124 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
15: 5221 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
50: 0 0 IO-APIC-level uhci_hcd:usb4
58: 0 0 IO-APIC-level sdhci:slot0
169: 0 0 IO-APIC-level i915@pci:0000:00:02.0
177: 2 0 IO-APIC-level ohci1394
209: 13058 0 IO-APIC-level eth0
217: 2 0 IO-APIC-level uhci_hcd:usb1, ehci_hcd:usb5
225: 458 0 IO-APIC-level uhci_hcd:usb2, HDA Intel
233: 40 0 IO-APIC-level uhci_hcd:usb3
NMI: 0 0
LOC: 181616 181615
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
steve@steve-laptop:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
binfmt_misc 13448 1
rfcomm 42260 0
l2cap 27136 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 53476 4 rfcomm,l2cap
i915 21632 2
drm 74644 3 i915
speedstep_centrino 9760 1
cpufreq_userspace 5408 0
cpufreq_stats 7744 0
freq_table 6048 2 speedstep_centrino,cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_powersave 2944 0
cpufreq_ondemand 8876 2
cpufreq_conservative 8712 0
video 17540 0
tc1100_wmi 8324 0
sony_acpi 6412 0
sbs 16804 0
pcc_acpi 14080 0
i2c_ec 6272 1 sbs
i2c_core 23424 1 i2c_ec
hotkey 11556 0
dev_acpi 12292 0
container 5632 0
button 7952 0
battery 11652 0
asus_acpi 17688 0
ac 6788 0
ndiswrapper 208656 0
nls_utf8 3200 1
ntfs 112116 1
nls_iso8859_1 5248 1
nls_cp437 6912 1
vfat 14720 1
fat 56348 1 vfat
af_packet 24584 2
sbp2 24584 0
parport_pc 37796 0
lp 12964 0
parport 39496 2 parport_pc,lp
snd_hda_intel 20116 1
snd_hda_codec 164608 1 snd_hda_intel
joydev 11200 0
snd_pcm_oss 47360 0
snd_mixer_oss 19584 1 snd_pcm_oss
tsdev 9152 0
usblp 15488 0
b44 26764 0
snd_pcm 84612 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
sdhci 20108 0
mmc_core 32136 1 sdhci
sg 37404 0
mii 6912 1 b44
ieee80211 51948 0
snd_timer 25348 1 snd_pcm
ieee80211_crypt 7808 1 ieee80211
snd 58372 8 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_ oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
serio_raw 8452 0
intel_agp 26012 1
agpgart 34888 3 drm,intel_agp
evdev 11392 2
psmouse 41352 0
shpchp 42144 0
pci_hotplug 32828 1 shpchp
pcspkr 4352 0
soundcore 11232 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
ext3 142728 1
jbd 62228 1 ext3
ohci1394 37040 0
ieee1394 306104 2 sbp2,ohci1394
ehci_hcd 34696 0
uhci_hcd 24968 0
usbcore 134912 5 ndiswrapper,usblp,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
ide_generic 2432 0
sd_mod 22656 5
sr_mod 18212 0
cdrom 38944 1 sr_mod
generic 6276 0
ata_piix 11780 4
libata 74892 1 ata_piix
scsi_mod 144648 5 sbp2,sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata
thermal 15624 0
processor 31560 2 speedstep_centrino,thermal
fan 6020 0
fbcon 41504 0
tileblit 3840 1 fbcon
font 9344 1 fbcon
bitblit 7168 1 fbcon
softcursor 3328 1 bitblit
vesafb 9244 0
capability 5896 0
commoncap 8704 1 capability
steve@steve-laptop:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:D1:C2:01
inet addr:192.168.2.6 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7877 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5201 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:11077579 (10.5 MiB) TX bytes:443558 (433.1 KiB)
Interrupt:209

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:100 (100.0 b) TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

steve@steve-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

steve@steve-laptop:~$ iwlist eth0 scan
eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

steve@steve-laptop:~$ iwlist eth1 scan
eth1 Interface doesn't support scanning.

steve@steve-laptop:~$

[dkeav]

ndiswrapper, its loaded, blacklist it

it will conflict with the native driver

http://bughost.org/ipw3945/daemon/README.ipw3945d

explains about the regulatory daemon

http://bughost.org/ipw3945/ucode/README.ipw3945-ucode

explains about the firmware, which he appears to have installed

looks to me like ieee80211 51948 0 the framework is loaded, but the ipw3945 driver is not, and if it were ndiswrapper would be conflicting with it


so, a) blacklist ndiswrapper
b) load the module ipw3945
b.1) if you dont have it, then re-read this thread and install it as per the instructions that were posted for you
c) read the link about the regulatory daemon and install/configure it

[Stephen47]

how do I blacklist ndiswrapper?

[Icarus]

for starters remove the wrapper driver and load the ipw3945

rmmod ndiswrapper
modprobe ipw3945

There shouldn't be any output to those two commands, then verify the ipw3945 is loaded

lsmod | grep ipw3945

if it is returned on the next line everything should now 'just work'

remove the ndiswrapper, I don't know how it was loaded but if it was through apt
apt-get remove ndiswrapper

add ipw3954 to the boot modules

echo "ipw3954" >> /etc/modules

then blacklist the ndiswrapper (not needed if removed but do it anyway :))

echo "blacklist ndiswrapper" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[Stephen47]

i get this when I do modprobe ipw 3945
steve@steve-laptop:~$ sudo modprobe ipw3945
FATAL: Error inserting ipw3945 (/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw3945/ipw3945.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
2007-01-30 19:01:16: ERROR: Could not find Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
patiently waiting to hear how I messed up this time. I seem to do it a lot

[dkeav]

that gets us back to a fundamental then, are you sure the hardware works

but more likely are you sure the module compiled cleanly for your running kernel

[psych-major]

This would seem to indicate that the wireless card is powered off. On my Dell, that is accomplished with a physical switch on the side. In yours, I believe you mentioned that you have to do it with an Fn key combination?

[psych-major]

Also, on mine, when the driver is loaded, and the power to the wireless card is on, the indicator light flashes. Then when I associate to an access point, it is lit solid. (As opposed to Windows, where it blinks to indicate network traffic)

To recap, I'm running a Dell Latitude D820 with Ubuntu Edgy and the ipw3945 card.

[Stephen47]

The hardware works fine in Windows. The wireless switch is Fn F2, and as I have said it doesn't do anything in Linux. The wireless indicator light is always lit solid, in Windows that is, it is not lit in Linux.
How do I determine if the module compiled cleanly? I installed Linux from a live cd.

[Syngin]

I have installed network manager and all it does is add another set of monitor icons in the panel and doesn't list my wireless network.

Left click on the icon and the wireless setup option will display.

[Stephen47]

no it doesn't. As dkeave said in post #5 "yea, well network manager wont do a whole lot until the card is working properly" Which,obviously it isn't.

[Stephen47]

Once again, how do I determine if the module compiled cleanly?

[Icarus]

As in post #44 follow the INSTALL slowly step by step
Or update the system and reboot as a few have mentioned that the support was added in after a couple patches

[Stephen47]

my system is up to date. I install the updates as soon as I am notified of them. I never recieved a response to my post #47. Except that smileys are forum policy.

[Stephen47]

this is hopeless. I started form the beginning and get no farther than: Once the ieee80211 subsystem is installed, we build the ipw3945.ko module:
I get all sorts of error messages maybe I should reinstall and start over?

[dkeav]

so error messages huh, gee wonder what we could do with those

[Stephen47]

maybe tell me smileys are forum policy?

[dkeav]

yes smilies are rendered when you the html runs in to code that makes a smiley, wtf is your big hang up with that, get over it

that doesnt help diagnose your problem

[Stephen47]

And neither do you. See post #24, I never got a response as to what that meant.

[Icarus]

It means that the card is working but isn't associated with an access point

[Stephen47]

and?

[Stephen47]

Maybe when ipw3945 really does work "out of the box" I will try linux again. It doesn't work and nobody here can help me with this problem so I am going back to Windows. Do I have to format my hard drive to recover the space I lost in this failed experiment?

[je_fro]

Yup...have fun!

[dkeav]

http://kerneltrap.org/node/7704

but you read and search so well, and are so patient

you will be missed

[Stephen47]

http://kerneltrap.org/node/7704

but you read and search so well, and are so patient

you will be missed

Sarcasm doesn't cut it here. I have been patient and spent a lot of time searching for the solution to this problem. Most sources lead me to the sourceforge site. I have followed the instructions to the letter and when I get error messages all you do is tell me what they mean, if that, but offer no help in solving them. Stop being so pretentious, I said at the beginning of this thread that I was new to linux, yet in every response, you answered as if I had asked a really stupid question and that only an idiot wouldn't know how to figure it out. There are no stupid questions, only insulting answers from "superior" people, like you.

[je_fro]

Well, to my eyes, (and I read a lot of threads) it looked like (a couple of times) you were saying something along the lines of...

"I did what you said and it didn't work.
What now?
WELL?!?!?"

I'm pretty sure dkeav spent 10-15 minutes of his life trying to help you out. It's a lot easier to help people who are appreciative (you don't have to kissass), but then again it's the internet...you can't hear anyones tone or inflection here...

[Stephen47]

Well, to my eyes, (and I read a lot of threads) it looked like (a couple of times) you were saying something along the lines of...

"I did what you said and it didn't work.
What now?
WELL?!?!?"

I'm pretty sure dkeav spent 10-15 minutes of his life trying to help you out. It's a lot easier to help people who are appreciative (you don't have to kissass), but then again it's the internet...you can't hear anyones tone or inflection here...

Show me in which post I said "WELL?!?!?" I did say "what now? How else should I have asked what to do next?

[je_fro]

It's not that big a deal...like I said, I read a lot of threads and I guess I assume the worst sometimes. Let us know if you need some help down the line...
Later,
je_fro

[Stephen47]

Let me know when Linux really is better than Windows.

[je_fro]

Let me know when Linux really is better than Windows.
haha...probably about 5 years ago...

[Stephen47]

except for the wireless issue that is

[je_fro]

Just because you were incapable of solving your problems, don't blame linux. The problem is the grip that a Certain Criminal Enterprise has on hardware manufacturers. See:
http://www.kroah.com/log/2007/01/29/#free_drivers
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/293/

[Stephen47]

Very interesting articles. Thanks for the help in here.

[je_fro]

You're welcome!
:D

[Stephen47]

See you sometime on down the road.

[Davno]

As i said earlier that nic card on that laptop does work "right out of the box" with at least one distro. And believe me i dont know zip about configuring network, But with Mandriva 2007 power pack on my Dell after i give it the encryption key using the Dracke provided tool, it worked and still work today. ;)

[Syngin]

Hehe this thread reminded me me of the frustration I faced recompiling my first kernel back in '02.