ipw3945 alternative: Intel's iwlwifi

Message

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:30 pm

I will post my /etc/wpa/wpa_supplicant.conf file tomorrow

longint · Post by **longint** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:35 pm

So, what is wrong here? After migrating from a working ipw3945 config (with older kernel) I just can't get it to work:

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toral ~ # uname -a
Linux toral.ds.de 2.6.24-gentoo-r5 #2 SMP Sun Apr 27 22:25:38 CEST 2008 i686 Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2600 @ 2.16GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

toral ~ # dmesg |grep -A5 -B5 3945
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0xf4200000 - 0xf45fffff
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:06.2[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
sdhci: SDHCI controller found at 0000:02:06.3 [104c:803c] (rev 0)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:06.3[C] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
mmc0: SDHCI at 0xf4209000 irq 22 PIO
iwl3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG/BG Network Connection driver for Linux, 1.1.17ks
iwl3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2007 Intel Corporation
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:10:00.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:10:00.0 to 64
iwl3945: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
iwl3945: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 23 802.11a channels
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-3945-rs'
udev: renamed network interface wmaster0 to eth1
Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.9
Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized

toral ~ # zgrep IWL /proc/config.gz
CONFIG_IWLWIFI=y
# CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_IWLWIFI_SENSITIVITY=y
CONFIG_IWLWIFI_SPECTRUM_MEASUREMENT=y
# CONFIG_IWLWIFI_QOS is not set
# CONFIG_IWL4965 is not set
CONFIG_IWL3945=m

toral ~ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
rfcomm                 31760  6
bnep                   11392  2
l2cap                  19328  16 rfcomm,bnep
hci_usb                12956  2
bluetooth              47460  8 rfcomm,bnep,l2cap,hci_usb
sdhci                  14724  0
mmc_core               41348  1 sdhci
yenta_socket           22284  0
rsrc_nonstatic          9216  1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core            30740  2 yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
tifm_7xx1               5504  0
tifm_core               6916  1 tifm_7xx1
iwl3945                80488  0
fglrx                1508364  22
mac80211              108428  1 iwl3945

toral ~ # cat /etc/conf.d/net
config_eth0="10.168.10.235/16"
routes_eth0="default via 10.168.11.4"

modules_eth1=("wpa_supplicant" "dhcpcd")
wpa_supplicant_eth1="-Dwext"
wpa_timeout_eth1=60
config_eth1=("dhcp")
dhcpcd_eth1="-t 5 -A"

preup(){
 ifconfig eth1 up
}

toral ~ # cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
network={
        key_mgmt=NONE
        priority=-9999999
}

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=users
update_config=0
fast_reauth=1

network={
   ssid="ABC..."
   key_mgmt=NONE
   wep_key0="abc..."
   wep_tx_keyidx=0
}

toral ~ # ifconfig eth1
eth1: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500  metric 1
        unspec 00-13-02-45-DA-9B-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 1000  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

toral ~ # /etc/init.d/net.eth1 start
 * Bringing up interface eth1
 *   Running preup ...
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not supported
 * ERROR: net.eth1 failed to start

toral ~ # ifconfig eth1 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not supported

Any ideas?

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:11 pm

Can you post your ifconfig -a plz.

longint · Post by **longint** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:05 pm

Solved, seemes I had a wrong entry in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules. This is the current one and I'm writing this using wireless LAN:

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toral ~ # cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

# PCI Device: 0x8086:0x4222 (ipw3945)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:13:02:45:da:9b", NAME="eth1"
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:13:02:45:da:9b", ATTR{type}=="1", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x14e4:0x16fd (tg3)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:15:60:c4:c1:d9", NAME="eth0"

Thx a lot!

danomac · Post by **danomac** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:41 pm

I'm still having a heck of a time making my card connect to a non-broadcast ssid. Anyone else have this problem?

TequilaTR · Post by **TequilaTR** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:07 pm

danomac wrote:I'm still having a heck of a time making my card connect to a non-broadcast ssid. Anyone else have this problem?

Yes. Still unsolved at my side (with iwl4965), but i am quite sure it is the same issue.
But it is not directly related to no ssid at my side, it is just if the networks are unknown. If i hardcode an ssid, of which i know it is around, it also works. But no iwlist scan if i have no valid connection, etc :(

danomac · Post by **danomac** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:37 pm

My specific problem was that it would connect (show up as connected under iwconfig) but would not pull an ip from the dhcp server. It still works on ipw, but I did notice wireless performance was better with iwl. I just hope I can get it to work with a hidden ssid.

dannypoo · Post by **dannypoo** » Fri May 09, 2008 10:18 pm

i'm back with an update on my situation:

i moved my setup to NetworkManager and i still have a similar problem. although NetworkManager gave me a further insight.

I think that there was a problem with signal strength and wireless congestion...

as my network is an unsecured net - (it's the only way I could get the Wii to work!!!) there are about 7 wireless networks in range...

when I booted cold, my network didn't appear in the list. I unloaded iwl4965 and mac80211 and then reloaded them and all of a sudden the network appeared...

so I guess there is nothing wrong...

thanks for all your help

danny

jcat · Post by **jcat** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:58 pm

dannypoo wrote: as my network is an unsecured net - (it's the only way I could get the Wii to work!!!) there are about 7 wireless networks in range...

FYI

My Wii works no problem with WPA2 personal key.

Cheers,
jcat

TequilaTR · Post by **TequilaTR** » Sat May 10, 2008 8:30 am

I can also add, that sometimes unloading (modprobe -r) iwl4965 and reloading it, most of the times helps to recover the insight in networks.

jekyll · Post by **jekyll** » Sun May 11, 2008 5:50 am

I miss my LED light for my wifi. Does it work with iwlwifi yet?

-jekyll

VinzC · Post by **VinzC** » Sun May 11, 2008 8:35 am

jekyll wrote:I miss my LED light for my wifi. Does it work with iwlwifi yet?

-jekyll

With vanilla-sources-2.6.25* the LED features seem back again.

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sun May 11, 2008 8:35 pm

Yeah, it's seems to be resolve.

I will wait to the gentoo-sources to hit stable

chris.c.hogan · Post by **chris.c.hogan** » Mon May 19, 2008 7:15 am

Yay! My iwl3945 finally works under 2.6.25!

WEP encryption, hidden ESSID. It worked under 2.6.23, though it wouldn't start from the init script. It didn't work with 2.6.24. I decided to play around with 2.6.25 tonight. At first it wouldn't work, even after trying everything suggested in this thread. However, it works now. The solution would probably make it work under 2.6.24 and get it to start with the init script in 2.6.23. However, I haven't tested those yet.

Here is what I added to /etc/conf.d/net:

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preup() {
        ifconfig wlan0 up
        iwconfig wlan0 txpower on
        iwconfig wlan0 essid XXXXXXX
        iwconfig wlan0 channel X
        iwconfig wlan0 key open
        iwconfig wlan0 key [X] XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX
        iwlist scanning
        iwconfig wlan0 ap XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
        return 0
}

Just replace the Xs with your own information. It may be that some of the commands are not needed. I have not done much testing. I just copy-and-pasted what I'd tried on the command line into the preup function. It worked. I can say that the iwlist scanning command is needed. It won't work without it. It also needs to be executed before the init script tries to bring the interface up, thus using preup function.

By the way, here is the error I kept getting before I used this bit of code:

iwl3945: Radio disabled by SW RF kill (module parameter)

This error would repeat until the init script would error out. Doing it at the command line produced the same error, until I issued the iwlist scanning command. At that point it all started to work.

If you can't tell by my babbling, it's 1 in the morning and I work early.

I might test this out more latter. For now it works. Hope this helps someone else out...

Chris

mjrosenb · Post by **mjrosenb** » Thu May 22, 2008 5:14 pm

I think that the preup() function is the wrong place to have all of that configuration stuffs. in any case, It didn't work for me, but this shorter one did:

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preup(){
        modprobe -r iwl3945 &&
        modprobe iwl3945 &&
        iwlist scanning &&
        retrun 0;
}

This one seems to work for me.
also, the error message that I was getting after the initial failure was:

* Wireless radio has bddn killed for interface wlan0

For whatever reason, re-inserting the module, then re-trying to bring up the interface didn't change the error message that it gave me.

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:34 am

With the kernel 2.6.25-Gentoo-r4, does anyone who is able to active the led when the Iwl3945 module is loaded ?

This feature is suppose to be include in this kernel.

mikkoc · Post by **mikkoc** » Sat May 31, 2008 8:37 am

d2_racing wrote:With the kernel 2.6.25-Gentoo-r4, does anyone who is able to active the led when the Iwl3945 module is loaded ?

This feature is suppose to be include in this kernel.

I don't think so.. Led support for iwlwifi was added in 2.6.26 afaik.

bigsmoke · Post by **bigsmoke** » Sat May 31, 2008 9:20 am

mikkoc wrote:
d2_racing wrote:With the kernel 2.6.25-Gentoo-r4, does anyone who is able to active the led when the Iwl3945 module is loaded ?

This feature is suppose to be include in this kernel.
I don't think so.. Led support for iwlwifi was added in 2.6.26 afaik.

I can confirm this. I'm writing this on 2.6.25 without LED support.

VinzC · Post by **VinzC** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:36 am

d2_racing wrote:With the kernel 2.6.25-Gentoo-r4, does anyone who is able to active the led when the Iwl3945 module is loaded ?

This feature is suppose to be include in this kernel.

mikkoc wrote:I don't think so.. Led support for iwlwifi was added in 2.6.26 afaik.

Not quite. Kernel 2.6.25.x configuration now supports LED Triggers, which is the start of a more general way to control LEDs for WiFi and other devices. It's probably not complete as far as WiFi LEDs are concerned, don't know exactly.

[EDIT: I've run another distro's LiveCD recently and my WiFi LED worked with a 2.6.25 kernel. It wasn't ipw3945d that was used. I don't remember which distro however

.]

termite · Post by **termite** » Sat May 31, 2008 2:15 pm

Works on 2.6.26-rc4 (zen-sources).

Clete2 · Post by **Clete2** » Sat May 31, 2008 7:41 pm

I've scanned this thread.. but is there a guide to setting this up? I don't know what I need to do other than emerging the ucode and adding the module to my kernel (and loading it, obviously).

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:29 am

Clete2 wrote:I've scanned this thread.. but is there a guide to setting this up? I don't know what I need to do other than emerging the ucode and adding the module to my kernel (and loading it, obviously).

Yes : http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-67 ... l3945.html

Clete2 · Post by **Clete2** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:52 am

d2_racing wrote:
Clete2 wrote:I've scanned this thread.. but is there a guide to setting this up? I don't know what I need to do other than emerging the ucode and adding the module to my kernel (and loading it, obviously).
Yes : http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-67 ... l3945.html

I checked out the thread and it helped me get some configurations correct, but I have two problems:

1) lspci does not show the adapter (I have the ABGN model).
2) I have no clue how to actually go about utilizing it and finding my access point and connecting and etc. Once it's recognized by the system, how do I look for APs and connect to them using WEP/WPA/etc.?

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 11:50 pm

Hi, can you post your lspci and also what kernel version are you using ?

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:07 am

Since, it's a N version, you will need to install the iwl4965 module instead of the iwl3945.

Maybe you will need to recompile your kernel.

Also, you will need to install the iwl4965-ucode instead of the iwl3945-ucode.

For the rest, just follow the thread and replace the 3945 by 4965.

ipw3945 alternative: Intel's iwlwifi

What is wrong here?

My iwl3945 finally works