Intel 4965AGN WiFi Mini Wireless Card setup help pls?

stardotstar

Hi All,

The original card in my MSI Wind was not at all well supported by all accounts around the web so I elected to void my warranty (arguably anyway) and add an extra Gig of ram and the Intel Mini PCI express 4965AGN card.

Now that I lspci I can see an intel network controller but not the full details that some of the other lspci's I see around the web provide to wit:

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject:

Hi, first you need to do this :

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:44 pm Post subject:

Also, for the record, can you post this :

stardotstar · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 8:15 pm Post subject:

Thank you I will do that as soon as I get to work!
_________________
]8P

stardotstar · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:43 pm Post subject:

First thing was to emerge the iwl4965-ucode

and do the relinking of the net scripts

then I changed the conf.d/net to let wpa_supp use the wext driver.

OK I had the drivers compiled into the kernel so I recompiled with iwl4965 modular and rebooted.

Then I saw this on boot messages:

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

From your very last long message, I did not get what is your problem as it stands now ?
Does wireless work ?

fuzzykiller · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject:

You need to specify a location for the control interface folder in the wpa_supplicant config.

If your system is relatively secure, I recommend using the following:

stardotstar · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:11 am Post subject:

OK I seem to have found a my_very_bad with respect to the spellling issue above - from the very beginning I have single 'p' in supplicant of my own accord.

OOPS

So now I can use the wpa_cli to see what is happening but I am still stuck:

what appears to be happening is to do with a couple of things:

1) restarting net.wlan0 does not really kick things off properly.

2) the only way I can associate/reassociate with an AP in the wpa_supplicant.conf is by

rmmod iwl4965
modprobe iwl4965

this seems to call the wpa_supplicant and do an association from wpa_supplicant.conf and the net.wlan0 script ends up in state of started.

3) I generate an error everytime I restart the net.wlan0 script:

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

I use iwl4965, wpa_supplicant, WPA sites and ap_scan=1 just fine.

What I noticed is

a) card does not always associate with the correct AP right away. In most cases it reassociates itself correctly
after ~ 30 sec. Other times wpa_cli command 'reassociate' helps. But once a spent a night on the neighbours AP,
with the card refusing to associate with my AP next room and 100% signal. Until the morning when it suddenly did
after hibernation.

b) starting/stopping interface haphazardly (which I did a lot while trying to get configuration right) sometimes get
the driver stuck, and I have to reload iwl4965. When this happens, "/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 status" gives 'inactive'
(which it also gives if there are no access points around, but that is never the case when I'm getting my network up).
It is useful to check if you have issues with association and an almost sure sign that the driver needs to be reloaded.

when driver is stuck, the log gives some messages about 'trying to do something while rfkill is in progress' or so (don't remember exactly).

I have /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start/stop launched at Fn-F6 (without reloading the module) , with default off on boot
and service down at hibernate. And check for inactive, having big red message 'Please reload the driver' when
it happens. It seems happening a bit more often with the new iwlagn and version 2 ucode, that with
the old iwl4965 and version 1 ucode. Usually after hibernate, seems when I press Fn-F6 too soon.

stardotstar · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:19 am Post subject:

Well that is very interesting.

I am now at my home AP and association has happened without drama and I find the following:

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

Yes, association is done on the firnware/radio level, it has little to do with /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 script.

Except that in my case /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 stop also switches off the radio.
(Because of that I did not learn how to use RFKILL (unless it is used implicitly)).
Does it in your case ?

Otherwise your symptom that if there is no association reinserting the module helps is similar to mine.
Remember, iwl4965 on reinsert reloads the firmware onto the card (which is perhaps is responsible for association).

BTW, what version of ucode are you using ?

stardotstar · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

OK, thanks for your information and following this thread.

Here we go with some more info:

the firmware (ucode?) is:

d2_racing · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

So your wireless is working

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

stardotstar · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:33 am Post subject:

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

d2_racing · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 1:38 am Post subject:

Why not this :

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

I myself have Fn-F6 to toggle wireless on/off (I prefer not to start wireless on boot automatically).
I currently do not reload the module, however

So I have among acpi handlers

stardotstar · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject:

Fantastic dialogue guys.

First thing I note is that the reason I don't do the first suggestion you mention dmpogo:

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

stardotstar · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:08 am Post subject:

Hi,

No I believe that what I mean is that the FnF11 is a hardware switch since there is no acpi event or such when it is activated:

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

Well, different hardware is different. On my thinkpad even hard (also to toggle) switch on the back of the laptop kills radio even temeprarily (it comes back in 5-10 sec) but generates ACPI event