ipw3945 alternative: Intel's iwlwifi

[rmh3093]

Update

I was unaware that the sunrise overlay had ebuilds for mac80211 and iwlwifi, so I tried them out. The ebuilds conflicted with my already-patched kernel, so I nuked it and re-emerged suspend2-sources. I'm not typing this message to you on iwlwifi-0.0.18 courtesy of the sunrise overlay. Nice!

The LED light isn't working on my laptop right now, but that's not a big deal. I'll be playing with the module options to see if there's some setting I've missed.

i've trying iwlwifi since its birth... how are the rates on your card with version 0.0.18... i always have slow transfers

[hammy]

Update

I was unaware that the sunrise overlay had ebuilds for mac80211 and iwlwifi, so I tried them out. The ebuilds conflicted with my already-patched kernel, so I nuked it and re-emerged suspend2-sources. I'm not typing this message to you on iwlwifi-0.0.18 courtesy of the sunrise overlay. Nice!

The LED light isn't working on my laptop right now, but that's not a big deal. I'll be playing with the module options to see if there's some setting I've missed.

i've trying iwlwifi since its birth... how are the rates on your card with version 0.0.18... i always have slow transfers

rmh3093: as a test of my connection speed, I tried to saturate the downstream bandwidth for my cable. The transfer rates peaked around 1.2 MByte/sec.

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charisma ~ # time wget http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
--01:33:46--  http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
           => `linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2'
Resolving distfiles.gentoo.org... 216.165.129.135, 156.56.247.195, 64.50.238.52, ...
Connecting to distfiles.gentoo.org|216.165.129.135|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 43,997,476 (42M) [application/x-tar]

100%[===========================================================>] 43,997,476     1.28M/s    ETA 00:00

01:34:31 (974.37 KB/s) - `linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2' saved [43997476/43997476]


real    0m44.677s
user    0m0.060s
sys     0m0.780s

[milugru]

i've trying iwlwifi since its birth... how are the rates on your card with version 0.0.18... i always have slow transfers

rmh3093: as a test of my connection speed, I tried to saturate the downstream bandwidth for my cable. The transfer rates peaked around 1.2 MByte/sec.

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charisma ~ # time wget http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
--01:33:46--  http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
           => `linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2'
Resolving distfiles.gentoo.org... 216.165.129.135, 156.56.247.195, 64.50.238.52, ...
Connecting to distfiles.gentoo.org|216.165.129.135|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 43,997,476 (42M) [application/x-tar]

100%[===========================================================>] 43,997,476     1.28M/s    ETA 00:00

01:34:31 (974.37 KB/s) - `linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2' saved [43997476/43997476]


real    0m44.677s
user    0m0.060s
sys     0m0.780s

Are you guys using encryption on your connections? I use WPA and I have got the slowdown problem as well...

[rmh3093]

i've trying iwlwifi since its birth... how are the rates on your card with version 0.0.18... i always have slow transfers

rmh3093: as a test of my connection speed, I tried to saturate the downstream bandwidth for my cable. The transfer rates peaked around 1.2 MByte/sec.

Code: Select all

charisma ~ # time wget http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
--01:33:46--  http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
           => `linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2'
Resolving distfiles.gentoo.org... 216.165.129.135, 156.56.247.195, 64.50.238.52, ...
Connecting to distfiles.gentoo.org|216.165.129.135|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 43,997,476 (42M) [application/x-tar]

100%[===========================================================>] 43,997,476     1.28M/s    ETA 00:00

01:34:31 (974.37 KB/s) - `linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2' saved [43997476/43997476]


real    0m44.677s
user    0m0.060s
sys     0m0.780s

Are you guys using encryption on your connections? I use WPA and I have got the slowdown problem as well...

yes I have the slowdowns on encrypted and non encrypted networks... what mode are you connecting in B or G?

[mikkoc]

That's UDEV. Udev renames your interfaces but for some reason fails. Hence the strange name. You might want to add/change persistent network rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.

Thanks. I have this line in the file:

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# PCI device 0x8086:0x4222 (ipw3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:18:de:0d:38:34", NAME="eth2"

Should I add this line?

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# PCI device 0x8086:0x4222 (iwl3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:18:de:0d:38:34", NAME="wlan0"

[VinzC]

@mikkoc:

The file can be customized to fit your needs. You can change the line so that it looks like the second one. Also create a symlink /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 towards /etc/init.d/net.lo.

[milugru]

That's UDEV. Udev renames your interfaces but for some reason fails. Hence the strange name. You might want to add/change persistent network rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.

Thanks. I have this line in the file:

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# PCI device 0x8086:0x4222 (ipw3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:18:de:0d:38:34", NAME="eth2"

Should I add this line?

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# PCI device 0x8086:0x4222 (iwl3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:18:de:0d:38:34", NAME="wlan0"

Hi Mikkoc,

simply removing the ipw3945-line did the trick on my installation.

hth milugru

[paranox]

Guys I need help compiling iwlwifi....

I've patched my kernel to 2.6.22-rc3-mm1, that worked fine.
I downloaded and copied the ucode, that worked fine.

Now I've downloaded iwlwifi-0.0.18 from the intel website and I can't get it to compile.
When I run make, I get the following...

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Checking kernel compatibility in:
        /lib/modules/2.6.22-rc3-mm1/source
 * Kernel requires compatibility version:
   - Requires old request_irq syntax compat
Building compatibility version in 'compatible/' directory:
Copying compatible/ from origin/...done
 + Applying: patches/03-isr.patch
        Add compatibility with request_irq from older (pre-2.6.19) kernels.
make: *** [compatible/kversion] Error 1

I haven't seen reports of this happening to anyone.. Anyone got any pointers?

[morbus]

Just comment out the following line in scripts/determine_compat. It builds cleanly, but haven't tested whether it has any runtime issues then.

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grep -q "extern int request_irq(unsigned int, irq_handler_t handler," ${KSRC}/include/linux/interrupt.h &&

[rmh3093]

Guys I need help compiling iwlwifi....

I've patched my kernel to 2.6.22-rc3-mm1, that worked fine.
I downloaded and copied the ucode, that worked fine.

Now I've downloaded iwlwifi-0.0.18 from the intel website and I can't get it to compile.
When I run make, I get the following...

Code: Select all

Checking kernel compatibility in:
        /lib/modules/2.6.22-rc3-mm1/source
 * Kernel requires compatibility version:
   - Requires old request_irq syntax compat
Building compatibility version in 'compatible/' directory:
Copying compatible/ from origin/...done
 + Applying: patches/03-isr.patch
        Add compatibility with request_irq from older (pre-2.6.19) kernels.
make: *** [compatible/kversion] Error 1

I haven't seen reports of this happening to anyone.. Anyone got any pointers?

Later tonight I will create a iw3945 patch that should apply to all kernels with mac80211 already patched in.

[VinzC]

For those interested in transfer rates, I've achieved about 1.5MB/s with ipw3945 so your transfer rates are not too much different from what they are with ipw3945. This is the mean rate I've always experienced until now with that card. I didn't take note of the rate when I was using Windows however.

[rmh3093]

http://www.rit.edu/~rmh3093/iwlwifi-0.0 ... rnel.patch

oops this is for 2.6.22-rc4-mm1 which already has iwlwifi in it

[Phk]

Hi there peeps!

Nice post, nice driver, some problems appear though...

I have network connection in a WPA network, however.. I can't associate in a NON-ENCRYPTED network!! LOL!

1) Please clear my mind about something:
I now use the latest skunk-sources on an x86_64. You said the iwlwifi driver was built-in the kernel, but i still emerged the "iwlwifi" package and it's two dependencies.. Is this right? needed?

2) The WPA Network:
The network connection goes down about one hour after the DHCPCD. Then, i have to kill WPA_SUPPLICANT and reload it, and then DHCPCD. Why does this happen? It's very ugly

3) The Non-Secured Network ("guest-di"):
I can't even associate with the AP. if i "iwconfig wlan0" i get these:

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PhkLaptop ~ # iwconfig wlan0
Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 22
of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 20.
Some things may be broken...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11a  ESSID:"guest-di"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.17 GHz  Access Point: Invalid   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          Encryption key: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:0   Missed beacon:0

... what am i doing wrong?

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here goes my wpa_supplicant.conf and my generic "wireless" script to load thru RC at boot:

WPA_SUPPLICANT.CONF

PhkLaptop ~ # cat /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

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ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

# ap_scan=1

network={           <--------------------   (this is the non-associating network! .. damn..)
        ssid="guest-di"
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

network={
        ssid="sarna"
        psk="blah blah blah"
}

network={
        ssid="e-U"
        scan_ssid=1
        key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
        eap=PEAP
        identity="blah@fct.unl.pt"
        password="blah"
        ca_cert="/etc/root_certificates/root_unl.pem"
        priority=2
}

network={
        ssid="Phk"
        psk="blah blah blah"
}

network={
        ssid="WirelessLan"
        scan_ssid=1
        key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
        pairwise=CCMP TKIP
        group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
        eap=TTLS PEAP TLS
        psk="blah blah blah"
}

WIRELESS (script loaded at boot)

PhkLaptop ~ # cat /bin/wireless

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pkill wpa_supplicant
rm /var/run/dhcpcd-wlan0.pid 2>> /dev/null
wpa_supplicant -qq -w -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf 2>> /dev/null &
echo - A executar DHCPcd...
dhcpcd wlan0 2>> /dev/null
echo
echo  Wireless Started!
echo 

Sorry for the post, this iwlwifi driver is still new to me It all worked with ipw3945, but with this new 2.6.22 kernel, i can't use it anymore.. isn't it?

If you can help me, i would really appreciate!

Cheers,
Phk

[Phk]

Ok, wireless is working now....

Don't ask me what i did.. i just finished a big rebuild of gnome...

Note: did not edit previous post since the code quotations there might be useful for someone. They're working...

Cheers!

[jasn]

Well I converted to the iwlwifi drivers for my Intel 3945 wireless card in my laptop today, (from the ipw3945 drivers), and I thought I would post what I did, and what I encountered for others following this path. First off it seems that the iwlwifi drivers are designed to work against a 2.6.22 kernel or greater. I know you can patch prior kernels, but since I was updating things, I decided to update my kernel as well. I used the most recent gentoo-sources, 2.6.22-r1, and the masked Intel iwlwifi drivers, and I didn't apply any patches.

1) Build my kernel, 2.6.22-r1, with the following options;

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Networking  ---> Wireless  --->
<M> Improved wireless configuration API (which is CONFIG_CFG80211=m in my kernel .config)
<M> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211) (which is CONFIG_MAC80211=m in my kernel.config)
<M> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack  (which is CONFIG_IEEE80211=m in my kernel .config)
and
Device Drivers  ---> Network device support  ---> Wireless LAN  --->
[*] Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) (which is CONFIG_WLAN_80211=y in my kernel .config)

I then built and installed the new kernel in /boot.

2) Unmerge my existing ipw3945 drivers and daemons;

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emerge --unmerge ipw3945 ipw3945-ucode ipw3945d
and
rc-update del ipw3945d default

3) Since the new Intel iwlwifi wireless drivers are now in Portage but masked, I started by unmasking them;

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/etc/portage/package.unmask
~net-wireless/iwlwifi-0.0.36
~net-wireless/iwl3945-ucode-2.14.4
~net-wireless/iwl4965-ucode-4.44.15

/etc/portage/package.keywords
~net-wireless/iwlwifi-0.0.36 **
~net-wireless/iwl3945-ucode-2.14.4 **
~net-wireless/iwl4965-ucode-4.44.15 **

I'm not sure that the keywords entry is necessary, but I did it anyway following what I've done in the past to use masked alsa-drivers. Also I know that the 4965-ucode is something I don't need, but for completeness I unmasked it as well.

4) Add the USE keyword for my wireless card to my /etc/make.conf USE line. For me it's ipw3945.

5) I then emerged iwlwifi, which now that my USE flag is set to ipw3945, emerges as a dependency, iwl3945-ucode.

6) I then edited my network settings in /etc/conf.d/net;

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from;
config_eth1=( "dhcp" )
dhcpcd_eth1="-N -t 10"
to
config_wlan0=( "dhcp" )
dhcpcd_wlan0="-N -t 10"

7) I then changed my /etc/init.d network settings with;

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rc-update del net.eth1 default
cd /etc/init.d
rm net.eth1
ln -s net.lo net.wlan0
rc-update add net.wlan0 default

Once I rebooted I received the same strange "rename" message with udev, and was left with an ifconfig -a that showed an eth1 interface and a wlan0_rename interface. As others have pointed out udev's persistent rules need to be tweaked in order to not confuse the naming of the ipw3945 driver interface, which was eth1, and the new iwl3945 interface. The problem is that with a rule already in place for ipw3945 using the same MAC address, udev will get confused. So;

8) If you edit /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and comment out the ipw3945 SUBSYSTEM line

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# PCI device 0x8086:0x4222 (ipw3945)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:00:00:00:00:00", NAME="eth1"

The next time you boot udev will see the iwl3945 correctly, and add the following line to the same rules file.

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# PCI device 0x8086:0x4222 (iwl3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:00:00:00:00:00", ATTRS{type}=="1", NAME="wlan0"

NOW.. I could reboot my computer, iwl3945 would get correctly loaded, and I would have the correct wlan_master and wlan0 interface created and started on my computer. The only problem is that I could not associate with my AP here. I then tried unloading the iwl3945 module and loading it with the following parameters;

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modprobe iwl3945 antenna=0 disable=0 disable_hw_scan=0 mode=0

and everything began working correctly. I then rebooted, and everything came up normally with no need to unload the module and reload with any parameters. I'm also not using wpa_supplicant, but I would like to start using networkmanager. Does anyone know if it's as simple as emerging networkmanager with its dependencies and rebooting?

Kudos to everyone working on this..

[Phk]

First of all, great post. That's a nice organization.

Second, why not WPA_Supplicant? No graphical user interface ?

cheers

[jasn]

Second, why not WPA_Supplicant? No graphical user interface ?

Just a past preference. I've actually never used a graphical interface with my wireless networking with Gentoo. However I like the look of NetworkManager, so I'm going to give that a try. (hopefully I didn't change too much at once..)

[jasn]

The second laptop I did this process on was only slightly different. After step 7) above, I didn't reboot, but edited the /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and commented out the ipw3945 SUBSYSTEM line first, and then rebooted. Once the computer came up not only were the interfaces correct, but my wifi interface also associated correctly to my ap here and everything was fine. Basically didn't need to "kick it", as in the final step of unloading and then reloading the iwl3945 module with params, as above..

FYI.. NetworkManager emerged, up and running..

<..The Gentoo gods have smiled on me today..>

[Phk]

Nice! You could post some configs like i did for WPA_Supp, but now for NetworkManager.

Maybe i'll give it a try

Cheers

[Evincar]

Iwlwifi is working here too!! But not very well .

My transfer speed seem to be capped at 80 Kb/s, definitely not very hot! Anyone has an idea of what could cause it? I am connecting to a WAP encrypted network. I get a rather ominous message from iwconfig...

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Grimnir miguel # iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 22
of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 20.
Some things may be broken...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"comtrend"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.442 GHz  Access Point: 00:03:C9:8D:7E:59
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B
          Encryption key:(ommitted) [2]
          Link Quality=50/100  Signal level=-67 dBm  Noise level=-82 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Anyway, good to see Linux moving forwards and not being afraid of re-writing whole stacks if neccesary. I am 100% sure that whatever the problem is, it will be fixed soon.

EDIT: Also, the RF LED is not working. I know there were some kernels options about that, maybe I made some mistake there.

[mikkoc]

EDIT: Also, the RF LED is not working. I know there were some kernels options about that, maybe I made some mistake there.

Mine too
Everything works fine except the led.. Anyone knows how to enable it?

EDIT: I have enabled the followings in my .config:
CONFIG_MAC80211_LEDS=y
CONFIG_RFKILL=y
CONFIG_RFKILL_INPUT=m

[EricHsu]

Mine too
Everything works fine except the led.. Anyone knows how to enable it?

EDIT: I have enabled the followings in my .config:
CONFIG_MAC80211_LEDS=y
CONFIG_RFKILL=y
CONFIG_RFKILL_INPUT=m

Same problem here, seems like a known bug. I'm sure it will be fixed soon!

Edit:

I noticed another problem, there's no "Bit Rate" information:

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$ /sbin/iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Aragon-2"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:19:5B:E5:BE:1E   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          Link Quality=67/100  Signal level=-54 dBm  Noise level=-90 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

[mikkoc]

Another thing I noticed with iwlwifi driver is the reduced Link Quality:

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wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"CALDARA"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:0F:B5:B3:36:5A
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality=84/100  Signal level=-21 dBm  Noise level=-56 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

My laptop is 3 feet from the router, in fact Link Quality with ipw3945 is 100/100.
Anyone noticed the same?

[Evincar]

Another thing I noticed with iwlwifi driver is the reduced Link Quality:

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wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"CALDARA"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:0F:B5:B3:36:5A
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality=84/100  Signal level=-21 dBm  Noise level=-56 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

My laptop is 3 feet from the router, in fact Link Quality with ipw3945 is 100/100.
Anyone noticed the same?

Well, I haven't compared the Quality in ipw3945 Vs iwl3945, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with the reduced speed most of us are suffering.

I have noticed that it is possible to build both 802.11 stacks as modules, and have the old one autoload for normal use, and, when you feel like trying a new iwlwifi version, unload it and load the new mac80211.

On a side note, what is so bad about having the regulatory daemon? Getting rid of it seems to be a major point for developing the new driver, but I don't quite understand the advantages. Just wanting to learn a bit more .

[mikkoc]

On a side note, what is so bad about having the regulatory daemon? Getting rid of it seems to be a major point for developing the new driver, but I don't quite understand the advantages. Just wanting to learn a bit more .

well, once you don't need the regulatory daemon anymore, you can include the iwlwifi driver directly into the kernel, just like older ipw2200. I think this is the main reason, and of course, the daemon is proprietary...