Wireless Not working - Lenovo Laptop Y410 : Kernel : 2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64

**pHa** · 03-18-2009

Hello,

I have a lenovo laptop with

Kernel : 2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64

Network Controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev02)
Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Netlink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev02)

I have tried endlessly and unsuccessfully to make my wireless work.

When I try to activate the device I got the message "Determining IP information for wlan0...SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device"

I followed the post at the following link.

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/red...onnection.html

I had the following output for /sbin/lsmod | grep iwl3945

iwl3945 170340 0

which meant my drivers are fine.

I downloaded firmware iwlwifi-3945-ucode-15.28.2.8.tgz from intel website which is the latest and put the required file in /lib/firmware/

When I checked the sevices to restart the Network Manager and Network Manager Dispatcher I could find only Network Manager service running. I tried installing Network Manager Dispatcher via an RPM but it didnt appear in the list of services.

Please help.

Thanks pH

**reed9** · 03-18-2009

Hmm. When clicking on the networkmanager icon in the systray, is the option to enable wireless grayed out? Do you by chance have a physical kill switch on your computer that is maybe switched off? (I've done that before.) Can you post the output of

Code:

dmesg | grep iwl
ifconfig
iwconfig
su -c 'iwlist wlan0 scanning'

**pHa** · 03-19-2009

Hi Reed9,

First of all sorry for late response. I am in a different time zone.

When clicking on the networkmanager icon in the systray, the option to enable wireless is grayed out.
I have a physical switch but its turned ON.

Following is the output of the commands.

# dmesg | grep iwl
iwl3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG/BG Network Connection driver for Linux, 1.2.26kds
iwl3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2008 Intel Corporation
iwl3945: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 3945ABG
iwl3945: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-3945-rs'
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch

# /sbin/ifconfig
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:3174 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3174 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:158932 (155.2 KiB) TX bytes:158932 (155.2 KiB)

# /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:3141-3242-3343-3444-3545
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

pan0 no wireless extensions.

# su -c 'iwlist wlan0 scanning'
bash: iwlist: command not found

**reed9** · 03-19-2009

iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch

If you have your radio turned on via the hardware switch, and are getting this message, then there must be a software switch that is enabled. I had to do this once before for an ipw2200, but I can't remember exactly how to do it.

I believe this should tell you the state of the kill switch.

Code:

cat /sys/bus/pci/drivers/iwl3945/*/rf_kill

The output should be 0, to indicate your wireless radio is on.

And I think you can change it as so

Code:

echo 0 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/iwl3945/*/rf_kill

You need root privileges to change this, I think, as well.

**waterhead** · 03-19-2009

You are basically correct on this, but you may need a more specific path for the command. I gathered some notes on this, so I'll post them as is.

RFKILL (RF_KILL)

To check kill switch state:
cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:03\:00.0/rf_kill

This should be modified for your card location

# cat /sys/bus/pci/drivers/iwl3945/module/drivers/pci\:iwl3945/0000\:10\:00.0/rf_kill
2

AFAIK there are 4 value for rf_kill, like the following,
0 -- means both software/hardware rf_kill are disabled;
1 -- means software rf_kill is enable;
2 -- means hardware rf_kill is enable;
3 -- means both software/hardware rf_kill are enabled

and after:

# echo "1" >> /sys/bus/pci/drivers/iwl3945/module/drivers/pci\:iwl3945/0000\:10\:00.0/rf_kill

# cat /sys/bus/pci/drivers/iwl3945/module/drivers/pci\:iwl3945/0000\:10\:00.0/rf_kill
3

Remove and reload the module after changing the state of it.

I gathered these notes, mostly, from here:

Bug 1454 – on Fedora (rawhide) iwl3945 module loads but doesn't work (RF kill switch issue)

This only covers the rf_kill module that is present in the Intel driver. Newer kernels have the rfkill (spelled different) module as a separate module. It is slightly different.

**pHa** · 03-20-2009

Thanks guys for your inputs.
I tried doing an "echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/iwl3945/*/rf_kill" and it changed the value to 3. But doesnt help and when I restart my machine its 2 again.

@waterhead, what is meant by

Remove and reload the module after changing the state of it.

**waterhead** · 03-20-2009

The module referred to is the kernel module that contains the driver for your wireless card. In this case it is named iwl3945. You can remove a module using the modprobe command, with the -r option. First gain root privileges using the su command.

Code:

modprobe -r iwl3945

Then you can reload it.

Code:

modprobe iwl3945

I tried this on my working wireless, that uses the ath5k driver. I was able to disable it, but after changing the state back, I wasn't able to enable the wireless. Even after unloading and reloading the module. I had to reboot to get the wireless to work again.

Have you tried setting the state to 0? Then try unloading/reloading the module, then reboot. If the wireless was never configured, it may still not work. You need to open the "Network" program (In System-->Administration) and configure it. Click on "Edit", and make sure the "Use NetworkManager" and "Allow All users to enable/disable" options are checked.

**pHa** · 03-20-2009

hi paul,

I tried doing the echo to change rf_kill value to 3. But when I do a modprobe -r and then a modprobe it gets reset to 2.

I am not able to se the rf_kill to 0 in any case. It never goes below the value of 2.

I did the above after "enabling" the '"Allow All users to enable/disable" the network device but no luck

thmx pH

**waterhead** · 03-20-2009

You may need to enter the BIOS and see if there is a setting to activate the wireless.

**pHa** · 03-21-2009

Thanks paul. I wonder why it never worked. I did wht this thread says and its up now,,,

Wireless - Determining IP information for wlan0...failed; no link present...... - FedoraForum.org

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