Problem - Intel Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG

[suresheva31]

---

Hi there,

I am having problem to setting up my Wireless Card on Dell Latitude D620, running Fedora Core 5.0

Kernel: 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5smp i686

Network Card Name:

Intel Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection

I downloaded the Driver from Intel Website:
ipw3945-linux-1.1.0, which has following files:

ipw3945-1.1.0
ipw3945-ucode-1.13 - firmware file
ipw3945d-1.7.22 - regulatory daemon

I followed the INSTALL instrunctions NOTES to setup the wireless

Since it required ieee80211-1.2.15:

I downloaded that from http://ieee80211.sf.net.

But since I did not had the kernel Header installed:

I have to install that first to compile the ieee.

so I install the following in kernel header

1) kernel-devel-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5smp.i686.rpm

2)
once that done, I did the following:

 % tar xzvf ieee80211-1.1.14.tgz
        % cd ieee80211-1.1.14
        % make
        # make install   <--- You may need to be root
        % cd ..

3)

 % tar xzvf ipw3945-1.1.0.tgz
 % cd ipw3945-1.1.0
 % make 

I got the following error:

 WARNING: Your kernel contains ieee80211 symbol definitions and you
 are not using the kernel's default ieee80211 subsystem.  (Perhaps you
 used the out-of-tree ieee80211 subsystem's 'make install' or have
 provided a path to the ieee80211 subsystem via IEEE80211_INC.)

 If you wish to use the out-of-tree ieee80211 subsystem then it is
 recommended to use that projects' "make patch_kernel" facility
 and rebuild your kernel to update the Module symbol version information.

 Failure to do this may result in build warnings and unexpected
 behavior when running modules which rely on the ieee80211 subsystem.


 Aborting the build.  You can force the build to continue by adding:

        IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y

 to your make command line.


make: *** [check_inc] Error 1


So I forced the make installation by giving this:

make IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y

installed without giving any error

4)


Now we install the firmware files (first finding where to install them):

        % wget http://bughost.org/ipw3945/ucode/ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz .
        % DIR=$(sed -ne "s:^FIRMWARE_DIR=\([^, ]*\).*:\1:p" \
                /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent)
        % tar xzvf ipw3945-ucode-1.13.tgz
        % less ipw3945-ucode-1.13/LICENSE.ipw3945-ucode
        # cp ipw3945-ucode-1.13/ipw3945.ucode $DIR

NOTE:  'DIR' above typically works out to /lib/firmware.

when I copy and pasted that DIR=$(sed...)

[root@localhost firmware]# DIR=$(sed -ne "s:^FIRMWARE_DIR=\([^, ]*\).*:\1:p" \
>                 /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent)
sed: can't read /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent: No such file or directory
ng error:

so I basically copied the file ipw3945.ucode to /lib/firmware


STEP 5)

Now we obtain the regulatory daemon:

        % wget http://bughost.org/ipw3945/daemon/ipw3945d-1.7.22.tgz .
        % tar xzvf ipw3945d-1.7.22.tgz
        % less ipw3945d-1.7.22/LICENSE.ipw3945d

# cp ipw3945d-1.7.22/x86/ipw3945d /sbin

# ./load debug=0x43fff -- What is the hexanumber exactly means?

I got teh following messages:

Unloaded: ieee80211 ieee80211_crypt
Loaded: ieee80211 ipw3945
Loading ipw3945d.ipw3945d - regulatory daemon
Copyright (C) 2005-2006 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
version: 1.7.22
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection found at:
/sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw3945/0000:0c:00.0
Daemon launched as pid 4513. Exiting.
..done.

so I thought everything is working fine:

iwlist eth1 scan

it gave me all the Aavilable Wireless network

iwconfig eth1 essid amsol28
iwconfig eth1 key 1234567890

iwconfig eth1

I GOT THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE

eth1    IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"amsol28"  Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:14:BF:AE:75:C0
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:15 dBm
          Retry limit:15   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:1234-5678-90   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=95/100  Signal level=-34 dBm  Noise level=-34 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:1360   Missed beacon:0

So I thought everything is fine

so did the following command:

ifup eth1

I got this error:

Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8B20) :
    SET failed on device eth1 ; Invalid argument.

Determining IP information for eth1... failed; no link present.  Check cable?

Now, can some one please tell me how to go and fix the above error?

Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance

Suresh

[MikeTbob]

Hi suresheva31,
I'm not too sure if it will work but I guess it can't hurt.
Instead of using ifup eth1 try ifconfig eth1 up
If eth1 does go up, but you don't get an IP address, then use system-config-services to restart network.
It might or might not work....let me know how you do.

[suresheva31]

NO LUCK

Bringing up interface eth1:
Determining IP information for eth1... failed.
[FAILED]

Suresh

[MikeTbob]

try using system-config-network, and see if the card shows up in the device listing.
And what kind of encryption are you using? WPA, WEP?

Encryption key:1234-5678-90 Security mode : open

and just to be clear,,,Encryption key:1234-5678-90 is just for example right?

[suresheva31]

that is my acutal encryption key. 1234567890

Still no luck...I am still without wireless connection? really frustrating....Can someone please help me to resolve this problem

Suresh

[MikeTbob]

You know, I'm not real sure about this but I don't think that WEP key is valid, did you set this key, and have you ever connected to this wireless link from any computer?

Any other Ideas from the forum? Is that WEP key valid?

[suresheva31]

Hey,

I have no problem connecting to that wireless from Windows XP or 2003 server, it is just from linux....I can not seem to get it working.

Any idea?

Kumar

[MikeTbob]

Can you verify that windows used that WEP key?
A hexadecimal key is a mixture of numbers and letters from A-F and 0-9 for 64 bit WEP, you need to enter 10 hex keys. For instance AF 0F 4B C3 D4=64 bit WEP key.
For a 128 bit hex key C3 03 0F AF 0F 4B B2 C3 D4 4B C3 D4 E7=128 bit WEP key.
On my router I can enter a passphrase and click on generate hex key, to get a key automatically. Have you tried changing your WEP key from within the router and then set the same key in Linux?

[AlexK]

@ suresheva31,
can you post the result from this command:

dmesg | grep eth

also try setting up the card with static ip rather than dynamic.

[FC5_Inspiron6400]

Thanks for the post suresheva31, I am nearly up and running using the same versions of packages that you have with the exception of this kernel is 2.6.17-1.2187_FC5smp.

I managed to resolve all issues up to the point of starting the card. I experienced none of the errors you did, but I did have to install kernel-devel package. Here is where I'm stuck:

[root@maple ipw3945-1.1.0]# ./load debug=0
Unloaded: ieee80211 ieee80211_crypt
insmod: can't read './ipw3945.ko': No such file or directory
Load failed.
ipw3945d - regulatory daemon
Copyright (C) 2005-2006 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
version: 1.7.22
2006-10-05 14:39:27: ERROR: Could not find Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
..done.
[root@maple ipw3945-1.1.0]#

I had a search for the file ipw3945.ko and did not find it. Because this install has been going relatively smoothly before I make changes I'd like to say the wifi LED on this Dell Inspiron is not lit. With Windows this indicated the card is disabled, and it can be toggled using the Fn-F2 key combination. However this combination has no effect with FC5 installed - the light remains off. I have verified the card is not disabled in BIOS -- can anyone here tell me this is normal?

Any advice on where to go now is greatly appreciated. I suspect something with the soft / hardware diabling function of this laptop, but have no way to check that. Searches on forums have resulted in no matches to this condition.

One other piece of info that struck me as odd (admittedly in my ignorance it may be OK):

[root@maple ipw3945-1.1.0]# iwconfig --version
iwconfig  Wireless-Tools version 28
          Compatible with Wireless Extension v11 to v19.

Kernel    Currently compiled with Wireless Extension v20.

Because the kernel is compiled with Wireless Extension v20 perhaps iwconfig or Wireless-Tools need to be upgraded to a version compatible with Wireless Estension v20. Maybe?

Thanks for reading!