Intel Pro/Wireless 3945abg Connectivity Issues

[thecloudsaint]

I finally just got fed up and installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my Dell Inspiron 1520 yesterday after meditating on it for probably a few years.

I'm having the same issues a lot of people seem to have with the wireless card - it won't work. I've been reading up on how to fix it and tried a few things, but to no real success yet. It's frustrating.

I installed ndiswrapper and my WiFi "little blue light" popped on, so I assume that's a good sign? But it still won't recognize my router, which I happen to be sitting less than five feet away from as I type this.

I ask that you assume the following, please:
I am very new to this OS and haven't even really figured out how to get by yet.

Thank you for any and all help anyone can provide! This is driving me nuts.

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

Take a look at this sticky and post back with the requested information.
Then we should be able to get you sorted.

[thecloudsaint]

When I input lpsci -knn:

 marie@ordinateurportable:~$ lspci -knn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a00] (rev 0c)
	Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port [8086:2a01] (rev 0c)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2834] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2835] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:283a] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:284b] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
	Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:283f] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2841] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:2845] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2830] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2831] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2832] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:2836] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller [8086:2815] (rev 02)
	Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller [8086:2850] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller [8086:2828] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:283e] (rev 02)
	Kernel modules: i2c-i801
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GS [10de:0427] (rev a1)
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidia, nvidiafb
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: b44
	Kernel modules: b44
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832] (rev 05)
	Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
	Kernel modules: firewire-ohci, ohci1394
03:01.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 22)
	Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
	Kernel modules: sdhci-pci
03:01.2 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter [1180:0592] (rev 12)
03:01.3 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller [1180:0852] (rev 12)
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection [8086:4222] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: iwl3945
	Kernel modules: iwl3945

Lsmod:

 Module                  Size  Used by
isofs                  39844  0 
udf                    87716  0 
crc_itu_t              10112  1 udf
binfmt_misc            16776  1 
ppdev                  15620  0 
bridge                 56212  0 
stp                    10500  1 bridge
bnep                   20224  2 
input_polldev          11912  0 
joydev                 18496  0 
lp                     17156  0 
parport                42220  2 ppdev,lp
snd_hda_intel         434100  5 
snd_pcm_oss            46336  0 
snd_mixer_oss          22656  1 snd_pcm_oss
arc4                    9856  2 
snd_pcm                83076  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy          10756  0 
ecb                    10752  2 
snd_seq_oss            37760  0 
snd_seq_midi           14336  0 
snd_rawmidi            29696  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     15104  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                56880  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              29704  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14988  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
iwl3945                97912  0 
snd                    62756  18 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
mac80211              217592  1 iwl3945
psmouse                61972  0 
uvcvideo               63368  0 
led_class              12036  1 iwl3945
soundcore              15200  1 snd
compat_ioctl32          9344  1 uvcvideo
snd_page_alloc         16904  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
sdhci_pci              15232  0 
sdhci                  23940  1 sdhci_pci
serio_raw              13444  0 
videodev               41600  1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat            21764  2 uvcvideo,videodev
dcdbas                 15264  0 
video                  25360  6 
pcspkr                 10496  0 
iTCO_wdt               19108  0 
iTCO_vendor_support    11652  1 iTCO_wdt
cfg80211               38288  2 iwl3945,mac80211
intel_agp              34108  0 
output                 11008  1 video
nvidia               7233756  50 
agpgart                42696  2 intel_agp,nvidia
b44                    35984  0 
ohci1394               38576  0 
ssb                    41220  1 b44
mii                    13312  1 b44
ieee1394               94660  1 ohci1394
fbcon                  46112  0 
tileblit               10752  1 fbcon
font                   16384  1 fbcon
bitblit                13824  1 fbcon
softcursor              9984  1 bitblit

I inputted dmesg | grep firmware:

 [   26.811406] iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode

And when I input iwconfig, this is what happens:

 lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:"linksys"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          Power Management: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

pan0      no wireless extensions.

Is there any other information you might need? I thank you again for your help.

[reed9]

From what you have, everything seems fine. Some distros do not include the firmware, but Ubuntu does. What exactly is happening when you try to connect?

Does

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

output any wireless networks? I have this wireless card and I've never experienced any trouble under linux.

Post the output of

dmesg | grep wlan0

and

cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill*/state

This should just output a number, hopefully 1. 0 would mean the wireless radio is turned off.

Forget ndiswrapper, it's not needed in this case.

[thecloudsaint]

When I actually disconnect my ethernet cable and try to find a wireless network using Network Connections, I have no luck. However, the card itself does seem to be reading it - when I scan in terminal, all of the wireless networks around me, protected and unprotected, are listed.

This is what happens when I input dmesg | grep wlan0:

 [   32.040836] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   33.615987] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:1a:70:ef:da:6f
[   33.617871] wlan0: authenticated
[   33.617879] wlan0: associate with AP 00:1a:70:ef:da:6f
[   33.621738] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1a:70:ef:da:6f (capab=0x401 status=0 aid=2)
[   33.621746] wlan0: associated
[   33.625208] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[   33.636888] wlan0: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)
[   44.284064] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

And when I input

 cat /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill*/state

I get a 1.

[reed9]

Hmm, everything seems ok still.

Couple of ideas. Try installing the package linux-backports-modules . I believe this has updated drivers. Not 100% sure though.

Try using wicd instead of the default networkmanager.

[thecloudsaint]

Success!

Thank you for all of your help!

[reed9]

Care to share what solved it for you?