5100AGN problems

[n4rky]

So one problem remains: it does not automatically load firmware:

============ lspci ============
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a40] (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a43] (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2942] (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:2944] (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 [8086:2948] (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller [8086:2919] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller [8086:2929] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 03)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller [11ab:4354] (rev 13)
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100 [8086:4232]

============ lsusb ============
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 004: ID 05ca:180a Ricoh Co., Ltd
Bus 007 Device 003: ID 0bda:0158 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Mass Stroage Device
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 413c:8162 Dell Computer Corp.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 413c:8161 Dell Computer Corp.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

============ lsmod ============
Module Size Used by
binfmt_misc 7132 1
i915 130284 2
drm 133272 3 i915
i2c_algo_bit 4888 1 i915
rfcomm 29560 2
l2cap 17072 9 rfcomm
bluetooth 46012 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 6224 0
lp 7872 0
parport 30828 2 ppdev,lp
ipv6 231640 28
acpi_cpufreq 7040 0
cpufreq_powersave 1276 0
cpufreq_stats 3588 0
cpufreq_userspace 2712 0
cpufreq_conservative 5456 0
fuse 48084 3
loop 12948 0
arc4 1544 2
ecb 2352 2
dell_laptop 3148 0
iwlagn 70552 0
iwlcore 76772 1 iwlagn
dcdbas 6732 1 dell_laptop
rfkill 9540 5 dell_laptop,iwlcore
i2c_i801 8108 0
led_class 3668 1 iwlcore
pcspkr 2092 0
snd_hda_codec_idt 48764 1
i2c_core 20792 4 i915,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_i801
uvcvideo 48844 0
iTCO_wdt 9896 0
serio_raw 4544 0
mac80211 134456 2 iwlagn,iwlcore
snd_hda_intel 22128 1
psmouse 36592 0
videodev 33332 1 uvcvideo
snd_hda_codec 58808 2 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
joydev 8560 0
v4l1_compat 11196 2 uvcvideo,videodev
cfg80211 32728 3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
snd_hwdep 6000 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 62792 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 17772 1 snd_pcm
snd 48380 8 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_ hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 6204 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 8028 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
evdev 8160 11
video 16348 0
output 2504 1 video
wmi 6332 0
battery 5832 0
button 5672 0
intel_agp 22740 1
agpgart 30648 3 drm,intel_agp
ac 2872 0
ext3 106800 1
jbd 42236 1 ext3
mbcache 7180 1 ext3
sg 19900 0
sd_mod 28176 4
crc_t10dif 1616 1 sd_mod
sr_mod 12840 0
cdrom 29804 1 sr_mod
usbhid 29072 0
hid 34184 1 usbhid
usb_storage 83528 0
ahci 27556 3
libata 148880 1 ahci
scsi_mod 131812 5 sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,usb_storage,libata
sky2 38708 0
ehci_hcd 30072 0
uhci_hcd 19396 0
usbcore 124940 6 uvcvideo,usbhid,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal 15052 0
processor 39452 4 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
fan 4104 0
thermal_sys 10272 4 video,thermal,processor,fan

============ dmesg-firmware ============

============ kernel version ============
2.6.29-2-686-bigmem

I'm guessing if I follow the magic I did earlier, it will load the firmware. But at this very moment, I'm in a place where only wireless Internet is available. So I'm having to go back and forth between Windows XP (which I'm gradually uncrippling but would really rather not bother with) and Linux (thank goodness for ntfs-3g and I probably wouldn't dare try an ext3 analog under Windows).

And I'm thinking it should load the firmware automatically anyway. What's up here?

[waterhead]

Did you download the correct firmware, extract it, and put it in the /lib/firmware directory? The version 5.4.A.11 has the firmware version that you need:

http://intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwif....4.A.11.tar.gz

It must be unpacked before you transfer it to the /lib/firmware folder. If that is not the problem, then sometimes the firmware needs to be in a sub-folder of /lib/firmware. Check for that.

[n4rky]

Yes:

graton% ls -al /lib/firmware
total 1232
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-06-06 21:38 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 2009-06-03 14:13 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 150860 2009-03-29 23:34 iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 187608 2009-03-29 23:34 iwlwifi-4965-1.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 187672 2009-03-29 23:34 iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 345008 2009-06-06 21:38 iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 353240 2009-06-03 21:02 iwlwifi-5000-2.ucode
graton%

The correct file is iwlwifi-5000-1 .

[n4rky]

Now that I'm back home, I retried the magic from yesterday:

graton% sudo modprobe iwlagn
graton% sudo iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn 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:off
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

graton% ifconfig wlan0 up
zsh: command not found: ifconfig
graton% sudo /sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
graton% sudo iwlist wlan0 ap
wlan0 Interface doesn't have a list of Peers/Access-Points

graton% sudo dmesg | grep iwlagn
[ 8.154973] iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, 1.3.27ks
[ 8.154975] iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2008 Intel Corporation
[ 8.155028] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 8.155037] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 8.155083] iwlagn: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100AGN REV=0x54
[ 8.177248] iwlagn: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 24 802.11a channels
[ 8.179188] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 8.179245] wmaster0 (iwlagn): not using net_device_ops yet
[ 8.382418] wlan0 (iwlagn): not using net_device_ops yet
[ 4933.009362] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 4933.009450] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100102, writing 0x100106)
[ 4933.009555] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: irq 31 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 4933.009627] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode
[ 4933.197295] iwlagn loaded firmware version 5.4.1.16

I don't know what step of this persuades it to load the firmware. Even having done this, however, it still fails to see the access point. So I guess I still have both problems.

[waterhead]

Try this command.

iwlist scan

[n4rky]

Okay, so I was using the wrong command. This indeed looks a lot better:

graton% sudo iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:22:3F:75:5F:1C
ESSID:"Benfell"
Mode:Master
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=93/100 Signal level:-36 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
Encryption key:on
IE: Unknown: 000742656E66656C6C
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C183048
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32041224606C
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Preauthentication Supported
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=0000020c485b8181
Extra: Last beacon: 1576ms ago
Cell 02 - Address: 00:13:49:23:EC:06
ESSID:"ZyXEL"
Mode:Master
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=57/100 Signal level:-74 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
Encryption key:on
IE: Unknown: 00055A7958454C
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=00000038207d672e
Extra: Last beacon: 1580ms ago

graton%

Benfell, by the way, is the correct access point. I think the other one is across the street.

So why isn't this coming up at boot? And, yes I looked: wicd still doesn't show the access points.

[waterhead]

When I used Wicd (with RHEL), I always had to hit the "Refresh" button before it showed the active networks.

[n4rky]

I of course tried the the refresh button. No joy.

But in any event, this still needs to come up properly at boot.

[waterhead]

It has been my experience that it is better to not have wireless connections enabled at boot. Any secure network requires a password to connect. This can't usually be done in the boot cycle, so the boot hangs up while it tries.

Even after the desktop starts, both Fedora and Ubuntu still require a password before they will connect. In this case the password is for the keyring manager, which manages the passwords.

The lone exception is openSUSE. I have Suse 11.1 on a PC, and it automatically connects to a saved connection, but after boot.

[n4rky]

Waterhead, that's nice. Your response is of a kind that implies all is well with my set up. If so, I need to understand why my expectations are unreasonable.

Is my expectation that the system should automatically load the firmware at boot unreasonable? Is my expectation that once said firmware is loaded, that wicd should see any access points unreasonable?

The access point is indeed secured and I never was able to figure out how to get connected to a secured access point through command line tools anyway. But even after I finally get the system to load the firmware--since it isn't doing it automatically--wicd doesn't see any access points, even after a refresh.

To me, this is not functional.