[ALMOST SOLVED] ipw3945 wifi card not working (Thinkpad T60)

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

Hello,
I´ve beet trying to get my ipw3945abg wifi card working since many hours now.

I´m using the kernel 2.6.19 with the ieee802.11 subsystem builtin.
I´ve emerged the ipw3945 driver version 1.1.3-rc2, my ipw3945d is version 1.7.22-r4.

When I start the ipw3945 daemon, I get:

everolth · n00b Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 10

Hi,
Maybe this sounds stupid but did you install the firmware, i.e. ipw3945-ucode? I also have the same wireless card in a dell inspiron 9400 and I had no problem running it. If you want I can send you my kernel .config file so that you can compare.

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

Sorry that I didn´t mention this, but I have installed net-wireless/ipw3945-ucode-1.13 . So that´s not the problem.
Anyway thank you. If you have the same kernel as I (2.6.19 gentoo), I´d be glad to see your .config.
_________________
2B||(!2B) - that's the question.

everolth · n00b Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 10

Ok, I have sent you my .config file. I hope that it helps.

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

Thanks for your .config but I didn´t find anything that could have helped me. So the problem is still not solved
_________________
2B||(!2B) - that's the question.

Horus424 · n00b Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 12

I've got a similar problem with the Lenovo X60s. Up to now, ipw3945 works (even WPA) only when using Kernel 2.6.18. (and ipw3945d-1.7.18). I have tried all different version combinations (Kernel 2.6.19, 2.6.20, ipw3945d-1.7.22-r4.....), but only the above mentioned combination works for me. With ipw3945d-1.7.22-r4, the module is loaded successfully only once while booting (but not assotiating). After removing the kernel module (or restarting ipw3945d), I get the same error as you do.

If someone has a working configuration for kernels > 2.6.18, plz let us know...

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

Thanks very much for your post. I´ve now downgraded everything to your level, and it now seems to work. I think that there´s a bug in the ipw3945d deamon.
_________________
2B||(!2B) - that's the question.

Horus424 · n00b Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 12

i have just found out, that 2.6.18-r6 is no longer available. I will try to get it working under 2.6.19 again. I found a few suggestions here in the forum, like https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-526447.html. (Fran's post). I will keep you up to date of my progress.

Horus424 · n00b Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 12

All right, now i got it working under 2.6.19-3, but its a bit complicated. I use ipw3945-1.1.3-r2 (hartmasked) and ipw3945d-1.7.22-r4. Concerning ieee80211, i did an emerge -C and used the in kernel stack (compiled in the kernel). While booting, the interface is associanting via WPA as I mentioned in my previous post. Because it is a notebook, I want to be able to to shutdown and restart WLAN. But that was not working (ipw3945d returned an error, that no wireless card was found). to restart, i use a series of commandos:

/etc/init.d/ipw3945d stop
rmmod ipw3945
rm /var/run/ipw3945d/ipw3945.pid (i don't know why that is necessary, but without it, ipw3945d complains on restarting, that it cannot create the pid file....)
modprobe ipw3945 (this will start ipw3945d, too)

Finally I modified /etc/conf.d/ipw3945d as mentioned in fran's post adding --pid-file=/var/run/ipw3945d/ipw3945.pid to the ARGS part...

I hope this will help you. When I find a simpler solution (I am still dreaming of Networkmanager), I will inform you.

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

Jeahh, you are my hero

. This really works perfectly, I´m currently using the ipw3945!. Off coures this is not the perfect solution, so if you find anything better, please let me know. Btw, do you use Networkmanager?
_________________
2B||(!2B) - that's the question.

Horus424 · n00b Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 12

like I said, I still dream of it. I have tried Networkmanager again yesterday (with 2.6.19 now). But I have two problems:

The Association via WEP does not work
After half a minute WLAN LED is still flashing and it seems, it tries to associate, Networkmanager is crashing

But for me, it not really a problem. Most of the time, I use two different Wireless Lan Networks (home and office, both are WEP protected). Wpa_supplicant works without problem. Only, when using open WLAN's (like T-Mobile in Germany), I change my /etc/conf.d/net back to WEP (commenting out the wpa_supplicant part). I don't know why exactly, I can't get WEP with wpa_supplicant to work. So, I have a working WEP and a working WPA configuration working

But still Networkmanager seem invitingly... I will keep you informed.

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

I´ve tried networkmanager too, but now ipw3945 doesn´t work anymore. So I´ve unmerged it, but it didn´t help.

[EDIT] I´ve now deleted the /var/run/ipw3945d directory and recreated it, and applied chmod 777 to it, and now it works again:)
BTW, do you also have a thinkpad t60?
_________________
2B||(!2B) - that's the question.

menschmeier · l33t Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Posts: 727

Hi,

I have the same probleme. I thought ipw3945 will work well under linux when I bought thsi laptop ...

I installed kernel-2.6.18.6 and then I tried to emerge

menschmeier · l33t Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Posts: 727

Hi,

I have the same probleme. I thought ipw3945 will work well under linux when I bought thsi laptop ...

I installed kernel-2.6.18.6 and then I tried to emerge

rmh3093

e-nigma · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 42 Location: Luxembourg

try adding: ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" in front of emerge ipw3945d, if this doesn´t work please post the messages you get when trying to emerge.

@rmh3093: This seems to be a good idea. I´ve done chmod 777 on the file, that also works, but anyway thank you.
_________________
2B||(!2B) - that's the question.