My experience of installing ipw3945 a/g/b for the kernel u compiled urself

[clamber]

Purpose :
I spent a day on installing the driver for the kernel 2.6.18-rc4. I hope my expirence will help someone.

Before you install driver, you should read the INSTALL and have a gerneral idea about it.
ok,let's go.

First u should download the realitive tarballs from http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/ (ieee80211,ipw3945,ipw3945d,ipw3945-ucode)
and then untar them to some directory
Be sure you kernel contains modules of ieee80211 and wireless lan support

Now, DO NOT install ieee80211 if ur kernel already have ieee80211 modules. Because install ieee80211 will remove the modules already exist , and this procedure will lead to some problem (I tried to do this and found out I can not make the new ieee80211 modules work correctly)

Copy ipw3945d to /sbin/ and ipw3945.ucode to /lib/firmware/ as their INSTALL and README said. It's very simple .PLEASE refer to the INSTALL or README

Enter the directory where you ipw3945-1.10 located
run as root
################
#make IEEE80211_INC= (directory where u untar ieee80211) , IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y
################
It works perfectly for me.

And then
################
# su -
# ./load debug=0
################
The driver should work. You can run iwconfig to check it (just like the INSTALL said).

Now we should do some work to make AUTOMATIC DAEMON LOADING VIA MODPROBE, please refer to the INSTALL of ipw3945 "3.AUTOMATIC DAEMON LOADING VIA MODPROBE"

All done. Enjoy.

Thanks

[Jack.Straw]

I spent a day on installing the driver for the kernel 2.6.18-rc4. I hope my expirence will help someone.
Thanks! (i'm on day 3.. sigh)

Be sure you kernel contains modules of ieee80211 and wireless lan support
How? I did a search on *ieee* and found it. I'm not sure how to tell which version i have. How can i be sure my kernel contains wireless lan support? 'uname -r' results in '2.6.15-1.2054_FC5'

Now, DO NOT install ieee80211 if ur kernel already have ieee80211 modules. Because install ieee80211 will remove the modules already exist , and this procedure will lead to some problem (I tried to do this and found out I can not make the new ieee80211 modules work correctly)
I've was having the same problem. I've since reformatted with a fresh install of FC5 and gotten fully updated with 'yum update'.

Copy ipw3945d to /sbin/ and ipw3945.ucode to /lib/firmware/ as their INSTALL and README said. It's very simple .PLEASE refer to the INSTALL or README
I accomplished this by adding the 'freshrpms (http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/5/freshrpms-release/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm)' server to yum and then:

# yum install ipw3945d
# yum install ipw3945-firmware

I've double checked /sbin & /lib/firmware and the appropriate files are there.

Enter the directory where you ipw3945-1.10 located
run as root
################
#make IEEE80211_INC= (directory where u untar ieee80211) , IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y
################
It works perfectly for me.
Bah! Hit problems. I untar'd ieee80211-1.2.15.tgz into /root/Desktop/ieee80211-1.2.15/. I entered the directory where i untar'd ipw3945-1.1.0 and entered:

# make IEEE80211_INC=/root/Desktop/ieee80211-1.2.15/,IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y

This resulted in:

"sed: can't read /root/Desktop/ieee80211-1.2.15,IEEE80211_IGNAORE_DUPLICATE=ynet/ieee80211.h: No such file or directory."

I tried various different variations and can't seem to get it. My syntax is obviously wrong because it wants to include the 'ignore duplicate' switch in the file directory. I'm very new to unix, can you tell me what i'm typing wrong?

Thanks in advance!
-Jack

[Chupacabra]

So, I got my wireless working. (Ipw3945) the only problem I am running into is the automatic loading of the daemon with modprobe. I really can't decide what I am doing wrong here. I created the directory /ect/modules.d and placed a text file with the two lines the INSTALL file instructs you to. But still to no avail. It says something about in some distros having to run the "modules-update" script. Is that true of FC5? I feel like I am getting close though. I have the ipw3945.ko file copied to the /lib/modules/$(uname -r) directory Yet, when I run the 'depmod -a' command, it seems to do nothing. (I also don't get how that directory is my depmod path [as the INSTALL file claims it to be] ) I have also noticed that when I run SYSGaurd and look at my active process table I see two processes named ipw3945/0 (running as PID 822 and 823 respectively) but only after manually running '/sbin/ipw3945d' so I see that process being ran. So obviously that isn' being loaded by modprobe. And sudjestions. Amd I not putting a file in the right spot or simply not issuing the right command at the right time from the right spot? AHHHH *pulls out hair*

Edit: Maybe this will help narrow down the problem for anybody who wants to help. (for the love of god please let there be somebody. I have found that when I boot the system it boots without the ipw3945d process. When I run 'ps -A' I see the two processes I mentioned above. When I run 'Modprobe ipw3945'...nothing happens. But if I frist run 'modprobe -r ipw3945' it gives the message "WARNING: No prior instance running." THEN running 'modprobe ipw3945' it launches the process and my wireless is up and good to go........................AHHH!!!!!1!!1!1111!!!!!!

[clamber]

To Jack:
I didnt met the problem came to you, I have to say sorry. I downloaded my kernel from kernel.org, but not through yum. There must be somebody who can help u.
"sed: can't read /root/Desktop/ieee80211-1.2.15,IEEE80211_IGNAORE_DUPLICATE=ynet/ieee80211.h: No such file or directory."

I think you may need a blankspace betweent "/root/Desktop/ieee80211-1.2-15" and "," , and a blankspace between "," and "IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y". And check your spelling.

By the way, if you have a kernel installed from yum, you can try to install the ipw3945 through yum I think.

PS : I am a rookiee too...

greeting,
clamber

[clamber]

really happy to see your wireless card works Chupacabra, I am very sick the serveral days before. I am also get mixed up by the INSTALL file, what is called load automatically? I found it probablely mean you can run /sbin/ipw3945d, and it will lauch the ipw3945 module automatically, or you can run modprobe ipw3945 to let it lauched...

Cheers,
clamber

[Jack.Straw]

I got my wireless working as well...

Detailed instructions:
Uninstall Fedora Core Linux
Install Mepis Linux

Mepis detected ALL my laptop hardware, including the wireless card and the graphics display.. both of which I just couldn't seem to get working with Fedora. I'm digging it..

[clamber]

I fogot that u need the sourcecode of the kernel, you can install it through yum too...
I'm so sorry.