Fedora 8 Wireless problem (iwl3945)

[linux149]

I installed Fedora 8 on a Dell 640m and I can see and connect to my wireless router (iwl3945). But when it is connected to the wireless router, the routing does not work. I can no longer access the network. When I ping the router:

$ ping 192.168.0.1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.0.105 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.105 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable

I can ping the router and access the network when using the "Wired" network.

The wireless *did* work on this computer when I was using Fedora 7 (ipw3945).

I checked the /var/log/messages, but found nothing there but indications that it should be working.

Here is route for wired:
$ /sbin/route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Here is route for wireless:
$ /sbin/route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
default 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

I turned off the firewall and set SELinux to permissive mode and its still not working.

[SendDerek]

Have you tried the fix documented in the Fedora 8 Release Notes?

NetworkManager fails to see wireless networks with Intel 3945 chipsets (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/F8Common#head-a4b01d2dd0b0137a2661eb978771f20749ce3854)

Bug 319071 If you have the Intel 3945 wireless chipset, you may experience trouble finding and associating with wireless networks in NetworkManager. Try adding

options iwl3945 disable_hw_scan=1

to /etc/modprobe.conf

[linux149]

Yes, I tried that with no success. I also power cycled the router.

[SendDerek]

There was another guy with a problem like this as well and he was able to fix the problem. Here's the thread:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?p=897668#post897668

At least, I hope this helps a little bit.

[linux149]

I read that and I also tried the ipw3945, which I had working with Fedora 7, but it did not work with Fedora 8.

[linux149]

I got the wireless working by downloading and compiling the ipw3945 library. Its pretty simple. The atrpms repo just really lags behind, so its the best way.

With the iwl3945 driver, the led wifi light never blinked or came ON, but I did get a list of access points on the NetworkManager and I could even connect. I would be interested to know if when the iwl3945 driver *does* work, does the wifi light blick and turn ON?

[lsropia]

I am not giving solution, but saying that ipw3945 must work now.

FC6 clean install and FC7 upgrade, ipw3945 did not work, even though I did every thing that was told in this forum by all the experts. Finally, I stopped trying after saying that unless big bosses of Fedora decide, ipw3945 will not work.

Now, I have clean installed (not the upgrade) the FC8 and voila, ipw3945 is working, though slow as compared to wireline broadband. But I am happy.

There are a few things I would like to notify
1. During FC8 install, immediately after disk integrity check, install process froze for about 12 times. And in the 13th time, the install was successful. This is very unlikely for Fedora's, it works or it does not, there is no uncertainty.
2. Firefox too has not started for 2-3 times, but it ultimately did.

[PhillyFloyd]

I got the wireless working by downloading and compiling the ipw3945 library. Its pretty simple. The atrpms repo just really lags behind, so its the best way.

With the iwl3945 driver, the led wifi light never blinked or came ON, but I did get a list of access points on the NetworkManager and I could even connect. I would be interested to know if when the iwl3945 driver *does* work, does the wifi light blick and turn ON?

Same here -- I find it interesting that compiling and running the ipw3945d code locally doesn't work for me, I can't get the device to even initialize even thought the daemon recognizes the wifi card ... but with iwl3945 loaded I get the list of ESSIDs in NetworkManager as well ;-)

And no link light either ... which to me is minor, as long as I have wifi --- can't get encryption to work, but thats the other issue ;-)

[Malachai]

I was wondering has anyone got the ipw3945 working on the new fedora 8? I just finished install it on my dell inspiron E1405.

Any links to how to fix this problem let me know.

[PhillyFloyd]

I was wondering has anyone got the ipw3945 working on the new fedora 8?


Don't try at this point ... use the iwl3945 driver that ships with the distro ... it works just fine for me ... is even a little more stable than previous ipw3945 releases (which used to drop the connection on occasion and the only solution would be to reboot)

The iwl3945 driver WON'T "light up" your wifi card detection light on your laptop, when it is working, a little annoyance to deal with but nothing that's a deal breaker.

Also, wifi interfaces are wlan0 now .. in the past I would alias eth1 to ipw3945 and just have the correct TYPE and ESSID inside in the ifcfg-eth1 file with a keys-eth1 holding the WEP key ... well now I can't get that to work and have to use wlan0 for the wireless interface ... in fact I have just been using NetworkManager to connect (turned off encryption since NetworkManager didn't detect any other networks in my area).

So I guess the moral is don't try it unless you have to ... just use iwl3945

[linux149]

The atrpms.net have the latest build for F8 for ipw3945, so after you create atrpms.repo:

# yum install ipw3945-kmdl-`uname -r` ipw3945

[Malachai]

The atrpms.net have the latest build for F8 for ipw3945, so after you create atrpms.repo:

# yum install ipw3945-kmdl-`uname -r` ipw3945


Do I have to follow the instruction on how to install the atrpms to us yum?

If this does not work I'm going to start looking at ubuntu and see if that's better. Damm this ipw3945 driver... How long has this been going on ... geeeezzz

[bbfuller]

Well, I've just installed on my Lenovo laptop this evening and it has the 3945abg wireless chipset.

I don't think I've ever seen anything so easy. Using the live cd desktop I didn't have to do anything, all the local networks were listed in network manager and as soon as I gave my WPA-PSK key I was connected.

Congratulations to whoever improved the iwl3945 driver since its F7 incarnation, so far it's been rock solid and fast. Network Manager swaps to the other wireless network I have access to with ease as well.

The wireless light doesn't work but I can easily live without that.

[Malachai]

So your saying that the iwl3945 works better then ipw3945. If so then could I have instructions for it. I will have to try it when I get home.

[bbfuller]

Hello Malachai

I'm not sure there are any instructions I can give. All I did was boot from the kde livecd. I didn't have the network cable connected so I casually looked in network manager to see what was listed and all of my local networks were there. I chose mine, gave it my key and away it went.

No doubt like you, I had been using ipw3945 with fedora 7 as I could never get iwl3945 to work at all with this card. I really can't get over how this just worked with f8.

I've rebooted the machine half a dozen times and it has connected with ease each time.

I hope you have a similar experience when you get home.Here it's half past midnight and I'm off to bed!

[ShivaS]

Hi,

I have the same Intel 3945ABG wireless chipset on my HP NX9420 notebook, but I haven't been able to configure it properly. I am also using a 64 bit Fedora 8.

I would like to configure it from the command line/ config files but nothing worked, so far.
Running iwlist wlan0 scanning returns the following result:
Cell 01 -Address: x.x.x.x
ESSID:"ShivaLaboratory"
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412GHz ( Channel 1 )
Quality:84/100 Signal level=-49Dbm Noise level=-127dBm
Encryption key:on
IE: IEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group chipher(1):CCMP
Authentication Suites (1):PSK
Preauthentification Supported
etc ...
Basically, my wireless router is set to use WPA2/PSK authentification yet I have no ideea how to set this up on Fedora 8.

The same issue I had on my desktop, but after a week I was able to configure the RaLink chipset using iwpriv( but the Internet connection is very, very slow ) but the same configuration doesn't work on my notebook.

[bbfuller]

Hello ShivaS

Welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure that I can help here, just a few avenues to explore if you haven't already.

For my 3945abg as I said previously, all I had to do was click on the network manager icon on the taskbar, select my network from those listed and provide my key when asked, Does that not work for you?

There have been instances in other threads where the authentication/security has been a problem. Any chance you could try it with no security, just as an experiment, and see if it works that way.

[ShivaS]

Thanks for the welcome, @bbfuller...
I'm using KDE and I don't recall ever seeing a Network Manager icon on the taskbar...

[bbfuller]

Hello ShivaS

I use KDE as well, in at least one instance I had to start KNetworkManager myself.

I found it in, Main Menu - System - KNetworkManager.

It's an odd one even then. Sometimes it's necessary to log out and log back in again before it lodges in the system tray.

Actually, because of problems integrating the new Fedora Network Manager with KDE it's a link to the Gnome Network Manager but it seems to work for me.

Hope it does for you.

[ShivaS]

I looked in Main Menu - System for anything related to network, and I've seen 3 applications: KNetworkManager; Network and NetworkManager.
I tried to configure the wireless card from the last 2 apps but in vain. I also tryed to open KNetworkManager a couple of times but no window opened. Is it supposed to open a window or it just adds an icon in the system tray? I've might have been too sleepy this morning and miss it :) ....

[bbfuller]

Hello ShivaS

Yes, KNetworkManager is supposed to put an icon in the system tray. As I said, sometimes you need a restart to get it to show.

[ShivaS]

Hi @bbfuller

The KNetworkManager doesn't seem to be working on my notebook. No icon appears in the system tray when I open it.
I have to digg deeper to set my wireless card from command line :(

[bbfuller]

Hello ShivaS

The KNetworkManager relies on the NetworkManager Service running.

You might just like to check in:

system-config-services

run from a root command line, or the services applet in Administration off the main menu to see that NetworkManager is running.

If not then put a tick against it and start it and save the settings so that it starts on boot.

[Malachai]

Make sure your NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDisplay are turn on. Go into the GUI service and see if they start up.

OMG.... I jus started networkmanager and click on the network icon on my task bar. I was able to see my work wifi. I then checked my network configuration and I see my wifi card in there... The only thing i notice is wrong or not working is the light on my laptop that the wireless is turn on.

I also notice in FC7 I was using the eth1, but now when I do a iwlist scanning I get the wlan0.

I will have to try now and see if the wifi is good...

[ShivaS]

You're right.
I started the Networkmanager and NetworkManagerDisplay services and the nm-applet appeared in my systray. Finaly, my wireless connection was up and running.
What I find interesting is that yum showed a batch of 288M updates and the update was completed in an hour or so, but the web pages are loading very, very slow on Fedora.
Do you experience the same thing?

[Malachai]

Yes some times it just depends how fast your connection is. Other thing I notice is that when I have both networkmanager running it screws up my wire connection. I keep losing my DNS entry for my eth0 connection... Has anyone had this kind of trouble?

[ShivaS]

No, I don't think the connection speed is the issue here. On Windows XP, the web pages are loading way faster( wireless, too ).

[tomerl]

i've done a fresh install of FC8 on my lenovo, the wifi is the same that is posted here before.
i can see the card detected but it's inactive, so when i've tried to activate it, it simply told me
/sbin/ifup: configuration for wlan0 not found.Usage: ifup <device name>
after that it just reply with unable to determine ip address.

help here?

[bbfuller]

Hello tomerl

I'm using my 3945 on a lenovo laptop now so I know it's possible.

Which desktop environment are you using, kde or gnome?

Have you been into the services applet and checked that NetworkManager is running? Usually that takes away all need to run ifup. Services applet will be on one of the menu's but which will be determined by the desktop environment you are using.

system-config-services

from the command line will start the same thing.

Does the command:

/sbin/iwconfig

in a terminal show you any wireless interfaces?

[tomerl]

well first thanks for the quick reply!
I'm using gnome, the NetworkManager is up and running, when i'm clicking on it, both wired and wireless box are checked,
right clicking and i can see that wireless network is inactive.

/sbin/iwconfig ->
/sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
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

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[bbfuller]

Hello tomerl

Well, that looks like your wireless card is associated with the right driver. When you look in the Network Manager applet on the taskbar do you see the option to "Connect to other wireless network"?

Do you see any wireless networks listed - I assume not or I'm sure you would have said.

Although the Network Manager applet is running, can we be sure that the underlying service is started? That's where the 'system-config-services' comes in.

My lenovo has a switch on the outside of the case to turn wireless on and off. Are we sure yours is on?

Does the command:

/sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan

issued from a root command prompt give any output?

[tomerl]

1. i can see "connect to other wireless network", i've tried to connect but that didn't helped
2. yes, the network manager is up and running also the service is up and running.
3. the only output i get is "wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Resource temporarily unavailable"

[bbfuller]

I'm just off to bed here, but could you post the output of:

/sbin/lspci

just the part relating to the wireless card will do, and look in the output of:

/sbin/lsmod and make sure iwl3945 and mac80211 modules are loading.

I'll take another look in the morning if someone hasn't beaten me to it.

[tomerl]

good night, thanks for your help!

1. 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
2.iwl3945 159541 0
3.mac80211 112461 1 iwl3945

[bbfuller]

Hello tomerl

All I can say at this stage is that it ought to be working. Your system seems to be set up identically to mine.

If you have one of the live cd's, or can get one, it may be worth trying running the machine up from that and see if you could connect there. My machine did and at least that would assure us if it were something about your particular installation of fedora or something odd about the hardware that we are not seeing.

[ShivaS]

Has anyone been able to configure a WPA2-PSK wireless connection from command line?