Intel Pro Wireless 3945 stopped working in F7 install, but works from F7 Live

[GreyWizzard]

I'm at a bit of a loss here.

My F7 install has been up and running for quite some time with everything working just fine. Now out of the blue my wireless has simply stopped working. I remember the events of the evening fairly well.

I had the notebook up and running, pulling files from a Torrent site.

The time came that I had to shut down to take it with me for a business meeting, so I told the system to shut down. It hung up on the shutdown screen (can't tell you exactly where, but I think it was pretty much right at the beginning of the shutdown sequence) for a long enough time frame that I could no longer wait for it. I had to resort to simply powering it down.

On the next boot, it all seemed to check out and boot the way it should, but the wireless has not worked from that install since that night.

I have hooked it up to a hard wire as recent as last night and made sure that all of the packages were up to date. I have even tried ripping all of the iwl3945 drivers out and reinstalling them (I know, very Microslopish, but I was getting desperate!) but I still can't get any love out of it.

I am typing this message on an F7 x86_64 live DVD from the exact same notebook just to prove to myself that the hardware is still good.

I have to admit that my skills in troubleshooting wlan issues are very weak. Could someone please point me in the right direction to get this resolved? I have no desire to have to boot from Live DVDs or {shudder} M$ Vi$ta :eek:

[GreyWizzard]

OK. I have learned enough about this forum in the time that I have been here to know that when I get NO response at all it is most likely because people think that I have either asked a stupid question that I should be able to figure out on my own OR I have not provided enough information.

Humor me for just a moment and tell me which it is, will ya?

I am getting pretty sick of being forced through Vi$ta to do any work at home and I have done all I know to do from this end.

I am more than open to suggestions at this point.

My searches through this forum and the web in general for Linux and Intel 3945 wireless have been less than revealing for this type of issue.

[sideways]

login as root and post the output of the following (from the broken system)
su -
uname -a
iwconfig wlan0
iwlist wlan0 scan
ifconfig wlan0
chkconfig --list | grep -i network
service network status
service NetworkManager status
cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0

note that the livecd uses NetworkManager by default, so it may be that a network service is not running correctly

[GreyWizzard]

login as root and post the output of the following (from the broken system)

{snip}

note that the livecd uses NetworkManager by default, so it may be that a network service is not running correctly

I also use NetworkManager also and it always sees other networks, it simply won't connect to them any longer.

Anyway, moving on --

Forgive me if the formatting of the output is not quite right. I had to put it in a text file in F7 and reformat it to the best of my memory in Vi$ta.


uname -a
iwconfig wlan0
Linux wizzardtop.wizzardsworld.pvt 2.6.23.1-21.fc7 #1 SMP Thu Nov 1 21:09:24 EDT 2007 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux


iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0
Scan completed :

Cell 01 - Address: 00:18:39:DB:10:FE

ESSID:"Tapper"

Mode:Master

Channel:6

Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)

Quality=63/100 Signal level=-69 dBm Noise level=-94 dBm

Encryption key:off

Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s

24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s

12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s

Extra:tsf=0000000479665b58

Cell 02 - Address: 00:16:01:D6:0F:D7

ESSID:"001601D60FD6"

Mode:Master

Channel:11

Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)

Quality=48/100 Signal level=-80 dBm Noise level=-94 dBm

Encryption key:off

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=0000002259ba8b07

Cell 03 - Address: 00:19:E4:E6:A4:81

ESSID:"2WIRE931"

Mode:Master

Channel:1

Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)

Quality=37/100 Signal level=-87 dBm Noise level=-94 dBm

Encryption key:on

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=000000b5ef0af181


ifconfig wlan0
wlan0
Link encap:Ethernet
HWaddr 00:19:D2:90:91:DF

UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:22 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:2151 (2.1 KiB)
TX bytes:2578 (2.5 KiB)



chkconfig --list | grep -i network
NetworkManager
0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:on 6:off

NetworkManagerDispatcher 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:on 6:off

network 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off



service network status

Configured devices:
lo eth0 wlan0

Currently active devices:
lo wmaster0 wlan0 eth0 virbr0

service NetworkManager status
NetworkManager (pid 2756) is running...

cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=wlan0
HWADDR=00:19:d2:90:91:df
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=WizzardTop
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
ESSID=
CHANNEL=1
MODE=Auto
RATE=Auto


I'm no genius on this stuff, but I don't see anything that is obviously out of whack in any of the outputs above. Am I missing something?

[hiberphoptik]

im using the same wireless card in my HP dv8000 but i do not use networkmanager i just set the card up with the normal network setup UI

[sideways]

I assume the router you want to connect to is the encypted one 2WIRE931, the other two in the scan list are unsecured so if configured as dhcp servers connecting should be trivial.

I can only suggest that you disable NetworkManager and configure the connection manually using system-config-network (set wlan0 to start on boot) , many have problems with the latest kernels and wireless with the 3945 chipset

[GreyWizzard]

Actually, the router I wanted to connect to in this setup is one of the unsecured ones (the 001601D60FD6 router, to be exact), but I would not mind learning a bit on how to get Linux to hook up with a secured one some day in the near future.

What I don't get is that F8 Live DVD also works with no problems or issues "right out of the box" and it has a new kernel as well.

I have checked the configs on the new live versions and I didn't see any glaring differences between what they had vs what I have.

So why will the live ones work and this one simply decided to fail for no apparent reason?

[sideways]

if i recall correctly F7 shipped with the ipw3945 module, F8 and newer F7 kernels use the iwl3945 instead.

my guess is that your kernel was updated sometime before the crash, and upon reboot this new kernel is loaded, perhaps there is a problem specific to F7, there is a related bug fix for F8 at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/F8Common

so try booting into the previous kernel from the grub menu, and if that fixes it uninstall the newer kernel

[GreyWizzard]

if i recall correctly F7 shipped with the ipw3945 module, F8 and newer F7 kernels use the iwl3945 instead.

my guess is that your kernel was updated sometime before the crash, and upon reboot this new kernel is loaded, perhaps there is a problem specific to F7, there is a related bug fix for F8 at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/F8Common

so try booting into the previous kernel from the grub menu, and if that fixes it uninstall the newer kernel
Memory would seem to confirm that the original load installed the ipw3945, but I can confirm that it now has the iwl3945 at this time.

I went to the link you provided and even tried that mod on my F7 system. No love.

I then went to my previous kernel both with and without the mod to /etc/modprobe.conf and I still don't get any different reaction from it.

I still see all of the wireless APs, but can't associate with a single one of them. :confused:

To add insult to injury, I thought I might just upgrade to F8 but I can't seem to burn a valid DVD from the ISOs I have gotten. I know DVD media is not as expensive as it used to be, but after 5 failures............ :(

[sideways]

try removing any references to iwl3945 from /etc/modprobe.conf and add alias wlan0 ipw3945
then boot into the old kernel

I also noticed that you have the channel set to 1 in ifcfg-wlan0 but the router is 11

[jimgrot]

I have the same issues of dropping the connection with a linksys card.
I do not believe the loss of connection is related to any of the settings reviewed in these posts as I believe everything is set up fine on my laptop. The card drops out after 5 minutes unless I set up a continuous ping to some network device (including my access point). I believe something is timing out the card. Maybe its related to "suspend" or hibernation processes, or "selecting" a best available network that might not be my system, even tho I've stopped network manager.
I am going to test how long I can set my continuous ping intervals before the rogue processe(es) step in to disable the wlan0 card.

bottom line: as long as I set up a continuous ping within the initial ~5 minutes of wlan0 activation then the wlan0 will stay up. It will stay active until a few minutes after I stop the pinging. When the wlan0 stops working my system can't find the card again unlil I reboot.

Jim G.

[GreyWizzard]

Just a quick note to confess my weakness.

As ashamed as I am to admit it, I caved in and installed F8 instead of chasing this to a final resolution. :(

I do want to put a special thanks out to Sideways for all of the suggestions. Part of me is really kicking myself for not following this through, but I really have to have a fully functional install on my notebook.