Home WPA and Intel 4965AGN

[norrisg]

I'm wondering if it is possible to make this work at all.

I've done a lot of searching and reading, and it certainly seems that wireless networking is a weak point in GNU/Linux. It's not perfect in Windows of course (otherwise why would every vendor feel the need to supply their own configuration tool?)

So far I've found that wireless networking appears to have at least three, maybe four, ways of being configured in GNU/Linux. There's the basic command line tools, much the same as are traditionally used to set up wired networking. There's the GUI system_config panels. There's NetworkManager. And then there's wpa_supplicant. Some of these require you to know what driver you are using - which can in itself be a problem.

Out of the box, F9 Preview partly sets up the 4965AGN. It detects it, installs a driver (I don't know which though - (OT: why is there no hardware tool in the F9 GUI?)), and NetworkManager can see the access points in the vicinity, including mine. This is a good start, but it's as good as it gets.

No matter how many times I enter my WPA access key, the connection never completes. Using NetworkManager in fact, it will just time out quietly, and the system_config panels will just keep on asking over, and over, and over again. (BTW, wireless does work from Windows - using it to type this - so the hardware is known to be working, and there's no problem with the access point not recognizing the mac address.) Also, when I happen to be near a wired connection, that works fine in F9 too.

So, back to my basic question: is it possible to make the 4965AGN work with a home WPA setup? If so, is it possible to do it using what's already installed, or is it necessary to download and install other things to make it work?

[jtang613]

Intel 4965AGN will work quite well under Fedora with WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.

First, make sure you have the latest iwl tools and firmware:
yum update iwl4965-firmware wireless-tools

For simplicity, use NetworkManager.
su -
service NetworkManager start
chkconfig --level 35 NetworkManager on

However, the kernel module (driver) for the Intel 4965AGN is still being worked on. There are a few open issues. I've found that tweaking the /etc/modprobe.conf options for the driver has helped with compatibility. Try changing the iwl4965 options in your /etc/modprobe.conf to the following:
options iwl4965 disable_hw_scan=1 hwcrypto=0 qos_enable=0
Then reboot.

Also, you may want to try easing your way into tighter security, starting by creating an open access network, then connect using just WEP, then basic WPA, then WPA2 and so on.

But stick with NetworkManager, it's pretty reliable in F8 and will be significantly improved in F9. Also, the iwl4965 drivers are constally being improved, keep your system updated to take advantage of any bug fixes.

[norrisg]

Intel 4965AGN will work quite well under Fedora with WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll print this then reboot and try it.

Starting with WEP isn't an option though: this network's already set up.

[norrisg]

Well, that was interesting, but not successful.

First of course I can't run yum update without the connection working. However I did get the most recent updates last time I was connected by wire two days ago.

Second, NetworkManager will no longer start unless started from a command line.

Third, my modprobe.conf was zero length. I find this somewhat surprising, however I added the iwl4965 line to it.

Finally, there's no change in NetworkManager's behaviour once it has been started. It initially times out, just saying it has been disabled, then if I explicitly tell it to open the network connection (which I recreated from scratch), it just keeps asking for the key.

[norrisg]

I was able to do a wired update. All the relevant parts are current, and wireless still won't work.

I have however found that OpenSUSE 10.3 does work - I'm using it now - which is using the same but slightly older drivers etc. than F9. It's not perfect by any means, in particular it suffers from serious and frequent slowdowns, but it is at least working. I would prefer not to use OpenSUSE, but in my limited experience on this system it works better than Ubuntu HH, Fedora F9 or Mandriva.

[jtang613]

Well, that was interesting, but not successful.

First of course I can't run yum update without the connection working. However I did get the most recent updates last time I was connected by wire two days ago.

Second, NetworkManager will no longer start unless started from a command line.

Third, my modprobe.conf was zero length. I find this somewhat surprising, however I added the iwl4965 line to it.

Finally, there's no change in NetworkManager's behaviour once it has been started. It initially times out, just saying it has been disabled, then if I explicitly tell it to open the network connection (which I recreated from scratch), it just keeps asking for the key.
The file /etc/modprobe.conf is never zero length. You likely edited the wrong file, and any changes you made had no effect. This is also problably why you still had difficulties.

[norrisg]

The file /etc/modprobe.conf is never zero length. You likely edited the wrong file, and any changes you made had no effect. This is also problably why you still had difficulties.
Well, mine was zero length, and I did not edit the wrong file. I also did not delete its entire contents before noticing it was zero length: it's kind of difficult to do that accidentally with vi.

[rstory]

Ditto here... my 4965agn is not working, and I had a zero length /etc/modprobe.conf as well. Adding the suggested content did not help me either.

[jtang613]

Well, mine works great. And my /etc/modprobe.conf contains all the entries required. Hope you two figure out what the problem is with your setups. But I'm out of this thread.

[rstory]

Hey norrisg,

have you tried manual config and scanning to see if you get data? I found that I could see networks while scanning (iwlist wlan0 scan), and even got a signal. But NetworkManager never connected to any APs, even with open networks. Sometimes I'd see an association via dmesg, but it always got disassociated:

wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:f8:d8:00:73
wlan0: RX authentication from 00:18:f8:d8:00:73 (alg=0 transaction=2 status=0)
wlan0: authenticated wlan0: associate with AP 00:18:f8:d8:00:73
wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:18:f8:d8:00:73 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
wlan0: associated wlan0: switched to short barker preamble (BSSID=00:18:f8:d8:00:73)
wlan0: disassociate(reason=3)

so I stopped NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher, and manually configured the ifcfg-* files (old school style), and now I'm happily connected.

[norrisg]

have you tried manual config and scanning to see if you get data?
Not really, for a few reasons.

For one thing I don't know exactly how to do it, and what I've found described is often inapplicable for one reason or another (different drivers, different hardware, different/older distribution etc. - lots of things). It can be quite difficult to tell the difference between unsuitable advice (there's some amazingly bad advice out there, and a lot which is simply misguided), things still not working because they don't apply, and things not working even though they are setup apparently correctly.

Second, although I'm prepared to put some effort into making this work - and I have spent many hours hunting for solutions and trying things - there is a limit. And I've pretty much reached that limit especially in view of the final reason ...

It actually works adequately in OpenSUSE 10.3 for now, so I think I'll just wait until Fedora 9 final has been out a few weeks before trying again with a fresh install.