ipw2200 firmware problems

WakkaDojo · #1 28th March 2007, 01:13 AM

I have been having trouble with my ipw2200 wireless card. It will recognize networks but doesn't seem to be able to connect to them. Here's the output from /sbin/iwconfig:

Code:

eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"snoopy"  Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 00:12:7F:6A:FC:30   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=41/100  Signal level=-76 dBm  Noise level=-89 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:36

Also, here's the output from dmesg | grep -i ipw:

Code:

ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.1
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: Detected geography ZZM (11 802.11bg channels, 0 802.11a channels)
ipw2200: Firmware error detected.  Restarting.

I updated the firmware and still got the same error. Does anyone have any helpful insight?

Iron_Mike · #2 28th March 2007, 01:18 AM

What firmware version, this is showing an error:

ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.

WakkaDojo · #3 28th March 2007, 01:31 AM

I'm pretty sure it's the newest version, its listed as ipw2200-firmware - 3.0-9.noarch. If its of any help I used this website to install it:

http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml

Thanks for the quick reply!

Iron_Mike · #4 28th March 2007, 01:49 AM

You don't need to upgrade the drivers or ieee80211, FC6 comes with built-in support. The only thing needed is the 3.0 firmware from sourceforge.net:

http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php

WakkaDojo · #5 28th March 2007, 02:00 AM

I installed it already. I did it by unarchiving the contents of the tar file ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz into /lib/firmware. A way I checked that it was installed correctly was by running

yum install ipw2200-firmware

and I got

Parsing package install arguments
Nothing to do

which is because it was installed. Also, under Applications --> Add/Remove Software I searched ipw2200 and it showed that the version was installed.

Anyway, are you saying that it isn't working because I upgraded the drivers and such? If that is the problem, how could I 'undo' the upgrade?

WakkaDojo · #6 28th March 2007, 02:31 AM

I'm sorry, i should have included this earlier. I also get a weird error when I run /etc/init.d/network restart.

Code:

Shutting down interface eth0:                              [  OK  ]
Shutting down loopback interface:                          [  OK  ]
Disabling IPv4 packet forwarding:  net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
                                                           [  OK  ]
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
Bringing up loopback interface:                            [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth0:  
Determining IP information for eth0... done.
                                                           [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth1:  
Determining IP information for eth1... failed.
                                                           [FAILED]

Does "SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device" have something to do with this problem?

Iron_Mike · #7 28th March 2007, 02:43 AM

Yes, it has something to do with it. Check something, go to system ->administration ->network
type in the root password, on the screen does it list a wired and a wireless device and have them listed as wired and wireless???

You mentioned you installed a yum version of ipw2200 firmware and you also used the sourceforge version. I'm betting 1 of 3 things, either you installed the drivers wrong or maybe you have multiple copies of different firmware which are causing a conflict or you didn't install the new ieee80211 subsystem which is dependent on the version of the driver you installed...

If it is the firmware causing the problem, remove the firmware using YUM. The remove the contents of /lib/firmware. Then reinstall the sourceforge version of the firmware, unarchive the contents and manually copy them to the /lib/firmware directory, and reboot. Now check your dmesg file and see if you have connectivity.

WakkaDojo · #8 28th March 2007, 02:50 AM

Well, it seems like the network devices are listed correctly: eth1 is my ipw2200 and is listed as 'wireless'. the other card (eth0) is listed as 'ethernet'. Could the error mean anything else?

By the way, I can recognize networks with my wireless card, I just can't connect to them. I can't get IP's for some reason which is likely connected to the firmware error.

Are there any .conf and such that you would recommend I post so you can get a better idea of what's going on with my system?

Iron_Mike · #9 28th March 2007, 03:05 AM

OK, go to system ->admin ->network, highlight your wireless card and click the edit tab, Uncheck "activate on boot" put check in "allow user to enable/disable", If you are using DHCP make sure DHCP and DNS are check, if not make sure the static, gateway netmask are entered and save it. Then go to system ->admin -services, and put check marks in the Network Manager services, save it and reboot. When it reboots left click the new icon in the top panel, does your SSID show in the list, if it does double click it, if it doesn't select "connect to other network" and fill in the blanks

WakkaDojo · #10 28th March 2007, 03:32 AM

Okay, I'm getting an IP now, but i get an error stating that the SSL version of my school is too out of date and that can't connect. This only happens when I'm connected via wireless, and still occurred after i disabled my firewall.

Iron_Mike · #11 28th March 2007, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WakkaDojo

Okay, I'm getting an IP now, but i get an error stating that the SSL version of my school is too out of date and that can't connect. This only happens when I'm connected via wireless, and still occurred after i disabled my firewall.

I'm not to sure about the SSL error but turn the firewall back on and disable SELinux and try it again....

WakkaDojo · #12 28th March 2007, 04:23 AM

nope, same problem. The error is <server (i forget the name)> has an insecure version of SSL protocol.

I've got to go for now, but will you be around tomorrow afternoon or evening to help me finish resolving this problem? you've been so spectacular!

WakkaDojo · #13 28th March 2007, 05:49 AM

hey iron mike,
so here's the output for what you asked:

Code:

[root@localhost init.d]# rpm --verify ipw2200-firmware
package ipw2200-firmware is not installed

I then insalled the rpm in addition to my manual tar extraction. Is that a problem? will there be firmware conflict? Anyway, I then installed the rpm and got no output. Does this mean you're out of ideas?? By the way, here's an updated iwconfig:

Code:

[root@localhost init.d]# /sbin/iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"snoopy"  Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:12:7F:6F:61:80   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=51/100  Signal level=-70 dBm  Noise level=-87 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:18   Missed beacon:6

Whats up with invalid misc and missed beacons??? thats probably where the problem is at...

Iron_Mike · #14 28th March 2007, 11:12 AM

Now post the file listing in /lib/firmware

WakkaDojo · #15 28th March 2007, 01:35 PM

Code:

[root@localhost firmware]# ls
ipw2200-bss.fw      ipw-2.4-bss.fw         ipw-2.4-sniffer.fw
ipw2200-ibss.fw     ipw-2.4-bss_ucode.fw   ipw-2.4-sniffer_ucode.fw
ipw2200-sniffer.fw  ipw-2.4-ibss.fw        LICENSE.ipw2200
ipw-2.4-boot.fw     ipw-2.4-ibss_ucode.fw  LICENSE.ipw2200-fw