Fedora 8 Wireless problem (iwl3945)

linux149 · #1 11th November 2007, 10:17 PM

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 · #2 12th November 2007, 12:14 AM

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

NetworkManager fails to see wireless networks with Intel 3945 chipsets

Quote:

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 · #3 12th November 2007, 01:59 AM

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

SendDerek · #4 12th November 2007, 02:16 AM

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/showth...668#post897668

At least, I hope this helps a little bit.

linux149 · #5 12th November 2007, 02:31 AM

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 · #6 14th November 2007, 05:14 AM

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 · #7 14th November 2007, 06:44 AM

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 · #8 17th November 2007, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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?

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 · #9 19th November 2007, 06:15 AM

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 · #10 19th November 2007, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malachai

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 · #11 19th November 2007, 03:05 PM

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 · #12 21st November 2007, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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

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 · #13 22nd November 2007, 12:07 AM

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 · #14 22nd November 2007, 12:14 AM

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 · #15 22nd November 2007, 12:28 AM

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!