Wireless Issue
 

Yes... I'm new to Linux and I found many similar postings but none helped find the solution to my issue.

Here's the story:
I installed Ununtu 9.04 on an IBM T41. I'm fairly sure the wireless card is an Intel 2100 3B (or maybe a 2200 BG)... either way I believe its supported natively.

After installing from the .iso I was able to connect to my wireless. But, after getting online I accepted all the Ubuntu updates and now cannot connect. (I reloaded from scratch and got the same result... as soon as I apply the updates it breaks my wireless)

My wireless AP is hiding the SSID and running WPA personal and TKIP.

When I try to setup the wireless after installing the updates I see the icon that indicates it's 'attempting' to connect and eventually the red X and 'no network connection' but I dont know how to troubleshoot this.

Below are the results of various commands that seem relevant:
mike@lapdog:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
mike@lapdog:~$ lssub
bash: lssub: command not found
mike@lapdog:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
mike@lapdog:~$ sudo iwlist scanning
[sudo] password for mike:
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

irda0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:0F:66:E2:0E:89
ESSID:"<hidden>"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality:78 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Extra: Last beacon: 280ms ago

pan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

mike@lapdog:~$ sudo lshw -C network
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile)
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:0d:60:76:45:32
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.3.21-k3-NAPI firmware=N/A latency=64 link=no mingnt=255 module=e1000 multicast=yes port=twisted pair
*-network:1
description: Wireless interface
product: PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:02:02.0
logical name: eth1
version: 04
serial: 00:0c:f1:07:08:55
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipw2100 driverversion=git-1.2.2 firmware=712.0.3:3:00000001 latency=64 link=no maxlatency=34 mingnt=2 module=ipw2100 multicast=yes wireless=unassociated
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 1
logical name: pan0
serial: 22:af:5d:56:0b:c3
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes
mike@lapdog:~$ lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller [8086:3340] (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller [8086:3341] (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24c2] (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24c4] (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24c7] (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24cd] (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24cc] (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller [8086:24ca] (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller [8086:24c3] (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24c5] (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem [0703]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller [8086:24c6] (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500] [1002:4c57]
02:00.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller [104c:ac46] (rev 01)
02:00.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller [104c:ac46] (rev 01)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) [8086:101e] (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter [8086:1043] (rev 04)
mike@lapdog:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

irda0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 unassociated ESSID:off/any Nickname:"ipw2100"
Mode:Managed Channel=0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
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

pan0 no wireless extensions.

mike@lapdog:~$

Unfortunately what you found out is the risk of accepting all updates without considering what they are: sometimes an update can break something that you have working, even though the updates shouldn't.

In this instance I would reinstall Ubuntu from scratch and then make sure that any updates you apply do not relate to the kernel or anything to do with wireless or ethernet cards. Probably you have found a bug in Ubuntu which you would be able to report via their bug tracking system.

I concur - simply re-install and don't update.

As far as distros are concerned, usually the benefit from updating is slight. If there is any downside (such as you are experiencing) then updates can usually be safely ignored. As the software in a distro is generally stable upon release, the update isn't really going to do anything for you. Updates are slightly more critical if you are running servers, but again not critical if you know what you are doing.

In short - "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

Thanks for the info. I come from the Windows world where "it is broke, so you better fix it".. install all patches, always.

I reloaded once before and tried to be selective about what updates to take by ignoring anything that appeared to be related to networking but I guess one of the Kernel ones must have got me.

All joking aside... the concept of not installing patches categorized as security is quite a suprise. I'll have to change my mindset on that. Is that really the approach - Don't worry about patches/updates even if they are 'security' related? What are the updates for - are they fixing 'flaws' in the way that windows patches do... it must be something else?

I appreciate your desire to be "up to date", plus it's a pain to reinstall a mature system once this happens. Have you consulted the error logs to discover at what point the connection fails - i.e. loading the driver, associating with the AP, authenticating with the AP, etc? Perhaps dmesg may give some clues...