Linux - Wireless NetworkingThis forum is for the discussion of wireless networking in Linux.
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Hey guys, I am unable to get my wireless working and I need some help from somebody who knows what they are doing!
I have a Dell XPS M1210 running Ubuntu 9.10 with a 4965AGN Intel wireless card.
I'm not getting a wireless LED. I went into BIOS and made sure that wireless is enabled, and I configured the WiFi switch so that switching it won't affect anything.
I used to run Windows and the light would come on but I will never use windows again.
Hey guys, I am unable to get my wireless working and I need some help from somebody who knows what they are doing!
Welcome to LQ - you are in the right place. You will be asked to enter cammands into a terminal - so let us know if this gives you problems.
Quote:
I have a Dell XPS M1210 running Ubuntu 9.10 with a 4965AGN Intel wireless card.
Intel wireless usually works out of the box.
Quote:
I'm not getting a wireless LED. I went into BIOS and made sure that wireless is enabled, and I configured the WiFi switch so that switching it won't affect anything.
That's good. You will not always get a wireless led in linux - it tends to depend on the mobo/vendor. Getting the pretty lights to work tends to be low priority.
Quote:
I used to run Windows and the light would come on but I will never use windows again.
Feel the freedom
Quote:
No light, no wireless.
How do you know you have no wireless?
In the top panel, on the RHS, there is a network applet - it looks like a TV when there is no wireless up, but changes depending on the connection.
Right-click on it for a bunch of options, one of them aught to be "enable wireless", or left-click on it to see whats going on. You may just need to select a wap to connect to.
If nothing, then, as pointed out earlier, open a terminal and enter "iwconfig", copy and paste the result to your reply. We'll also want to see the lspci entry for your wireless card.
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wlan1 IEEE 802.11abgn Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
lspci
Code:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G72M [GeForce Go 7400] (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
I see that the wireless card seems to be in this list from the lspci entry (It is at the bottom of the list though, if that has any significance). When I left click on the icon for network applet it shows this:
Code:
Wired NetworkAuto eth0
Disconnect
Wireless Networks
disconnected
VPN Connections >
Connect to Hidden Wireless Network...
Create New Wireless Network...
When I right click on the network applet icon I get this:
Code:
[x]Enable Networking
[x]Enable Wireless
Connection Information
Edit Connections
About
We do have a wifi in the house that I can connect to with my iPhone, and that the rest of the family can connect to with their laptops. This is news to my wireless card.
wlan1 IEEE 802.11abgn Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementff
OK - this means that your wireless card is recognised and the driver has been loaded. Odd that this is wlan1 though - have you had two wireless thingies attached at some stage?
from lspci, I only need the entry for your wifi card:
[x]Enable Networking
... disconnect the ethernet cable.
[x]Enable Wireless
... I take it this means that the enable wireless box is ticked?
if not then tick it, if so then then toggle the wifi switch - watch what happens - untick the box then retick it. When the card looks for a network you get an animation. When the animation stops you should get a choice of networks.
If your home access point is set to n, set it to g instead.
Make sure your wap is not hidden nor uses security (temporary.)
Make sure wireless is disabled in the network manager.
ifconfig wlan1 down
ifconfig wlan1 up
sudo iwlist wlan1 scan
(key part included for completeness. this is for wap set to g-only - the scan should have confirmed this. If not, set the freq to the scanned frequency.)
dhclient wlan1
errors and outputs from all this should help. Also:
dmesg | grep wl
uname -a
Last edited by Simon Bridge; 01-04-2010 at 07:38 PM.
[ 4.453274] udev: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlan1
[ 4.580980] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode
[ 4.598990] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: loaded firmware version 228.61.2.24
[ 4.603776] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: BSM uCode verification failed at addr 0x00003800+12 (of 788), is 0x0, s/b 0x402069
[ 4.603847] iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: Unable to set up bootstrap uCode: -5
Associated with BSM and uCode - in turn, associated with power management.
wifi usually gets renamed to wlan1 if there is a bluetooth card present - this can sometimes give trouble too.
You should try different states of the wifi switch anyway - sometimes these are hardware as well as software switches and bios only disables the software side.
Sometimes windows - through advanced power management features in the bios - will leave a network interface in an unusable condition. We will have to rule this out somewhat before filing a bug report.
Try - complete power down of computer - remove the battery - leave it for 30 seconds - power up. Disable bluetooth and power management in the bios. (if bios lists any special "advanced" power management features, switch them off too.) See what, if anything, is different. Hopefully this process will have reset everything.
Did this interface ever work with Ubuntu before or is this the first time you've had linux on this computer? Have you got all the updates?
If you have a dual boot: you may want to try - without battery, boot to windows, make a wireless connection, without disconnecting: pull the plug out forcing an unclean hard shut-down without going through the start menu. reinsert the plug, boot to ubuntu.
The solution was to get some fwcutter firmware installed and b43 modprobe magic going. Got the card up and running now without any problems.
Essentially the incorrect firmware had been installed for the card. After I learned how to linux a little bit better I was able to solve my own problem.
If anyone else is having an issue please try installing the following packages:
Code:
b43-fwcutter
firmware-b43-installer
Then the following command should make your wifi card pop up out of the dark abyss!
My wireless is not working either, except in Windows XP which I do not use. Instead I have debian "squeeze" dual booted on an HP laptop and the same Intel wireless card. The problem seems similar, except that there is no wireless applet but there is a wireless switch which lights a wireless LED. Also I have wlan0 rather than wlan1.
"iwlist wlan0 scanning" detects any wireless access points in the neighborhood and I can get descriptions of them with "iwconfig". An LQWiki says that "most drivers will find the right channel in a minute", but nothing happens.
"firmware-iwlwifi" is installed along with "network-manager" and "network-manager-gnome". Shouldn't the connection take place automatically or am I supposed to do something to make it happen?
I have been using debian etch-lenny-squeeze for several years for correspondence, email, spreadsheets, internet, etc., but when it comes to communication and networks you can probably tell from the above that I am a complete newbie and would appreciate a bit of help.
"iwlist wlan0 scanning" detects any wireless access points in the neighborhood and I can get descriptions of them with "iwconfig". An LQWiki says that "most drivers will find the right channel in a minute", but nothing happens.
"firmware-iwlwifi" is installed along with "network-manager" and "network-manager-gnome". Shouldn't the connection take place automatically or am I supposed to do something to make it happen?
It sounds like everything is working, you're just not connecting to a network. Wireless isn't like wired, it won't just hop onto any connection it finds and start using it. You have to tell it which wireless network you want to join, and provide any applicable encryption keys.
Something like "iwconfig wlan0 mode managed essid NETWORK key KEY" should work, replacing NETWORK with the name of the network you want to join, and KEY with the encryption key for it.
suicidelegroll, I have tried every possible, I think, version of your suggested iwconfig command. The ESSID is recognized, but no connection to the access point occurs.
What type of encryption is your network running? The above command will only work for WEP, if you're running WPA or WPA2 then you'll need to use wpa_supplicant
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