WEIRD !!! knetworkmanager does not detected wlan0 BUT.....

lazylogic · 04-01-2008, 09:01 AM

Debian Lenny 2.6.24-1-686 on a Thinkpad R61
now connected to a wireless network using iwl3945 with WPA2.

Connection is enabled upon bootup due to the following config in the /etc/network/interface

Quote:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid essidhere
wpa-psk mypasswordhere

Now the weird part :
1. knetworkmanager reports "no network device found"
2. kwifimanager reports "The scan is complete, but no networks have been found." when trigger to scan for network.
3. the wireless icon on my laptop does NOT light up at all.

BUT I am connected to the wireless network reading this forum now with the laptop which the wireless device is not found by knetworkmanager!!

Any idea what is happening here?

If I where to go over to a friend's place, how can I connect to their network if knetworkmanager and the likes doesn't detect my network device (which is using iwl3945)?

biophysics · 04-01-2008, 04:22 PM

Logout of kde and from console delete the file

~/.kde/share/config/knetworkmanagerrc

and relogin. May be it helps

lazylogic · 04-02-2008, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by biophysics

Logout of kde and from console delete the file

~/.kde/share/config/knetworkmanagerrc

and relogin. May be it helps

Tried that but knetworkmanager still doesn't detect the device

jschiwal · 04-02-2008, 07:41 AM

You may have your system configured to use ifup & ifdown scripts to control the device based on the ifcfg-wlan0 file.
You may want to post that file (minus the pre-shared key entry).

Code:

BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IPADDR=''
MTU=''
NAME='Linksys BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller'
NETMASK=''
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='auto'
USERCONTROL='no'
WIRELESS_AP='00:14:BF:13:0D:9C'
WIRELESS_AUTH_MODE='psk'
WIRELESS_BITRATE='auto'
...

I wonder if you have something like 'boot' for STARTMODE.

Takla · 04-02-2008, 07:54 AM

The new iwlwifi wireless drivers in the kernel can be problematic with intel 3945 chipset. I have one laptop with this interface and have yet to find a distro with 2.6.24 kernel where scanning is supported, even after compiling the driver myself. It works ok though with older kernel and the proprietary unicode blob.

You could check the Intel howto page: http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwl...=HOWTO-iwlwifi and try to build it yourself, also have a look at http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Do...irelessdrivers I've read that some people found that this got everything working after the distro version failed. But as Intel state:

Quote:

NOTE: The iwlwifi driver is experimental and may not work for you. YMMV

but somehow it made it into the Linux kernel anyway.

lazylogic · 04-02-2008, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

You may have your system configured to use ifup & ifdown scripts to control the device based on the ifcfg-wlan0 file.
You may want to post that file (minus the pre-shared key entry).

Code:

BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IPADDR=''
MTU=''
NAME='Linksys BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller'
NETMASK=''
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='auto'
USERCONTROL='no'
WIRELESS_AP='00:14:BF:13:0D:9C'
WIRELESS_AUTH_MODE='psk'
WIRELESS_BITRATE='auto'
...

I wonder if you have something like 'boot' for STARTMODE.

Hi jschiwal, I am unable to locate the ifcfg-wlan0 file on my system

lazylogic · 04-02-2008, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Takla

The new iwlwifi wireless drivers in the kernel can be problematic with intel 3945 chipset. I have one laptop with this interface and have yet to find a distro with 2.6.24 kernel where scanning is supported, even after compiling the driver myself. It works ok though with older kernel and the proprietary unicode blob.

You could check the Intel howto page: http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwl...=HOWTO-iwlwifi and try to build it yourself, also have a look at http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Do...irelessdrivers I've read that some people found that this got everything working after the distro version failed. But as Intel state: but somehow it made it into the Linux kernel anyway.

Hi Takla,

sad to know that you have the same problem too

anyway, thanks for sharing the info .

jschiwal · 04-03-2008, 02:03 AM

If you have a similar file, look in /etc/sysconfig/network or /etc/sysconfig/networking/. It is a pretty standard config file. Try "locate ifcfg-wlan0" and "man 5 ifcfg".

lazylogic · 04-03-2008, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

If you have a similar file, look in /etc/sysconfig/network or /etc/sysconfig/networking/. It is a pretty standard config file. Try "locate ifcfg-wlan0" and "man 5 ifcfg".

Hi jschiwal,

did a updatedb and a locate ifcfg-wlan0 but still no sign

probably isn't available in debian

jschiwal · 04-03-2008, 06:07 AM

There may be a startup script that sets up wireless. You will probably need to do some exploring of files in /etc.

jlinkels · 04-13-2008, 07:00 PM

The bad news: I don't know the solution for your problem.

The good news: the iwl3945 usually works on the Thinkpad. I have a T61 and I upgraded the kernel this weekend to 2.6.24. I am not sure if you did a fresh install with this kernel or you did a kernel upgrade. If you did an upgrade there are quite some caveats.

Check this Wiki, and see if you see some solution here. I use WEP, and my l/t does perform a scan.

Do you have the firmware-iwlwifi installed?

The wireless LED indicator does NOT work. There is a patch available for that but that requires recompiling the module.

jlinkels